Young New Zealanders and Pacific Islanders in Australia are turning to crime as they become trapped in a cycle of poverty and despair, their only ways out blocked by exclusion from higher education, government-sponsored apprenticeships and social safety nets.
Rising crime rates, involvement in gangs and high rates of drug and alcohol abuse have been reported in the nation's cities, with police task forces formed to tackle a growing problem.
Many of their homes have been shattered by families torn apart by a transcontinental hunt for work, and by domestic violence whose victims can neither gain government help nor return home with their children.
Families who arrived in Australia after February 2001 are blocked from most financial and social support services by the conditions of their "non-protected" Special Category Visas. Their children grow up in a world where they are thrown entirely on to their own resources, overwhelmingly unable to gain the education and skills that would allow them to apply for permanent residency.
The low-skilled jobs that were once available are now scarce, and youth unemployment is high, especially in areas such as Queensland's Gold Coast and the outer suburbs of Sydney and Melbourne.
