LIFTING MILLIONS FROM POVERTY BY INCREASING ACCESS TO BASIC FINANCIAL SERVICES Scientia Professor Ross Buckley at The University of New South Wales has led a major international research project that proposes a four-level strategy for developing country governments to follow in providing the infrastructure to allow potentially billions of people to access basic financial services. The research was supported by an ARC Linkage Projects grant, and undertaken in conjunction with Professor Douglas Arner of the University of Hong Kong and Professor Dirk Zetzsche of the University of Luxembourg, with additional industry support from the United Nations Capital Development Fund. Improvements in facilitating identification, and creating platforms to carry out transactions, are key elements of the FinTech for Financial Inclusion report. It outlines four key pillars of improved financial infrastructure to help under-served communities gain easier access to critical financial services which provide the capacity to save, receive government welfare payments, and pay bills easily. Research findings from Professor Buckley’s broader ARC-supported work in regulating digital financial services in developing countries have since been reflected in the laws of a wide range of countries in Africa, Asia and the Pacific, and informs advice regularly given by The World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and the United Nations Capital Development Fund.
Dr Shanthi Robertson from Western Sydney University’s Institute for Culture and Society has retold Australian migration stories as part of a three-year research project, supported by an ARC Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA). Dr Robertson’s research focused on the experiences of young Asian migrants in Australia, which challenge the classic ‘settler’ migration narrative of the 20th century. Called Staggered Pathways , the project has unveiled the complex social realities of these new migration experiences, focusing in particular on how transnational mobility reshapes young Asian migrants’ lived experiences of time—from the timings of their life milestones, to the pace of everyday life in different places. The research has illuminated how transnationally mobile lives often involve contingencies, unexpected detours, and reimagined aspirations and desires in relation to work, place and social life. A key outcome has been the development of ‘Time Maps’—interactive visual displays of the journeys and experiences of a selection of participants in the study. They include direct quotes from interviews taken during the project, as well as textual and visual artefacts that migrants have provided that relate to their experience—including photographs, emails, and immigration documents. THE STAGGERED PATHWAYS TO AUSTRALIA
Time Maps allow us to become immersed in the real journeys of 21st century migration to Australia, with all their complexities and ups and downs.
Some 1.7 billion people around the world lack access to the most basic financial services. This is expensive, complicates their lives and tends to keep them trapped in poverty.
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Accounting spread sheets. Credit: iStock.com/utah778.
Visitors walk around Departure Hall in Changi Airport Singapore. Credit: iStock/Nawadoln.
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