In Migrant Hostel we are presented with the arrival of post-war migrants who’ve come from a war-torn Europe to Australia in hopes of starting a new life, however the reality is quickly…
There are many different views about refugees in Australian society, where illegal boat people and over flowing detention centres are a controversial problem today. Go Back To Where You Came From is a documentary directed by Ivan O’Mahoney about a social experiment that challenges the dominant views of six Australians about refugees and asylum seekers. These six Australians are taken on a 25 day journey where they are placed into the troubled “worlds” of refugees. For a few of the Australians it is their first time overseas but, for all of them it is the most challenging and confronting experience of their lives. This essay will discuss the codes and conventions used in this documentary to position and challenge the cultural assumptions and beliefs of the viewer.…
This report was commissioned to examine the behaviours and beliefs held by Australians in regards to the people identified as asylum seekers who arrive in Australia in search of humanitarian aid.…
In this journal article, Jane McAdam reviews the events from mid-1950’s up until the 21st century, which have shaped the laws and policies that affect the way Australia manages asylum seekers. The Author use data gained through the Australian Bureau of Statistics, information from a number of cases and Australia government websites to identify the cause of Australia’s negative stigma towards the refugee status. Their research focuses on how ideas have transform from rights or responsibilities, assistance or protection to preventing boats and refugee reaching Australia’s shores. The article is useful to my research topic, as Jane McAdam has…
There have been numerous legal responses to asylum seekers in Australia, all of which have been ineffective in achieving fair outcomes for both Australian citizens and refugees seeking asylum in Australia. The basis for all legislation regarding refugees in Australia is the Migration Act 1958, which outlines powers such as being able to cap the number of refugees accepted into Australia each year, and defines a refugee as somebody “being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion”, which is written according to the United Nation’s definition.12 Since then a number of amendments and additions have been made to this act, including the Migration Amendment Act 1992, Pacific Solution, Migration Amendment (Abolishing Detention Debt) Act 2009 and the Regional Resettlement Arrangement (RRA) Australia and Papua New Guinea. All of these legal responses to the issue of asylum seekers in Australia have proven ineffective as they fail to achieve fair outcomes for either those seeking asylum in Australia or the present citizens of Australia.…
For most asylum seekers, arriving in Australia is a major shock. They are met with hostility and mandatory…
However, the possibility that these asylum seekers who land on our shores having travelled by boat being terrorists is highly unlikely. The distance from a country such as Afghanistan to Australia is an extremely long way to cover – more than 11,000 kilometres.…
* It is legal to seek asylum in Australia, even if you arrive on a boat without a visa. Asylum seekers are not breaking the rules - they are following the processes outlined in the UN Refugee Convention and Australian Migration…
And numerous reports have shown that many asylum seekers are unaware of Australia’s domestic asylum policies, so the use of punishing policies has zero limiting effect. A clear example of the failure of punitive policies to prevent asylum seekers is the policy of Temporary Protection Visas (TPVs). The number of asylum seekers arriving by boat to Australia continued to increase after the introduction of temporary protection visas in 1999 (48% more asylum seekers arrived by boat in 2001 than in 1999). Asylum seekers arriving by boat only started decreasing in 2003 when global asylum numbers started dropping. This evidence strongly suggests that temporary protection visas have no value as a restriction to number of asylum seekers arriving by boat. The same rationale holds true for mandatory detention, introduced in…
Over the years the Australian Government has been noticing the upward trend in the numbers of people seeking refuge in Australia and other countries. Knowing that Australia is a large country, with a fairly low population compared to that of the other…
Saul, B 2003,”From White Australia to Woomera: The story of Australian Immigration”, Journal Of Refugee Studies, 16, 4, pp. 449-450, SocINDEX with Full Text, EBSCOhost, viewed 9 April 2014…
These asylum seekers have come to Australia to sought refuge in a, what was thought to be a compassionate and humane country, not to be sentence to imprisonment.…
The treatment of refugees is a contemporary human rights issue that has caused a lot of debate within Australia’s government. There are legal and non-legal domestic and international responses to the issue on the treatment of refugees. The legal domestic and international responses…
Just as the media adopts common narratives and attaches them to other minority groups such as Muslims, the Arabic and the Lebanese communities, so too have they done so with asylum seekers. Issues surrounding asylum seekers are almost always represented as a part of national debate surrounding issues of policy. Common media narratives include that asylum seekers are a strain on Australia resources, Australian jobs will be lost to foreign ‘invaders,’ asylum seekers are ‘queue jumpers’ and the incoming persons pose the threat to national security (Pickering, 2001). These narratives are overwhelming negative and foster a fear in…
Australia is the main target for such an influx of refugees and asylum seekers as we are known as the ‘Laid Back’ society and being so tolerant of such matters, therefore shaping a heavily multicultural society. This society creates new connections between people of all backgrounds in our Schools, our streets, our news and…