This paper will discuss some of the issues arising from the South Australian experience in the resettlement of Indo-Chinese refugee children. The main emphasis of this paper will be on the issue of service delivery to these refugee children and the problems arising from their adjustment to a new and foreign environment.

Australians are being bombarded day after day with a series of words and expressions which fortunately — or perhaps unfortunately — are becoming more and more familiar to the ear of Mr Average: ‘ethnic’, ‘multicultural’, ‘multilingual’, ‘social integration’, ‘cultural shock’, ‘cultural identity’, ‘social interaction’, just to mention a few of them. Fortunately, because it indicates that it is being accepted in an increasingly natural way the fact that the migrant phenomenon is a dignified social reality which has and will continue to have a leading role in the shaping of the present and future structure of Australia politically, economically and culturally. The general, although still slow, acceptance of this basic truth represents a healthy sign and an indication that our society appears to be moving in the right direction.

In two recent articles in this journal, a behavioural approach to childhood problems is discussed in the context of natural family situations (Griffin 1978, Herbert and O'Driscoll 1978). This paper extends the discussion to Residential Home settings, and can usefully be read in conjunction with the two earlier articles. It is based on our experience of implementing behavioural programmes of assessment and treatment with individual children living in the type of Residential Home that is administered by Social Services Departments in Britain, which I am told are very comparable to similar establishments in Australia. These Homes care for between 6 and 50 or more children, ranging in age from a few days to 18 years. The problems we have treated in such settings include nocturnal and diurnal enuresis, encopresis, self-care deficits in the retarded, and various forms of conduct disorder. The efficacy of this treatment is reported elsewhere (e.g. Jehu et al 1977), and the present discussion is restricted to its feasibility. Generally speaking, it appears to be a practicable and acceptable approach for the staff and children concerned, but inevitably there are certain obstacles and limitations which are outlined below. This concentration on sources of difficulty rather than strength, should not lead to an undue emphasis on the problems likely to be encountered or to any implication that these are insurmountable.

“My mother once came and told me that she didn't know if Mick and I had sex but that if we had a loving sort of relationship then good — but she thought I was still a bit young for it”, a 16-year-old Canberra girl — let's call her Jane — said.

She lit a cigarette. A budding woman-of-the-world who seemed to know a bit about life and its facts.

But after admitting she had been having sexual intercourse with her boyfriend of almost a year, she said she was not on the pill, nor used any contraceptive.