The project Community Response to the Covid-19 Emergency officially started three months ago, on the 6th of April 2020. Since then, the commitment of the volunteers of Nomit has never stopped, and neither hasthe crisis the temporary migrants have been facing. On the 5th of July, 213 people have registered their request through the online form/survey and have been contacted via phone calls. Considering that it has not been possible to get in touch with 7 of them, a total of 206 requests have been effectively processed.
In a nutshell, $40,500 has been distributed to the community up until the 5th of July, $18,000 in the form of $100 Lampo donations and $22,500 through the Free Loan Scheme called Mano.
The crisis has been worsening (even before the announcement of the new lockdown)
The spurious hopes of economic recovery and of improvement in the conditions for the Italians with temporary visas are crumbling under the looming lockdown due to start on the 9th of July. Nonetheless, the situation had not actually started to improve before the new lockdown was announced.
The people that have asked for assistance during the last month have gone through three hard months of unemployment or of underemployment, eating away at their savings and struggling to meet living costs: this makes their difficult situations even worse.
People holding a student, sponsor or partner visa are among the recipients of support from Nomit: these people face the most critical financial difficulty. They are individuals, couples and young families who have been living off their savings over the last months, who are penalized by work limitations and long visa processing times. These people have gone through years of sacrifice and hard work to build a life in Australia and now find themselves alone on the frontline of the crisis.
For these people it is particularly hard to ask for help since they have always worked and provided for themselves. Therefore, they usually leave it until they are in dire circumstances before looking for assistance.
The ongoing crisis is having enormous effects on the lives of many people: the uncertainty spread by the emergency legislation and the late and inadequate measures of support put in place by the State and Federal governments has been threatening the social and economic security and the future of a whole generation of young workers, families and migrants.
In particular, the psychological stress many people have been experiencing is a matter of great concern, even more so because there is a risk it will be neglected due to the pressing necessity of livelihood. More than three months of unemployment and difficulty to find a job never experienced before; the shrinking pool of alternatives; the job insecurity and the vulnerability to harassment in the workplace: all these factors contribute to the psychological stress that these people experience.
The Board of Nomit expresses its concerns about the continuation of this crisis and the prolonged effects on the most vulnerable parts of Australian society. Therefore, as a Board we call for an immediate and real commitment both from Italian and Australian institutions to support temporary visa holders.
Download the Preliminary report on the Community response to the Covid-19 Emergency – 5 July 2020 curated for Nomit by Enrico Moscon
preliminary-report-on-the-community-response-to-the-covid