Zakia Baig: "I'm optimistic as a community we are making progress. We have students going to uni - including young women - which would never happen in Afghanistan. Dandenong and Australia have been good for Hazara." The tidy, well-stocked shop serves as many locals as it does Afghans; you can buy Vegemite and Tim Tams as well as sheep's brains and Lavash bread. The Hazara community around Dandenong has grown steadily over the past 15-or-so years with an estimated 12,000 now living in the area which extends to Narre Warren, Hampton Park and Cranbourne. The first Hazaras arrived in the late 1990s as attacks on them increased, both in Afghanistan and in the Pakistani city of Quetta, to which many had fled from the Taliban. As mostly Shiite Muslims, the Hazara are targets for violence by extremist Sunni Muslim groups such as the Taliban and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi. In Pakistan, more than 1500 Hazara have been killed over the past decade, according to UN reports. It is not known how many more have been killed by the Taliban inside Afghanistan.

Hazaras are the third largest ethnic group in Afghanistan, at about 2.8 million, and the majority are Shiite Muslims. They also have a population approaching 500,000 in neighbouring Pakistan. The word Hazar means ''thousand'' in Persian and some experts believe they are descendants of Mongol soldiers left by Genghis Khan in the 13th century; a theory supported by the Hazaras' distinctive Asiatic facial features. The Hazaras are one of the largest ethnic groups seeking asylum in Australia, according to Immigration Department data. This exodus from terror in Afghanistan and Pakistan has produced a two-tier community among the Hazara in Dandenong. There are those who have jobs or businesses and relatively settled lives. And there are those who arrived after August 2013 - as Australian politics became consumed with the ''boat people'' issue - who do not have work rights and whose futures are uncertain. The asylum seekers without work rights are typically single men, sharing cheap housing and existing on benefits that are less than the dole. Despite this, the Hazaras have built a vibrant community in Melbourne's south-east. Photographer Barat Ali Batoor, who also works as a community guide with newly arrived Hazaras, has compiled a photography exhibition on the Hazaras in Melbourne.

''It's a very close community because we are all a long way from home and we all know what is happening there - there have been so many Hazaras killed in the past few years and anyone who knows anything about the political situation in Pakistan and Afghanistan will tell you that it is only going to get worse,'' he said. Batoor, who worked as a photojournalist in Afghanistan and whose exposure of the sex slave trade in his home country earned him international recognition , says there are strong cultural bonds in the Hazara community. ''Hazaras tend to look out for each other and they're very social. In Dandenong there is a very strong Hazara cultural scene. There are youth groups, music groups, theatre, sporting groups and other community activities,'' he said. ''I wanted to show the two sides of this story - the Hazaras who have been here for some time and who have built lives for themselves; some of them have thriving, successful businesses - and the more recently arrived asylum seekers who cannot work. I wanted to show that if these people are given a chance they could also flourish and contribute.'' Mohammad Danesh runs a recycling business. He came to Australia in 2005 as a refugee from Ghazni Province in Afghanistan, sponsored by family members already living here. Originally, he settled in Sunshine - at the time there were five or six Hazara families living there.

''We stayed about a year then we moved to Narre Warren South - close to Dandenong - where the majority of Afghans live,'' Mohammad said. ''It was easier to communicate and connect with the community.'' Mohammad's son, Bashir, runs a travel agency and money exchange in a Dandenong arcade dominated by Afghan and other immigrant-run businesses. Bashir was 13 when he arrived in Australia. He completed his VCE and went on to study international business and aviation. ''Language is one of the main issues for Afghans looking for work here. So it's very important to learn English. Because I was quite young when I came to Australia it was easier for me,'' he said. Bashir says there is a small Hazara-based economy running in the Dandenong area which provides some employment for newly arrived migrants and refugees. ''We have, for example, Hazara businesses which import things you can't buy in Australian shops. This makes it easier for people in the community to get their traditional goods and it gives some people jobs.''

Not far from Bashir's arcade lives a man who does not have a job nor a business to run. ''Syed'' fled his home in Quetta in fear of his life - leaving behind his wife and children and his elderly mother. As a middle-ranking public servant and a Hazara, he attracted the attention of the Taliban. ''I had to leave because there were men with guns looking for me. My colleagues at work told me not to come to work because these men had come to my office looking for me,'' Syed said. Syed arrived in Australia after August 2013 and so does not have the right to work. ''It is very difficult for us because we cannot work. We just sit at home with nothing much to do and with very little money,'' he said. ''It is very hard. We want to work but we cannot. We would like to work to support ourselves and our families - we do not want to take money from the Australian government.'' Asylum seekers receive 89 per cent of Centrelink benefits - or just over $200 a week for a single adult.

Taiba Kiran, an education counsellor with refugee and migrant settlement agency AMES, and herself a Hazara, says Dandenong became a magnet for the Hazara because a critical mass of population was achieved. ''You had a few Hazara living here and that attracted more and then more,'' she said. ''It's a very close-knit community and people are very helpful toward each other. People already here are established and working to help new arrivals to settle in. ''There was also affordable and available housing and all the key services are here. ''The Hazara are just the most recent wave of immigration that Dandenong has seen over decades. You had the Greeks and Italians in the 1950s, then Albanians and Vietnamese - now it's Afghans. ''Businesses were established here that provided the special requirements - halal meat and other food imported from Afghanistan or surrounding countries.''

Another prominent Hazara woman is Zakia Baig, who founded the Australian Hazara Women's Friendship Network in November 2012, with the aim of helping other Hazara women by providing them with a social network and building their confidence. ''Friendship is the main focus. We want them to feel welcome, accepted, and part of the broader Australian community,'' she said. Her organisation gives women the opportunity to receive regular training, as well as free English classes. Baig won SBS' My Community Matters competition in 2013 - by submitting a story outlining her journey from Pakistan to Australia, speaking about the importance of community and women's rights - and got the chance to share it with then prime minister Julia Gillard on Australia Day. ''We are working especially with newly arrived and older women who suffer isolation and a lack of connection with the broader community,'' she said.

''We can see that in the future our women might suffer even greater isolation. But we are meeting this challenge by taking them out and helping them mingle in the wider community. A lot of our women are not well educated or literate and this makes for a lot of communication problems. ''The cultural differences are also an issue. Many Afghans, and particularly women, have no understanding of other cultures and so no way of making friends from other cultures. ''One of our strengths, though, is that we are a close community and everyone tries to help one another - this is because we've been living in areas where discrimination and repression of Hazaras is very high. ''Hazaras have the attitude that if you're going to survive, then you have to find a way to get on with people and make a life.'' Baig says the newly arrived Hazara asylum seekers who don't have work rights are accepted and included by more established members of the community but that the longer-standing members could do more.

''Newly arrived people are included very much in community events but they still have their challenges. For instance the local community could do more to provide English classes for this group,'' she said. But, overall, Baig says the Hazara community is in good shape. ''I'm optimistic, as a community we are making progress. We have students going to uni - including young women - which would never happen in Afghanistan,'' she said. ''These are very positive signs. Despite all the challenges we still face, Dandenong and Australia have been good for the Hazara.'' Mohammad Reza is now an Australian citizen. He came here on an asylum-seeker boat to escape the dangers he faced in his home city of Kabul.

''I am very happy to be here in Australia - not for myself but for my family. They are safe here and they have good lives,'' he said. ''My son is studying civil engineering at uni and my daughter is in year 11. They are both studying hard and want to be successful for themselves and also to help our community. ''I'm proud of my son and I dream sometimes that he will go back to Afghanistan one day as an engineer and help rebuild the country. My daughter wants to be a scientist and that is something we couldn't dream of in Afghanistan. They would never let us do these things because we are Hazara.'' Reza says many members of the Hazara community have family back home they worry about. ''I remember when I first came here, I would drive my car to a quiet place and cry because I felt bad about being away from my family,'' he said. Reza said Hazara people gravitated to Dandenong after a fledgling community was established.

''The Immigration Department put us all over the place so we had to find each other. We needed to help each other with learning English, finding work, schooling and even being able to shop for the things we needed,'' he said. ''Here in Dandenong it's easy for us to connect with each other and community is very important to us. ''Hazaras are very social; we are accepting and we can get on with anyone. We get together a lot in big groups - that's why we need the big pots," Reza said, laughing.