Refugee Policies and Narratives in the Globalised Era

As in Europe and the USA, Australian politicians from the two major political parties have steadily and successfully sought to present asylum seeking as illegal, a phenomena Welch (2012) refers to as ‘crimmigration’. The ‘illegality’ of people represents a discursive turn in contemporary migration rhetoric (Dauvergne, 2008). Although seeking asylum in Australia (including when arriving without documentation or prior authorization) does not break any law, the use of language of ‘illegality’ by politicians and media creates perceptions of criminal activity. This in turn underpins the dominant view of asylum seekers, not as refugees in search of safety and protection, but as criminal (possibly terrorist) threats to be protected against (Aas, 2007). The criminalization of asylum seekers has proven to be an effective political strategy to enable national governments to show sovereign strength in a globalized world where actions of transnational corporations have greater impact on citizens’ daily economic realities than government policies (McNevin, 2007). It also opens largely unfettered space in which governments can enact punitive policies and cause serious harm and human rights violations to refugees and asylum seekers. As a contribution to countering the purposeful silencing of asylum seeker and refugee voices, this chapter draws on our many years of research and advocacy with asylum seekers and refugees in Australia and on more recent work with refugees in Indonesia. It primarily focuses on lived experiences of criminalization of asylum seeking in Australia. It draws on asylum seeker and refugee narratives from the People’s Inquiry into Detention (Briskman et al, 2008), research into refugee resistance and protest (Fiske, 2012) and unpublished research by the two authors which recounts stories of hardship of asylum seekers refugees in Indonesia who are now fearful to come to Australia by boat.

International Studies [forthcoming], 2018

The image of three-year-old Aylan Kurdi’s body, washed up on a Turkish beach is only the most visible face among the large number of tragic deaths resulting from the perilous journey of the world’s desperate to reach safety. Over the years, the arrival of asylum-seekers to Australia has been an issue of significant political contestation. In October 2015 former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott urged European leaders to follow Australia’s example and prevent the recent wave of Syrian refugees from crossing borders. Contrary to Abbott’s appeal, the ‘Australian Solution’ is not a model neither Europe nor anyone else should follow. Australia’s refugee policies emerged not in response to the number of asylum-seeker arrivals, rather as a political appeal to fear and segregation in order to scapegoat the Other. We outline Australia’s refugee policies over the previous two decades (1992-2015), discuss some of their negative consequences and the implications of the Australian model being adopted internationally. Finally, we propose alternative ways forward for both Australia and Europe.

2005

This paper interrogates recurring discourses in Australia’s public domain with regards to the issue of refugees and Australianness, and how they have been used to ratify notions of inclusion and exclusion with regards to what being Australian or indeed being un-Australian does and should mean. The unpacking of these primary discursive positions will be based on an analysis of the letters to the editor published in both The Australian (Australia’s national newspaper) and The West Australian, covering one key period from 22 January to 28 February 2002 (a period encompassing the Woomera hunger strike).

International Studies

The image of three-year-old Aylan Kurdi’s body, washed up on a Turkish beach is only the most visible face among the large number of tragic deaths resulting from the perilous journey of the world’s desperate to reach safety. Over the years, the arrival of asylum-seekers to Australia has been an issue of significant political contestation. In October 2015 former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott urged European leaders to follow Australia’s example and prevent the recent wave of Syrian refugees from crossing borders. Contrary to Abbott’s appeal, the ‘Australian Solution’ is a model neither Europe nor anyone else should follow. Australia’s refugee policies emerged not in response to the number of asylum-seeker arrivals, but rather as a political appeal to fear and segregation in order to scapegoat the Other. We outline Australia’s refugee policies over the previous two decades (1992–2015), discuss some of their negative consequences and the implications of the Australian model bein...

Paper to the Judicial Conference of Australia, Seventh …, 2003

International Journal for Crime, Justice and Social Democracy

This article critically examines techniques employed by the Australian state to expand its control of refugees and asylum seekers living in Australia. In particular, it analyses the operation of Australia’s unique Asylum Seeker Code of Behaviour, which asylum seekers who arrive by boat must sign in order to be released from mandatory immigration detention, with reference to an original dataset of allegations made under the Code. We argue that the Code and the regime of visa cancellation and re-detention powers of which it forms a part are manifestations of what Beckett and Murakawa call the ‘shadow carceral state’, whereby punitive state power is extended beyond prison walls through the blurring of civil, administrative and criminal legal authority. The Code contributes to Australia’s apparatus of refugee deterrence by adding to it a brutal system of surveillance, visa cancellation and denial of services for asylum seekers living in the community.

Social Science Research Network, 2021

Since 1945, more than 9 million people have migrated to Australia. 2 Of these, some 1 million were refugees and displaced people, 3 although in the 1950s and 1960s institutional distinctions were not drawn between refugees and migrants. 4 In 1954, Australia provided the signature that brought the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees ('Refugee Convention') into force. 5 To some, whether supporters or opponents of refugee policy, these figures and the decision to accede to the Refugee Convention tell the story of refugee resettlement to Australia as a proud and generous history of leadership and humanitarianism dating back to 1 The author would like to thank Gabriel Smith for very helpful research assistance for this chapter. 2 Department of Home Affairs ('DHA'), Fact Sheet: Key Facts About Immigration (undated), archived webpage available at: webarchive.nla.gov.au/awa/20181010074801/www.homeaffairs.gov. au/ about/corporate/information/fact-sheets/02key; DHA, Visa Statistics, relating to the migration, asylum and humanitarian programs available at: homeaffairs.gov.au/research-and-statistics/statistics/ visa-statistics. 3 DHA, Fact Sheet; DHA, Visa Statistics. Figures vary, even on the DHA website. By one account, the resettlement figure now stands at 880,000 people; see: immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/what-we-do/ refugee-and-humanitarian-program/about-the-program/about-the-program; Klaus Neumann, Across the Seas: Australia's Response to Refugees: A History

2014

Review of International Studies, 2006

From 2001, the Australian government has justified a hard-line approach to asylum-seekers on the basis of the need to preserve its sovereignty. This article critically evaluates this justification, arguing that the conception of sovereignty as the ‘right to exclude’ involves a denial of responsibility to the most vulnerable in global politics. We particularly focus here on the ways in which the Australian government has attempted to create support for this conception of sovereignty and ethical responsibility at the domestic level, through marginalising alternative voices and emphasising the ‘otherness’ of asylum-seekers and refugees. We conclude by suggesting what this might mean for the treatment of asylum-seekers in global politics and for statist approaches to global ethics.