ATTITUDES AND POLICIES TOWARDS ASYLUM SEEKERS

What Are The Discourses That Affect The Perception of Asylum Seekers?

A Research Study

Bishop Peter Kekere, PhD

November 2014

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Title Page

ATTITUDES AND POLICIES TOWARDS ASYLUM SEEKERS

A Study Research on What Are The Discourses That Affect The Perception of Asylum Seekers?

By

Bishop Peter Kekere, PhD

President/ Senior Lectuter

Praise Bible Institute International

4th

November 2014

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Table of Content

1. Introduction……………………………………………………………………………… 3

2. Parameters of the Research……………………………………………………………… 3

3. Research Question:……………………………………………………………………… 4

4. Theoretical Framework:…………………………………………………………………. 4

5. Ethical Issues:…………………………………………………………………………… 5

6. Methodology…………………………………………………………………………… 6

7. Data collection:…………………………………………………………………………. 7

8. Research Method:………………………………………………………………………. 8

Conclusion:……………………………………………………………………………….. 8

References…………………………………………………………………………......... 9

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What Are The Discourses That Affect The Perception of Asylum Seekers?

1. Introduction

Asylum seekers are considered to be the people who leave their own country due to various

reasons. For instance, they leave their country, mainly for political turmoil or due to the war that

take place in their homeland. In such cases, many people migrates to other countries in the hope

that the government will protect them and will permit them to live there (Dalton, 2006). The

Presented paper would discuss the asylum policies of Australia while analyzing the claims of

stereotype acceptance in asylum requests acceptance.

2. Parameters of the Research

In Australia, it has been considered that the asylum seekers are considered to be the topic for

their debate and on the other hand they have created panic in the whole continent. Since

Federation, in the policy of Australia there has been a strict inclusion of the immigration policy

(McMaster, 2001). In the year 1901, the first inclusion of act by federal parliament was the

Immigration Restriction Act that established a language test for potential migrants in any

European language. In the meanwhile, the Pacific Islander Laborers Act also imposed

restrictions on the advent of the Pacific Island Workers. The measures that have been undertaken

in order to reduce the amount of the immigrant population to white, English speaking people

would be known as ‘White Australia’ policy which is therefore remains intact for the next six

decades.

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There are many reasons behind the negative sentiments of the Australians towards the asylum

seekers. The most important and constant forecast of this negative sentiment is the receiving the

incorrect information or myths as true. In the year 2006, during a study, an author of an article

found three most mentioned myths that represent the asylum seekers as “queue jumpers’’, illegal

and he also found that they did not have any particular reason for seeking asylum. The study

revealed that people who were high in prejudice have believed in the myths and they considered

it to be true (Healey, 2003).

3. Research Question:

Q.1 what should be the criteria in Australia for providing asylum?

Q.2 what are the consequences of adapting to an asylum offering policy?

Q. 3 are there any political disadvantages of allowing asylum to asylum seekers?

4. Theoretical Framework:

In and onwards the year 1950s, there was a mass migration program and after that the White

Australia policy at last relaxed in the year 1960s. Most of the migration was the result of the

World War II and hence many people were displaced and entered into Australia. Previously,

most the immigrant people were the impacted people of the World War II and formed only a

small proportion but at present the population of migration is more. It has found that the

population that is comprised of both the migrants and the displaced people are accommodated in

a government hostel and at the same time they being trained and provided with other support as

well (Kneebone, 2009). But in the earlier days the migrants or the displaced people did not have

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any limits on their movement and they had to face various oppositions as they are the newcomers

but they managed to settle their and found work.

Since the year 1990, the asylum policy has been described as a race to the bottom on both sides

of politics. Again in the year 1992, Paul Keating’s Labor government introduced mandatory

detention which means that those who will be arriving to Australia without any valid visa would

be imprisoned. Likewise people who will be arriving in Australia on a valid visa and then

claiming asylum are not to be subjected to mandatory imprisonment. They can remain within the

community as long as there asylum claim. Again the measures taken included the refusal of boats

to enter into the territorial water of Australia and removing Christmas Island form the migration

zone. After the Howard’s election victory and the arrival of more boats, the situation worsened

for the asylum seekers. The measures which were undertaken received full support from the

public and thus the attitudes towards the asylum seekers worsened (Baker et al., 2008).

5. Ethical Issues:

In Australia, the populist public discourse was established through a binary of an ‘US and

‘THEN’ framework where the opposition to them sometimes goes together with the claim to

speak for ordinary people (us) (Mares, 2001).

It was found that the negative public discourse led to a missed opportunity as the community of

Australia does not keep an eye on the asylum seekers regarding their activities. Furthermore, it

has been seen that there are other negatives from the public discourse that has been overlooked

for instance the Psychological impact on some of the migrants in earlier days who relieve some

shocking experiences as a result of the negative coverage of the media and all the other who

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withdraws from the contact of the wider community as they feel that they are being rejected by

the Australian society (Abass and Ippolito, n.d.).

6. Methodology

It must be noted that consultation regarding public discourse receives more attention by the

Australians regarding the boat arrivals. It is considered to be important for the Australians to pay

more attention regarding the boat arrivals as the topic has been altered in most of the previous

debates. It has been noted on various consultations that the Australians fear about the boat

arrivals because the discussions provides them such kind of fear in them. For instance, the

problems that they are facing are worsening day by day, the illegal movements of the boat

arrivals or the migrants involves smuggling collectively and thus results to a threat to the

Australian border security (Whittaker, 2006).

The politicians are believed to unite their views, although many of them have different views and

ideas and they want to share those and would console the wider public those who are afraid

however the fear may be unfounded (Donnellan, 1999). The result of the present discourse is

considered to be real. On the other hand, tougher policies have been established in order to

reduce the public fear and these results in spending long time in the overcrowded, remote

imprisoned facilities, families are day by day getting separated and the people living in Australia

failed to mix up with the communities as they feel that they are being regularly judged and

isolated. Furthermore, the facts and reasons have grown fear and sensationalism in this

discourse. The bodies that have to play a vital role in eliminating or changing the discourse for

the benefit of society as a whole are the leaders of the community, politicians, the media, NGOs

and all other individuals (Silove et al., 1997).

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7. Data collection:

In order to find facts about the asylum policies, asylum trend data is required. A good way to get

the official data is to follow the annual asylum trends made public by the Australian government.

The recent discourse is vague and divergent thereby creating an overall confusion for both the

public and the people within the refugee sector. After examining certain news outlet blogs and

information obtained through the consultations it has been found that the debate regarding the

rise in the population is mostly raised issues regarding the asylum seekers and refugee are being

discussed. Issues regarding overpopulation, water scarcity and caring for the weak and

marginalized Australians are considered as the same while comparing against taking more

Humane approach to asylum seekers and refugees (Steel and Silove, 2000). At present it is very

important on the basis of the public discourse analysis, to focus on the Christmas Island boat

tragedy of 15th

December 2010. The reason of this is that there was a very realistic imagery

available and thus it must be taken into account at the responses of the public that helps to

understand the event than otherwise the case may have been. In one hand the views of most

participants expressed their concerns over both the media and political representation of the

issues while on the other hand, the representative of the refugees or the asylum seekers and the

entrant communities of the humanitarian have other views regarding the direct impact of the

public discourse on their day to day lives (Bessant, n.d.). For example, people who have settled

in Sydney have not experienced such worse treatment, but people who went to settle in Perth or

Brisbane received hostile treatment. On the other hand, number of refugees has exclaimed that

the most negative and out bursting style was practiced by the politicians and other public figures

had a massive impact on the population settling in Australia, and also those refugees living

around the globe (Sales, 2002).

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8. Research Method:

It was found that the politicians often suggests to be supportive of those refugees who are

suffering in the offshore camps but the negative discourse actually hurt the people that came

through the offshore programs. It has also been found that numerous people raised their concerns

regarding the negative stereotype enabled the media to hamper their day to day lives especially

when they are seeking jobs (Stephens and Te Ao, 2014). The early refugees said that the able

employers considered the refugees as people lacking skills. They also considered their views that

the refugees as well as asylum seekers are less economically productive and also contribute very

little to the community. A number of the early refugees expressed their feelings that the hostile

treatment experienced by them has brought a fear within them of whether their families will be

accepted by the Australians or whether they too have to receive the similar kind of treatment by

the Australians (Silove et al., 1998).

Conclusion:

The presented paper sheds some light on the asylum offering policies of Australia. It is found

that the politicians and Australian policies generally support asylum offering to the refugees of

war zones. However, the rise in crime and suspicious activities demands more in-depth

background review of asylum seekers.

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Reference Lists

1. Abass, A. and Ippolito, F. n.d., Regional approaches to the protection of asylum seekers.

2. Baker, P., Gabrielatos, C., Khosravinik, M., Krzy.zanowski, M., McEnery, T. and

Wodak, R 2008, A useful methodological synergy? Combining critical discourse

analysis and corpus linguistics to examine discourses of refugees and asylum seekers in

the UK press. Discourse & Society, 19(3), pp.273--306.

3. Bessant, J. (n.d.), Session 17 ACWA 2002 Conference What Works!? Evidence Based

Practice in Child & Family Services, 2 to 4 September 2002 Sydney Australia’s child

asylum seekers.

4. Dalton, D2006, Refugees & asylum seekers. Oxford: Heinemann Library.

5. Donnellan, C1999, Refugees and asylum seekers. Cambridge: Independence.

6. Healey, J 2003, Refugees and asylum seekers. Thirroul, N.S.W.: Spinney Press.

7. Kneebone, S 2009, Refugees, asylum seekers and the rule of law. Cambridge, UK:

Cambridge University Press.

8. Mares, P 2001, Borderline. Sydney, Australia: UNSW Press.

9. McMaster, D 2001, Asylum seekers. Melbourne, Vic.: Melbourne University Press.

10. Sales, R 2002, The deserving and the undeserving? Refugees, asylum seekers and welfare

in Britain. Critical social policy, 22(3), pp.456--478.

11. Silove, D., Sinnerbrink, I., Field, A., Manicavasagar, V. and Steel, Z 1997, Anxiety,

depression and PTSD in asylum-seekers: associations with pre-migration trauma and

post-migration stressors. The British Journal of Psychiatry, 170(4), pp.351--357.

12. Silove, D., Steel, Z., McGorry, P. and Mohan, P 1998, Trauma exposure, postmigration

stressors, and symptoms of anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress in Tamil

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asylum-seekers: comparison with refugees and immigrants. Acta Psychiatrica

Scandinavica, 97(3), pp.175--181.

13. Steel, Z. and Silove, D 2000, The mental health implications of detaining asylum seekers.

The Medical Journal of Australia, 175(11-12), pp.596--599.

14. Stephens, M. and Te Ao, S 2014, Unwelcome guests: hospitality, asylum seekers and art

at the 19th Biennale of Sydney. Hospitality & Society, 4(2), pp.193--202.

15. Whittaker, D 2006, Asylum seekers and refugees in the contemporary world. London:

Routledge.