Therapeutic landscapes: Understanding migration to Australian regional and rural communities

This article explores the connections between therapeutic landscapes, social capital and personal well-being for migrants to rural and regional communities. We suggest the theoretical literature and empirical research is underexplored with regard to migration to regional and rural Australia; the landscapes and communities that migrants encounter; and how the migrant experience can be linked to notions of therapeutic landscapes, social capital development and personal well-being. Linking these concepts extends the extant discourses about the economic impact of migration; the social ghettoisation of migrants, and the representation of their experiences in local, regional and national media. Instead, we shift the focus to the connections, processes and relationships that impact social and economic exclusion for South East Asian migrants.