Fairfield City is one of the most multicultural local government areas in the country, with the Vietnamese, Assyrian and Arabic-speaking population being the most prominent three groups.
Over the next 12 months, half of Australia’s special intake of 12,000 Syrian and Iraqi refugees will be settled in South-West Sydney's Fairfield.
Vince Movizio is the President of the Fairfield Chamber of Commerce and owner of Ray White Fairfield. His family has been involved in business in the local area for over 130 years.
He took a walk with Ricardo Goncalves in Fairfield to chat about the area’s multiculturalism and business boom.
Ricardo: Tell me about your business – when did you start it?
Vince: We started the business in 2013. We started off as quite a small business in quite large premises. Possibly a little ambitious, we walked in and said, "That’s the site we’d like to see our business grow in.” I think it was four of us when it original started. It’s a double-storey, 300 square-metre office, and we didn’t even go upstairs in the beginning. We’ve probably got 18-20 people working there now.
Ricardo: Where do you see the small business community going in Fairfield?
Vince: I think small businesses are being a little bit left behind when it comes to growth with more housing. We’re working on some more programs with Chamber and the Council, and some of the key stakeholders in the city, where we’re looking to build what the city needs at the moment.
As things change, you've gotta change with it. Each time there’s a different culture or different type of business needed. Businesses will come along and cater for the needs of the new community. We’ve got businesses here that have done phenomenal figures just by going that extra mile. It just goes back to hard work.
Ricardo: Given that we’re seeing a huge intake of refugees, what’s the small business community like?
Vince: Our city’s unique in that a lot of shops and a lot of stores are catering for face-to-face interaction, especially with immigrants. You’ll see different shops popping up left, right and centre catering for the new arrivals, and new community.
It would obviously help if we have a bit more government assistance. I don’t know where you’re supposed to put another 6,000 or however many refugees when the rental markets are already pretty choked up. The government will have to make a couple more measures to extend that.
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