Most people living in Australia take public spaces for granted. We enjoy public parks, shopping areas and sporting facilities. Public spaces are important sites of community participation, venues for physical activity, areas of social connectedness and inclusion.

For people with refugee backgrounds, and particularly refugee youth, public spaces can have a completely different effect. They can be areas of discrimination and exclusion, affecting the physical and mental wellbeing of young refugees.

With the aid of a Flinders Foundation Health Seed Grant, Flinders University Associate Professor Anna Ziersch will investigate how public spaces are experienced by young people of refugee backgrounds, compared to those of non-refugee backgrounds.

Using a combination of methods including in-depth interviews, focus groups and diaries, Professor Ziersch and her team will gather evidence about the experiences of refugee and non-refugee youth in public spaces, and help us determine better ways to make public spaces inclusive, healthy spaces for people of all backgrounds.

This research is made possible thanks to generous support from the community.

Project title: Integration and social inclusion in public spaces: impacts on health and wellbeing for young people from refugee backgrounds

Lead researcher: Associate Professor Anna Ziersch