AN IMMIGRATION lawyer has praised Wagga as an attractive destination for migrants because of the city's economic opportunities.
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It is expected hundreds of newcomers will take advantage of an additional immigration assistance office -Australian Migration Options (AMO) - which provides legal advice to people from non-Australian backgrounds.
AMO manager Jessica Boatwright said the office was opened on the back of "increasing need" for migrant legal services as big employers seek to fill job vacancies.
"There's a lot of job opportunities in Wagga ... Tey's (the abattoir) for example can't fill the jobs that they have," she said.
"People come from overseas to fill these jobs."
Multicultural Council of Wagga manager Belinda Crain said humanitarian settled refugees are filling a large proportion of those jobs.
It is understood up to 70 per cent of Tey's workforce comes from a culturally diverse background, with up to 30 per cent of culturally diverse employees being refugees.
"We're a resettlement area," Ms Crain said.
"It's really interesting - the migrants want to stay."
Ms Boatwright said, as Wagga becomes more multicultural, demand for support services would rise as immigrants seek to navigate a "complex" web of immigration law.
"Immigration law is a very specialised area of law that is constantly being updated," she said.
"A lot of these people don't have a thorough grasp of the English language."
She said immigrants could be slugged hundreds of dollars to just to fill out one form.
"If you don't get it right, you've wasted your money," she said.
"That's why we've had specialised training so we know what we are reading ... so you can imagine what it's like for a person without a thorough grasp of English."