Mon 1 Dec, 2008 - Tue 1 Dec, 2009
New Kiwis, Diverse Families
Migrant and former refugee families talk about their early childhood care and education needs
High-quality early childhood care and education (ECE) for pre-schoolers is a key to
achieving good outcomes for children and to ensuring parents can balance their family
responsibilities and paid work.
In 2006/07 the Families Commission consulted migrant and refugee families about their
needs. This consultation highlighted a need to explore options for ECE to respond to the
distinctive requirements of these families, particularly:
- cultural and integration needs of families, and the need for childcare to help parents access English language learning
- needs that arose for some migrant and refugee families from the lack of informal support for childcare from close family or friends
The Families Commission was particularly interested in filling gaps in both existing
research evidence and planned research initiatives on the ECE needs of migrant and
refugee families as part of its Even up programme of work, aimed at supporting changes
to make life easier for families.
