The 2021 Census tells us that 29.3% of NSW residents were born overseas, 50.3% of NSW residents have at least one parent born overseas, and 26.6% of people speak a language other than English in NSW. This means that we are more multicultural than ever

Multicultural NSW has launched the Multicultural Communications Playbook, a step-by-step guide to delivering effective communications to multicultural communities. The Playbook is a resource designed for communications professionals that covers all aspects of end-to-end marketing communications campaigns and provides insights and examples on best practice to work with multicultural communities.

“Moving to a different country is a big challenge. Arriving in a place where the language spoken is not your own, is even more challenging. During the first year of living in Australia there were so many new things I had to get used to. Understanding how things worked in a different language was quite difficult,” says Maggie Jabarian who works at Multicultural NSW and arrived in Australia from Syria five years ago.

“Each time I found information in my language it was such a relief! It felt like I was considered, and it also simplified everything I needed to do. However, the availability of information in my language is still limited. There is still a great need for improvement. It’s. fundamental in helping those in need, especially new migrants.”

Having marketing campaigns that cater for the needs of diverse communities is important for a variety of reasons. It:

• ensures that everyone has equal access to information
• promotes diversity, showing that communities are valued and that their cultural identity is recognised and respected
• improves the quality of the information. When information is translated, it can be more easily understood and better retained. This can improve the effectiveness of the information and drive positive change.

Check the Multicultural Communications Playbook here