Australia has a long history of accepting humanitarian entrants from all parts of the globe, including during and immediately after World War II. Since 1945, about 800,000 refugees have settled successfully in Australia. However, currently humanitarian entrants on temporary visas are one of the most disadvantaged groups in Australian society. Humanitarian visa holders’ (HVHs) rights in Australia and their access to support and services is limited and therefore they are placed in an ongoing situation of precarity. In this paper we aim to explore the settlement patterns and housing situations of HVHs in Australia and understand the factors involved in their different housing situations. We start with a review of international and Australian academic literature around refugee settlement and housing and discuss past and current migration policies and programs in Australia. We then interrogate data from the longitudinal survey Building a New Life in Australia between 2017 and 2022, to understand the ways in which family composition and other demographic characteristics, as well as the location of settlement in Australia, may explain variations in the housing settlement trajectories of HVHs in Australia.
Keywords: Humanitarian visa holders, housing, settlement, Australia.