Melbourne resident Amal Ein Alshaiba has started a business selling Syrian dishes through social media. (Supplied)
Amid the cost-of-living crisis, Syrian-born Melbourne woman Amal Ein Alshaiba wanted to contribute financially to her family.
But the language barrier and being the primary carer for her husband, who has Parkinson's disease, made getting a part-time job difficult.
"Now it's very hard — everything has gotten very expensive," said Ms Ein Alshaiba, who came to Australia six years ago.
"[But] I wanted to help my family."
She found a solution in one of her favourite places — her kitchen.
Ever since she worked in her father's small restaurant as a child in Syria, she has loved cooking.
With encouragement from her family, friends and wider community, last year she started selling home-cooked traditional Syrian dishes through social media.
A recent survey of refugee and migrant community leaders by settlement service AMES found that most felt their communities were suffering greater financial stress than the broader population.
But the survey also found many examples where people like Ms Ein Alshaiba were showing resilience and using their entrepreneurialism to increase their incomes and support their communities.
Elizabeth, a South Sudanese community leader, told AMES that financial hardship was leading to rising family violence but extended families and groups of friends were coming together to help each other.
"People are reaching out and helping each other through things like bulk buying food, sharing vehicles and looking after families that are particularly vulnerable," she said.
"Everyone who is able to is pitching in to help others."
Cath Scarth says migrant communities should get more support to help their own members. (ABC News: Erwin Renaldi)
AMES Australia chief executive Cath Scarth said the survey also identified areas where support for people struggling with the cost of living could make a difference.
"Firstly, there is a need for more in-language information for communities about how to access the support that is available in the community and also emergency support," she said.
"And maybe we need to ramp up community capacity building so that these communities are better placed to help their own members."
Renting out rooms and asking for food
Jasvinder Sidhu, a lecturer at Federation University who also runs food charity Let's Feed in Melbourne's west, said immigrant families faced several specific issues that exacerbated cost-of-living stress.
One of the big ones, he said, was the lack of family support such as grandparents to provide informal childcare.
"It means that parents cannot work as much as they like to, and then it has a direct impact on their income," he said.
Jasvinder Sidhu founded Let's Feed which gathers and distributes free food to people who need it in Melbourne's west. (Supplied)
Mr Sidhu said migrants also tended to live in outer suburbs which meant they spent more on transport.
He said often migrants also didn't work in high-skilled jobs or had jobs with the luxury of working from home.
In recent months, Mr Sidhu said he had seen an increase in the number of newly arrived families seeking assistance and looking to rent out a room to help pay rising rents and mortgage payments.
"It's not like when a lot of young people come together and start sharing, it is people with a family asking for someone to come and share their house, which is very unique," he said.
Mr Sidhu said there had also been a growth in the number of informal groups — running out of people's kitchens or garages — offering help through social media to those struggling.
He said people were often asking for food for other migrants.
New migrants 'shocked' by cost of living
Syrian community leader Norma Medawar, the founder of a group called Zenobia which supports Arabic-speaking women in Melbourne, said the current economic situation was particularly hard for new arrivals.
She said finding affordable housing was difficult — with no local references or rental history — and some initially had to rely on government support while they went to school to learn or improve their English skills.
"The Centrelink payments are really not enough after the unusual inflation from last year," she said.
"So they're struggling a lot."
Norma Medawar said Centrelink assistance had not kept pace with cost of living increases. (Supplied: Services Australia)
New arrivals were always shocked by how much things cost in Australia, she said.
While some goods were relatively cheap — such as meat and clothing — Ms Medawar said other costs were often higher than in countries such as Iraq or Lebanon.
"The fruit and veggies that we rely on in our diet are very, very expensive compared to meat and chicken which we are not very fond of," she said.
"Rent is like half of the income here. It's very shocking."
In Middle Eastern countries, rent was usually more like 15 to 20 per cent of a family's income, she said.
Ms Medawar added that as the economy slowed, finding work was becoming increasingly difficult for newly arrived migrants.
"Even if you want to do a cleaning job in a factory which is the simplest job that that we can think of, [employers] ask for local experience and you have to speak good English," she said.
"The employers and businesses are becoming very picky and choosy."
Norma Medawar said members of Melbourne's Syrian community helped each other out. (Supplied)
However, Ms Medawar said the Syrian community was doing what it could to help those who were struggling.
She said a handful of Syrian community associations like her own had been established around Melbourne in recent years.
"We gather and we learn from each other's experiences and the best ways to cope with our struggles," she said.
"We talk about our challenges, we have food together, and so we don't feel we are alone."
Ms Medawar said she knew of at least half a dozen women who like Ein Alshaiba had begun to sell sweets and other food at home to generate extra income.
"So the community buys from them to support them," she said.
Ms Ein Alshaiba said Food By Amal still only provided a "small benefit" but she enjoyed it and hoped to continue building the business.
"My dream is to be known a bit more, not just in the Arab community but also the wider Australian community," she said, with translation help from her daughter Mira.
"Traditional Syrian food, not everyone knows about it.
"I want to expand my business a bit more and hire people to help me — and maybe one day open a small restaurant."