Advocating for people seeking asylum to be treated fairly in Australia

Jana Favero is a regular spokesperson in breaking news on human rights and refugee policy on and offshore. She contributes comment to major publications: Fairfax, ABC national and local radio and TV, The Guardian, SBS New York Times and Al Jazeera.

She is a regular keynote speaker at conferences and events and leads ASRC’s political engagement as a trusted subject matter expert on asylum policy. Jana’s global social justice work has sharpened her social justice values and entrenched in her work a basic belief that seeking asylum is a point in someone’s life – not a definition of identity. Read on for our interview with Jana!

Describe your career trajectory and how you got to your current position.
My career has taken a bit of an unusual trajectory. I grew up in central Victoria and moved to Melbourne after school for University and studied politics and communications at University and always wanted to work in the not for profit sector but found myself in a Graduate position at Telstra after University. I then moved to London to work with Enron, Ernst & Young and was there for 4 years before returning to Australia and working for another accounting firm. The first time I worked with a not for profit was in Mongolia, where I worked for three years on various projects working with women and children. After 6 months in India, I returned to Australia and was lucky enough to get a job with ASRC, and that was 14 years ago. I never thought that when I started at ASRC, that I would still be here 14 years later.

What does this role mean to you?

I am very lucky to work for an organisation that has such an impact, centreing all we do on working with people with lived experience and expertise. I have found a role that combines my strengths with my passion for fairness and equality, surrounded by fantastic colleagues. I have a basic belief that that seeking asylum is a point in someone’s life – not a definition of identity and I am in a role that allows me to work towards influencing the systems that impact and definite people seeking asylum. The way our laws and policies have changed over the years has created a system that has totally failed people seeking asylum, in fact it is stacked against them. My role is to challenge and change that system.

Take us through a typical day of work for you.

A typical day starts with checking my phone for any urgent media queries or breaking asylum and refugee news. It’s not that uncommon to wake up to an urgent media request, and jump straight on the phone for a radio interview or into the studio for breakfast TV. If not, my day starts with a bike ride from home in Coburg to the ASRC office in Footscray.  My days are a mix of meetings, a lot of time on the phone to media, politicians and advisors. I spend a lot of time talking to people on the phone! The Systemic Change team meets to discuss our priorities for the day, we try to plan as much as possible but often our days are dominated by reacting to something that has happened externally such as a bill before Parliament, commentary demonising refugees, international conflict resulting in people seeking asylum etc. We work really collaboratively so talk a lot and then take all our ideas and put them to action – through a media statement, campaign, a submission before Parliament, on social media commentary etc.

What is the biggest challenge you’ve encountered in your career, and how did you overcome it?

If you could go back in time, what piece of advice would you give yourself as you first embarked on your career? 

Early in my career, I seriously considered going into politics. At the time, someone gave me advice to get work and world experience first, that it’s life experience that best informs work experience. I am so grateful for that advice. Often we feel a pressure to know what career we want at a young age, leaving school or University but taking the time to get varied experience is great advice that I received and I pass on to others.

How do you stay motivated to work in this field?

Whenever I feel tired or lack a bit of motivation, I reflect on how fortunate I am to have a voice, to be safe and surrounded by my family. Many people do not have that privilege and it’s the resilience of people around me that keeps me motivated. It’s easy to stay motivated as I am surrounded by great people, who work hard, are funny (most of the time) and collaborate.

How do you unwind after work?

I find the best way to unwind after work is by going for a bike ride, watching Inter Milan play football, spending time outdoors with my kids and reading a book.

What was the last thing you:

• Read – Shortest History of Italy by Ross King
• Listened to – Salt And Pepper Vinyl (Push It)
• Watched – I much prefer to read a book than watch something.