Basma couldn’t drive when she came to Australia. Now she’s teaching others

Refugees often start their own businesses in the face of limited employment opportunities in Australia. Basma Habash, who fled Iraq, is one of them.

Basma Habash is a driving instructor. Source: SBS / Scott Cardwell

On a quiet suburban street in Roxburgh Park, north of Melbourne, Basma Habash is sitting in the passenger seat of a red hatchback, instructing a 57-year-old first-time driver on how to navigate traffic lights safely.

“At the traffic light, keep going straight. Don’t rush please,” she says.

"It’s school time now so you have to slow down. So drive at 35 kilometres per hour, please.”

Basma, 40, says after about 10 lessons, her student is ready to take the next step.

“I teach her everything about driving and she is getting better every lesson.”

“Now she's ready for her driving test. She's so excited to do it.”

Driving instructor Basma Habash and one of her students. Source: SBS / Scott Cardwell

Gaining a driver's licence will be a life-changing moment for the student, who is a refugee from Iraq, and will be another success story for Basma, who only learned to drive herself in 2018.

Basma, who is also from Iraq, fled when her home city of Mosul fell to the self-proclaimed Islamic State in 2014.

“We were very scared. We lost our jobs ... and we lost our house. It was a very difficult time,” she says.

Basma had been a Christian religious studies teacher in schools and was among an estimated 500,000 civilians to flee Mosul, flying to nearby Jordan with her husband and son.

Basma with her husband Rabee Jindo and son Frans in Jordan. Source: SBS / Scott Cardwell

Now living in Melbourne and a mother of two, Basma completed a certificate four in Transport and Logistics last July and has since helped dozens of people, some of them refugees, get their Victorian driver’s licence through her driving instructor business.

She says she enjoys watching her students gain independence, particularly women.

“When women get their licence, they can go to a doctor’s appointment, to the shopping centre or to visit family. They can do everything by themselves.

“Driving also helps women to get a job, and for many refugee couples in Australia, both partners need to work because housing is expensive - everything is expensive.”

Language skills

As well as becoming a driving instructor, Basma, who speaks Arabic and Chaldean, has also now completed her advanced English language studies. She says speaking proficient English has been essential to passing various driver training courses and expanding her company.

“I hope to make my driving school into a big business, a big school one day,” she says.

Her English skills improved through classes with another Iraqi woman, Bushra Francis.

Bushra migrated to Australia from the Kurdistan region of Iraq in the 1990s and they soon formed a friendship based on their shared culture and their love for teaching.

“I always thought I had a greater purpose. And I always thought that I can give a lot to those who have suffered in their countries and came here with no hope,” Bushra, 54, says.

Bushra Francis is an English teacher in Melbourne. Source: SBS / Scott Cardwell

The former high school teacher has completed two bachelor's degrees in education as well as a Master of TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) and works full-time teaching English to migrants and refugees in Melbourne’s north.

In Iraq, Bushra’s family followed the Chaldean Catholic Church, a minority Christian group.

“We struggled a lot because my father was part of the opposition party which stood against the Saddam Hussein regime,” she says.

“During Saddam's regime, people did not have the freedom of choice about which party they wanted to follow.”

Saddam Hussein served as president of Iraq from 1979 until 2003.

Bushra says her father was killed because of his political activities in 1982, aged 42.

“My mother then found herself in charge of three young kids … so she worked really, really hard at two jobs until we all graduated from universities.”

Bushra has multiple degrees. Credit: Supplied Bushra Francis

Bushra trained as a PE teacher in Iraq but migrated to Australia for better opportunities.

“Back then, my salary as a graduate was enough to buy a dozen eggs!” she laughs.

She believes learning to speak English is the most challenging but rewarding part of transitioning to a new life in Australia.

“Migrants all want to have a good life here, but without a language it's impossible,” she says.

Which is why, over the past eight years, she has helped hundreds of migrants and refugees become fluent through her own business, Endeavour Education Consulting.

Bushra teaches English in collaboration with community-based not-for-profit organisation Westgate Community Initiatives Group (WCIG), leading classes full-time in a purpose-built venue in Roxburgh Park.

“To learn language can be difficult because, for many, their previous life and trauma they've experienced - the persecution or the poverty.”

“I have actually walked in their shoes. So that is what made me do this job and encourage others who were robbed of their rights and freedoms in their own country.”

Elsa Debessa is learning English. Credit: SBS/Scott Cardwell

One of her students, 37-year-old Elsa Debessa, migrated to Australia from Ethiopia as a teenager and is now raising three young children on her own.

“I'm emotional talking about it,” she says of Bushra. “Because she's not just my teacher. She knows how to help people. She knows how to stand up for people.”

“I'm looking for a job … and my teacher … she supports me.

“She doesn’t know how much she has changed my life.”

Labour shortage

Associate Professor Betina Szkudlarek from Sydney University’s Business School says 80 per cent of asylum seekers and refugees struggle to find work in their first two years in Australia.

Ms Szkudlarek migrated from Poland 10 years ago and is conducting a study with businesses across Australia, to define what employers require to hire more refugees.

Betina Szkudlarek from Sydney University Source: SBS / Supplied Betina Szkudlarek

“Employers are telling us that they are very eager to employ refugees, but they want the process to be very easy,” she says.

“Some are willing to hire hundreds of refugees, while others are interested in one or two candidates.”

English language training and mentorship from other refugees, like Bushra, can be a crucial first step to employment or entrepreneurship, she says.

Bushra with two of her students. Source: SBS / Scott Cardwell

“Most refugees don't understand the local employment and labour market, and the processes, the hiring processes. So having someone familiar with that, someone who went through that to explain to them the differences that they might see back in their home country and here in Australia, it's critical for refugee success in the job market.”

Once refugees are settled at work, she says they have high productivity and low turnover rates. And as Australia reboots following the COVID-19 pandemic, she says hiring more refugees is also a win for employers.

“In many industries, Australia is in the middle of a labour shortage. At the same time, throughout the pandemic, many refugees have been urgently searching for work but coming up short.

“Refugees are very determined to rebuild their lives in Australia. With that determination, commitment and quite often extensive skills, they add value to employers of different types.”

She is calling for extra funding for small not-for-profit groups and social enterprises that connect refugees with the local labour market.

Basma hopes to expand her business. Source: SBS / Scott Cardwell

“Most refugees who come here have absolutely no professional networks. So having a group that connects them with those opportunities and opens doors for them is really critical for refugee employment.”

As well, many strike out on their own to utilise existing skills.

Basma is grateful to Bushra for helping her start a business and, in turn, Bushra, is proud of her student and friend.

“Basma has done an amazing job and I could not be more proud. She has reached her dreams.”

“Hopefully we will work together to set up her driving school in the next couple of years.”