A Sydney mayor says governments need to "step up and be accountable" when resettling refugees to make sure there's no negative impact on existing residents.
As thousands of refugees from the Middle East pour into NSW, the state government is rolling out a number of services to help them adapt to their new home.
Legal Aid refugee hubs will soon pop up around western Sydney, Wollongong and Newcastle to provide legal advice and help to the new arrivals.
The service will assist with housing, social security, fines, debt, employment and family law, "all of which have a profound impact on their everyday lives," Legal Aid acting chief executive Richard Funston said at the Fairfield launch on Wednesday.
"We will help people who have overcome fear and violence and extreme hardship to build a new life and who then face what is often an utterly alien collection of rules and implicit expectations."
About 7300 refugees have arrived in NSW since July. More than 5000 of them are part of the 12,000 refugees then-Prime Minister Tony Abbott pledged to accept in September 2015.
This is in addition to the 13,750 refugees Australia took during the past financial year.
Of the 12,000 additional refugees, the majority of whom are persecuted minorities from Syria and Iraq, half are expected to be resettled in NSW with 90 per cent rehomed in western Sydney.
Fairfield Mayor Frank Carbone met with NSW refugee resettlement coordinator-general Peter Shergold on Wednesday following the launch to express his concerns about the number of refugees coming to the area.
Some 5000 were resettled in Fairfield in 2016.
"I have advocated quite strongly that if the federal government wants to resettle this many refugees - the equivalent of an entire suburb's population - in one location in such a short period of time, they are responsible for providing necessary infrastructure and services," Mr Carbone said in a statement.
"Federal and state governments need to step up and be accountable in resettling refugees and also make sure there is no impact on existing residents."
Prof Shergold praised the NSW government's "significantly enhanced funding" of education, health and other services to aid the resettlement process, saying Legal Aid's refugee service was "absolutely crucial" to the resettlement process.
"The interventions of Legal Aid are particularly valuable in helping refugees to understand what is undoubtedly our very different system of law and authority and criminal and civil justice," he said.
Prof Shergold also pointed out that the majority of refugees choose to live in western Sydney because they already have family or support in the area.
