Framing Housing and Immigration

Title: Framing Housing and Immigration Message Guide

Topic: Housing, Immigration

Published: 2026

Partners: Everybody’s Home, Melbourne City Mission (MCM), Mission Australia

This guide is intended to help housing advocates counter and respond to rhetoric that blames immigration policy, and immigrants themselves, for Australia’s housing issues. It provides both proactive and reactive messaging approaches to help move persuadable audiences away from our opponents’ arguments and towards a more compassionate and accurate view of the best way to tackle housing issues.

Decades of evidence from cognitive linguistics, psychology and behavioural scientists around the world, together with our own multiple research projects in Australia, have shown us the most effective ways to frame the housing narrative and counter the toxic narratives put out by certain politicians and their media supporters.

This guide will ensure you are equipped with the most up to date and proven techniques to build a more progressive and engaging narrative on housing and deal with stigma and misinformation when it arises.

We have also included guidance on best practices in countering mis- and dis-information, which are also backed by an extensive evidence base. You can find more resources in the Further Reading section at the end of the guide.