Challenges and Successes of Ethiopian Refugees in Australia

Since the early eighties, the continuing inter-ethnic conflicts and repressive governments in the Horn of Africa have caused the mass departure of immigrants from the Horn of Africa into Australia. The majority of these refugees came to Australia without prior knowledge of their new homeland. Integrating into the mainstream Australian culture had always been difficult due to lack of knowledge of the English language and lack of knowledge of the culture of the mainstream Australians. This paper investigates the challenges of an Ethiopian family in integrating into the Australian society and how the family managed to succeed in overcoming the real, and apparent, language, educational and cultural barriers.