scholarly journals Locating Temporary Migrants on the Map of Australian Democracy

2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Mares

This article asks whether there should be a limit on the number of years that a temporary migrant can reside in Australia before either being granted permanent residence or required to depart.<br />Temporary migration on the scale now experienced in Australia is a relatively recent phenomenon that contrasts strongly with the established pattern of permanent settler migration that characterised Australia in the 20th Century. As a result, the question of whether or not there should be a limit to temporariness has not yet been addressed in public policy debates.<br />Drawing on the approach of Jospeh H. Carens (2013), I take Australia’s self-definition as a liberal democracy as a standard to which the nation sees itself as ethically and politically accountable. I argue that a commitment to liberal democracy renders a purely contractual approach to migration invalid—more specifically, a migrant’s consent to the terms of a temporary visa does not provide sufficient ethical grounds to extend that temporary status indefinitely. Moving beyond a contractual approach to consider whether current temporary migration arrangements are consistent with the principles of representative democracy raises debates within liberalism, particularly between cosmopolitan and communitarian perspectives. I argue that practical policy must reconcile these cosmopolitan and communitarian positions. I consider, but reject, the option of strictly time-limited temporary visas that would require migrants to depart after a set number of years and instead recommend a pathway to permanent residence based on duration of stay.

1996 ◽  
Vol 20 (11) ◽  
pp. 690-692
Author(s):  
Frances Klemperer

The International movement of traders, political envoys and soldiers is not new. But the late 20th century has seen an unprecedented growth in the activities of at least the first two groups. Increase in international mobility has been accompanied by growing interest in the psychological problems faced by these temporary migrants. It has prompted the development of specialised services for preparing expatriates before departure, and supporting them during their sojourn. Brussels is an example of an International centre with a huge expatriate population, and a demand for a dedicated telephone crisis service. This is the oldest, and one of the largest, services of this kind in Europe.


2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 26-38
Author(s):  
Marie Segrave

This paper explores the implications of domestic and family violence occurring across borders, specifically the utilisation of border crossings to exert control and enact violence. While gendered violence can and does occur in border-crossing journeys, this paper focuses more specifically on how domestic and family violence extends across national borders and how violence (or the threat of violence and deportation) can manifest across multiple countries when women are temporary visa holders. This paper illuminates the way in which migration systems play a significant role in temporary migrant experiences of domestic and family violence. Drawing on a study of 300 temporary migrants and their experiences of domestic and family violence, I argue that perpetrators effectively weaponise the migration system to threaten, coerce and control women in different ways, most often with impunity. I also argue that we cannot focus on perpetrators and the individual alone—that we need to build on the border criminology scholarship that highlights the need to focus on systemic harm in the context of domestic and family violence and identify how the migration regime contributes to gendered violence.


Author(s):  
Jozefien De Bock

Historically, those societies that have the longest tradition in multicultural policies are settler societies. The question of how to deal with temporary migrants has only recently aroused their interest. In Europe, temporary migration programmes have a much longer history. In the period after WWII, a wide range of legal frameworks were set up to import temporary workers, who came to be known as guest workers. In the end, many of these ‘guests’ settled in Europe permanently. Their presence lay at the basis of European multicultural policies. However, when these policies were drafted, the former mobility of guest workers had been forgotten. This chapter will focus on this mobility of initially temporary workers, comparing the period of economic growth 1945-1974 with the years after the 1974 economic crisis. Further, it will look at the kind of policies that were developed towards guest workers in the era before multiculturalism. This way, it shows how their consideration as temporary residents had far-reaching consequences for the immigrants, their descendants and the receiving societies involved. The chapter will finish by suggesting a number of lessons from the past. If the mobility-gap between guest workers and present-day migrants is not as big as generally assumed, then the consequences of previous neglect should serve as a warning for future policy making.


2013 ◽  
Vol 04 (02) ◽  
pp. 1350007 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. S. KAVI KUMAR ◽  
BRINDA VISWANATHAN

While a wide range of factors influence rural–rural and rural–urban migration in developing countries, there is significant interest in analyzing the role of agricultural distress and growing inter-regional differences in fueling such movement. This strand of research acquires importance in the context of climate change adaptation. In the Indian context, this analysis gets further complicated due to the significant presence of temporary migration. This paper analyzes how weather and its variability affects both temporary and permanent migration in India using National Sample Survey data for the year 2007–2008. The paper finds that almost all of the rural–urban migrants are permanent. Only temperature plays a role in permanent migration. In contrast, many temporary migrants are rural–rural and both temperature and rainfall explain temporary migration.


2008 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 482-496 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Tierney

PurposeThis paper aims to analyse the class dimensions of racism in Taiwan against temporary migrant workers and migrants' efforts to build inter‐ethnic and labour‐community coalitions in struggle against racism.Design/methodology/approachAn important source of data for this study were the unstructured interview. Between September 2000 and December 2005, more than 50 temporary migrants and their support groups in Taiwan were interviewed, specifically about migrants' experiences of racism and their resistance strategies. These interviews were conducted face‐to‐face, sometimes with the assistance of translators. Between 2001 and 2007, some 70 people were interviewed by telephone, between Australia and Taiwan.FindingsIn Taiwan, temporary migrants suffer the racism of exploitation in that capital and the state “racially” categorize them as suitable only for the lowest paid and least appealing jobs. Migrants also suffer neglect by and exclusion from the labour unions. However, migrants have succeeded, on occasions, in class mobilization by building powerful inter‐ethnic ties as well as coalitions with some labor unions, local organizations and human rights lobbies.Research limitations/implicationsThe research raises implications for understanding the economic, social and political conditions which influence the emergence of inter‐ethnic bonds and labour‐community coalitions in class struggle.Practical implicationsThe research will contribute to a greater appreciation among Taiwan's labour activists of the real subordination of temporary migrant labour to capital and of the benefits of supporting migrants' mobilization efforts. These benefits can flow not only to migrants but also to the labour unions.Originality/valueA significant body of academic literature has recently emerged on temporary and illegal migrants' efforts to engage the union movements of industrialized host countries. There is a dearth, however, of academic research on the capacity of temporary migrants to invigorate union activism in Asia, including Taiwan.


Author(s):  
Ruth Braunstein

Ruth Braunstein’s chapter examines the Nuns on the Bus campaign, launched by a group of Catholic Sisters in 2012 to raise awareness of the harm that federal budget cuts would cause struggling American families. The chapter focuses on the Nuns’ use of storytelling during this campaign. Through their storytelling performances, the Nuns framed religious communities as morally superior carriers of knowledge about the effects of cuts in government spending; framed vulnerable people and the programs that serve them as morally worthy beneficiaries of government spending; and asserted the moral necessity of taking stories seriously alongside other forms of more abstract and impersonal data that inform the policymaking process. Overall, the chapter argues that this communications strategy helped the Nuns overcome challenges they faced as progressive religious actors seeking to influence public policy debates.


2017 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 157-158 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Sabl

Liberal democracy is often viewed by its supporters as a system of government that responds to the informed and rational preferences of the public organized as voters. And liberal democracy is often viewed by its critics as a system that fails to respond to the informed and rational preferences of its citizens. In this book Larry Bartels and Chris Achen draw on decades of research to argue that a “realistic” conception of democracy cannot be centered on the idea of a “rational voter,” and that the ills of contemporary democracies, and especially democracy in the U.S., must be sought in the dynamics that link voters, political parties and public policy in ways that reproduce inequality. “We believe,” write the authors, “that abandoning the folk theory of democracy is a prerequisite to both greater intellectual clarity and real political change. Too many democratic reformers have squandered their energy on misguided or quixotic ideas.”


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