scholarly journals Asylum Seekers Living in the Australian Community: A Casework and Reception Approach, Asylum Seeker Project, Hotham Mission, Melbourne

Refuge ◽  
2004 ◽  
pp. 119-128 ◽  
Author(s):  
Grant Mitchell ◽  
Sara Kirsner
Keyword(s):  
Asylum Seeker ◽  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
Viable Alternative ◽  
Immigration Detention ◽  
Governmental Organization ◽  
Mode Of Entry ◽  
The Status ◽  
Australian Community

In Australia, asylum seekers either are detained in immigration detention centres or, depending upon their mode of entry into Australia and the status of their application for protection, live in the community, often in a state of abject poverty. Hotham Mission’s Asylum Seeker Project (ASP), a Melbourne-based non-governmental organization (NGO), is unique in Australia in its comprehensive work in housing and supporting asylum seekers in the community, particularly those released from detention. The work of the Asylum Seeker Project illustrates that it is possible, through the application of a comprehensive reception casework system, to adequately support asylum seekers in the community with their welfare needs and to prepare asylum seekers for all immigration outcomes. The Project thus provides a compassionate model of reception support and a viable alternative to immigration detention.

Technologies of control: Asylum seeker and volunteer experiences in Australian immigration detention facilities

2018 ◽  
Vol 55 (2) ◽  
pp. 181-198 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michelle Peterie
Keyword(s):  
Emotional Distress ◽  
Asylum Seeker ◽  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
Daily Life ◽  
Immigration Detention ◽  
Volunteer Experiences ◽  
Negative Impacts ◽  
Detention Facilities

This article documents the experiences of volunteer visitors to Australia’s onshore immigration detention facilities, and considers what they reveal about the operation of power within this detention network. While immigration detention systems (including Australia’s) have received considerable academic attention in recent years, few scholars have examined the experiences of volunteers. Further, while the existing scholarship points to the negative impacts of immigration detention on detainees, the question of how these outcomes are produced at the level of daily institutional life has gone largely unanswered. The testimonies presented here provide a valuable window onto daily life in Australia’s onshore immigration detention centres, highlighting the opaque and capricious mechanisms through which they produce emotional distress in both asylum seekers and their supporters. In documenting these mechanisms and their effects, this article shows how ‘deterrence’ is enacted through the small and seemingly innocuous details of institutional life.

Mauritian Courts and the Protection of the Rights of Asylum Seekers in the Absence of Dedicated Legislation

2019 ◽  
Vol 31 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 321-342
Author(s):  
Jamil Ddamulira Mujuzi
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Asylum Seeker ◽  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
Internally Displaced Persons ◽  
African Union ◽  
International Human Rights ◽  
Internally Displaced ◽  
Domestic Legislation ◽  
The Status ◽  
International Human

Abstract Mauritius became a party to the 1951 Refugee Convention through succession but is yet to accede to the 1967 Protocol relating to the Status of Refugees. It has signed but not yet ratified the OAU Convention Governing the Specific Aspects of Refugee Problems in Africa and has not signed the African Union Convention for the Protection and Assistance of Internally Displaced Persons in Africa. Unlike many other countries in Africa, Mauritius has not yet enacted domestic legislation dealing with the issue of refugees. However, international human rights obligations and domestic legislation allow the rights of asylum seekers to be protected in Mauritius. This article argues that the principle of non-refoulement bars Mauritius from extraditing or deporting an asylum seeker to a country where he or she will be persecuted or where his or her rights will be violated, and that asylum seekers and citizens are equally protected by the Constitution with regard to absolute rights. However, limitations may be imposed on asylum seekers in their enjoyment of non-absolute rights. For such limitations to be lawful, they must aim to achieve the objectives stipulated in section 3 of the Constitution.

scholarly journals Australian Media and Islamophobia: Representations of Asylum Seeker Children

Religions ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (9) ◽  
pp. 501 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tejaswini Vishwanath Patil ◽  
Helen Jacqueline McLaren
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Asylum Seeker ◽  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Immigration Detention ◽  
Australian Society ◽  
Media Reporting ◽  
Muslim Children ◽  
Risk Framing

Australian media invests considerable attention in asylum seekers and their children, especially those arriving by boat. In this paper, we provide an analysis of Australian newsprint media published during the term of Australia’s Gillard’s government (2010–2013). This period is critical as it coincides with rising numbers of boat arrivals to Australian shores, fear towards Muslims, and growing Islamophobia. At the time, there were government promises to move children from offshore immigration detention into community-based detention, that would involve living among mainstream Australian society. A data set of 46 articles from major Australian newspapers articles was subject to a discourse analysis of representations of children in both the written texts and in silences. Manipulative tactics of ‘risk framing’ and ‘dispersed intentionality’ were identified as discursive acts aimed to confuse compassion and deviancy with respect to asylum seeker children presumed to be from Islamic backgrounds. We argue that this was achieved through binary characterizations in which Muslim parents and people smugglers were constructed as deviant alongside intentional silences, that may have otherwise elicited compassion for asylum seeker children. We propose that this period of media reporting is foundational to understanding the rise of Islamophobic discourses and the implication of Muslim children in Australia.

scholarly journals The People’s Inquiry into Detention: Social work activism for asylum seeker rights

2019 ◽  
Vol 56 (1) ◽  
pp. 100-114
Author(s):  
Linda Briskman
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Social Movements ◽  
Social Work ◽  
Asylum Seeker ◽  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
Immigration Detention ◽  
Global Context ◽  
Professional Groups ◽  
Professional Advocacy ◽  
Policies And Practices

In 2008, findings from the People’s Inquiry into Detention were published as Human Rights Overboard: Seeking Asylum in Australia. The People’s Inquiry, led by social work academics in Australia, exposed injustices within Australia’s privatised detention network for asylum seekers and interrogated policies and practices that ensued since mandatory immigration detention was introduced by legislation in 1992. With reference to the global context, the article presents a snapshot of policies and practices revealed by the People’s Inquiry that were considered antithetical to human rights and discusses this extensive undertaking within a broader context of asylum seeker social movements and professional advocacy endeavours that continue as harsh policies escalate. The article speaks to the resilience of the asylum seeker movement, often against the odds, a movement that includes responsive and tenacious professional groups.

Escaping accountability: a case of Australia’s asylum seeker policy

2016 ◽  
Vol 29 (6) ◽  
pp. 947-984 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ken McPhail ◽  
Robert Ochoki Nyamori ◽  
Savitri Taylor
Keyword(s):  
Asylum Seeker ◽  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
National Policy ◽  
Effective Control ◽  
Policy Network ◽  
Immigration Detention ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Government Organizations ◽  
Private Corporations ◽  
The Way

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to address two questions: first, what contracts, instruments and accounting activities constitute Australia’s offshore asylum seeker processing policy in practice? Second, how are notions of legitimacy and accountability mediated through the network constituted by this policy? Design/methodology/approach – The paper is located in the critical interpretivist approach to accounting research. It is based on an exhaustive documentary analysis. Policy documents, contract documents, records of parliamentary inquiries (Hansard) and legislation were analysed drawing on a network policy perspective. Findings – The paper finds that the Australian Government has sought to escape its accountability obligations by employing a range of approaches. The first of these approaches is the construction of a network involving foreign states, private corporations and non-government organizations. The second is through a watered down accountability regime and refusal to be accountable for the day-to-day life of asylum seekers in offshore processing centres through a play with the meaning of “effective control”. Yet while the policy network seems designed to create accountability gaps, the requirement within the network to remain financially accountable undermines the governments claims not to be responsible for the conditions in the detention camps. Research limitations/implications – The paper focuses largely on the period starting from when Kevin Rudd became Prime Minister to the death in Papua New Guinea of asylum seeker Reza Barati on 17 February 2014. Earlier periods are beyond the scope of this paper. Practical implications – The paper will result in the identification of deficiencies inhuman rights accountability for extra-territorialized and privatised immigration detention and may contribute towards the formulation of effective policy recommendations to overcome such deficiencies. The paper also provides empirical data on, and academic understanding of, immigration detention outsourcing and offshoring. Social implications – The paper will inform debate regarding treatment of unauthorized maritime arrivals and asylum seekers generally. Originality/value – The paper provides the first detailed and full understanding of the way Australia’s offshore asylum seeker processing policy is practiced. The paper also provides an empirical analysis of the way national policy and its associated accountability mechanisms emerge in response to the competing legitimacy claims of the international community and national electorate.

scholarly journals Detention of Asylum Seekers in Mexico

Refuge ◽  
2002 ◽  
pp. 58-64
Author(s):  
Gretchen Kuhner
Keyword(s):  
Asylum Seeker ◽  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
National Policy ◽  
Eligibility Determination ◽  
Transitional Process ◽  
The Status ◽  
Mexican Government ◽  
The Government

Mexico ratified the Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and the 1967 Protocol in April 2000. While Regulations establishing a mechanism for eligibility determination were issued at the same time, the Mexican government began a transitional process to take over eligibility in March 2002. Prior to that time, the UNHCR had been recognizing refugees under its mandate. As of this writing no national policy regarding the detention of asylum seekers has been established, nor have refugee advocates begun to pressure the government to comply with Article 31 of the Convention. Rather, whether an asylum seeker is detained during the eligibility process depends in part on the place and timing of the request as well as on the knowledge and goodwill of the migration authority.

Het Verloop Van de Communicatie in de Meertalige, Interculturele Setting Van Het Nader Gehoor

1998 ◽  
Vol 59 ◽  
pp. 129-138
Author(s):  
Dorien Ballout-Siemons ◽  
Lydia Doornebos
Keyword(s):  
The Netherlands ◽  
Asylum Seeker ◽  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
Communication Process ◽  
Legal Aid ◽  
Cultural Backgrounds ◽  
Communication Problems ◽  
The Status

This study investigates the communication process in the asylum hearing. The asylum hearing is the only opportunity asylum seekers have to explain their reasons for applying for asylum. On the basis of this hearing, the Ministry of Justice decides if the asylum seeker is granted the status of refugee in the Netherlands. In the hearing, communication takes place between people with different languages and with different cultural backgrounds. This study investigates whether problems do occur during the asylum hearing and, if so, of what nature they are. The method we used in this study is bipartite. First, we analysed hearing reports in which the whole interview is written down. Second, we interviewed all participants in the hearing: the asylum seeker, the interpreter, the representative of justice, and the legal aid worker (who is involved but not active in the asylum hearing). The results show that communication problems do indeed occur during the asylum hearing. The problems are mostly caused by misinterpretation due to the different cultural backgrounds of the participants. Problems due to the different language backgrounds also occur, but mainly when the interpreter and the asylum seeker have different mother tongues.

scholarly journals Learning to Detain Asylum Seekers and the Growth of Mass Immigration Detention in the United States

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-29
Author(s):  
Smita Ghosh ◽  
Mary Hoopes
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Infectious Diseases ◽  
Cognitive Dissonance ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
Ad Hoc ◽  
The United States ◽  
Critical Component ◽  
Immigration Detention ◽  
Important Shift

Drawing upon an analysis of congressional records and media coverage from 1981 to 1996, this article examines the growth of mass immigration detention. It traces an important shift during this period: while detention began as an ad hoc executive initiative that was received with skepticism by the legislature, Congress was ultimately responsible for entrenching the system over objections from the agency. As we reveal, a critical component of this evolution was a transformation in Congress’s perception of asylum seekers. While lawmakers initially decried their detention, they later branded them as dangerous. Lawmakers began describing asylum seekers as criminals or agents of infectious diseases in order to justify their detention, which then cleared the way for the mass detention of arriving migrants more broadly. Our analysis suggests that they may have emphasized the dangerousness of asylum seekers to resolve the dissonance between their theoretical commitments to asylum and their hesitance to welcome newcomers. In addition to this distinctive form of cognitive dissonance, we discuss a number of other implications of our research, including the ways in which the new penology framework figured into the changing discourse about detaining asylum seekers.

scholarly journals “Do you understand (me)?” negotiating mutual understanding by using gaze and environmentally coupled gestures between two deaf signing participants

2020 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nina Sivunen ◽  
Elina Tapio
Keyword(s):  
Asylum Seeker ◽  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
The State ◽  
Mutual Understanding ◽  
Multimodal Analysis ◽  
Semiotic Resources ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities ◽  
Language Competencies ◽  
Unrealistic Expectations ◽  
Insight Into

AbstractIn this paper we explore the use of multimodal and multilingual semiotic resources in interactions between two deaf signing participants, a researcher and an asylum seeker. The focus is on the use of gaze and environmentally coupled gestures. Drawing on multimodal analysis and linguistic ethnography, we demonstrate how gaze and environmentally coupled gestures are effective semiotic resources for reaching mutual understanding. The study provides insight into the challenges and opportunities (deaf) asylum seekers, researchers, and employees of reception centres or the state may encounter because of the asymmetrical language competencies. Our concern is that such asymmetrical situations may be created and maintained by ignoring visual and embodied resources in interaction and, in the case of deaf asylum seekers, by unrealistic expectations towards conventionalized forms of international sign.

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