Ideas and Identity

For many years refugees have been demonized by the country through the spread of fear and misconception. Furthermore, the disgusting treatment of refugees in the detention camps by the Australian Government has been roundly criticised by the international community.

For the vast majority of Australians asylum seekers are an issue of concern, where most people disregard and do not accept the idea. In 2001 sociologist Katherine Betts analysed opinion poll date on the issue of boat arrivals. She analysed the date from the past 25 years and it showed that in the late 1970’s 60% of Australians wanted to let a limited number of asylum seekers to stay and 30% wanted to stop them from staying. In 1993, 45% wanted to send asylum seeker straight back without assessing any claims, where only 7% believed that they have a right to stay and 48% approved the idea of holding asylum seekers in detention. Finally, in 2001 77% of Australia supported the Howard government decision to refuse entry to asylum seekers. Most attitudes

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

Political unrest and local war happens around the world all the time. Many people live in a dangerous situation and suffered from violence. Hence, large amount of asylum seeker undertakes a huge perilous, try to cross the ocean and arrive Australia. To deal with this issue, Australian government enacted mandatory detention policy and offshore processing policy, these policies become highly contentious in the community with many arguments and criticisms. This report will focus on the nature and purpose of these immigration policies and the impact towards the asylum seeker as well as the criticism form international. To propose some advice about how the future policies should be framed.

Asylum seekers or refugees have fled their countries’ due to volatile circumstances such as war, or fear of prosecution. Upon arrival in Australia they are moved to detention centres. Detention centres hold people who have come without a visa, any non-national and all unauthorised boat arrivals (Australian Human Rights Commission, 2014). These centres hold refugees for indefinite periods and in poor conditions. They are used as a spectacle to represent illegality and a threat to Australian society (Marfleet, 2007, p672).

Following Australian Immigration Minister Peter Dutton’s comments on the ‘danger’ of ‘uneducated and illiterate’ refugees and immigrants being accepted into Australia, debate resurfaced regarding the issue of asylum seekers and immigrants in general, and whether refugees deserved to be resettled in Australia. In an opinion piece for The Age newspaper, Kon Karapanagiotidis argues that Peter Dutton’s claims are false and that on the contrary, refugees and immigrants have much to contribute to Australian society. His arguments are fashioned in a heavily emotive tone, and overall the piece is compelling and compassionate while also heatedly opposing Dutton’s views.

Media outlets often inflate or speculate about either the numbers of asylum seekers, refugees and immigrants. Hence causing the public to feel threatened by these numbers. Not only does the media scrutinise numbers but newspapers and television images and videos play “dominant stereotype of the young dangerous man breaking into Australia and threatening ‘our’ communities 7”. Unsurprisingly “31 precent of headlines and 53 precent of text about asylum across all newspapers has negative connotations. The media has had a detrimental affect on the outcome of the Australian security border protection by continually asking the question “What is being done to prevent these terrorist acts from the public? 7”

This topic of this essay will be about Asylum seekers in Australia. Detention centres are meant to be a safe place, while Australian officials try find documents and I.D. However, 27 humane, innocent citizens have died in these so called “safe” detention centres. Yet the Government has done zilch to improve the status and condition of the Asylum Seekers and Detention Centres. This is why Australia must allow Asylum Seekers to enter the Australian community. If the government allowed Asylum Seekers to enter the community, then their rights will improve immensely, they will be educated while in situated Australia, and finally the government will be able to reduce funding for detention centres.

Asylum Seeker policy has become key political battleground in recent times. This stems from the end of Australia’s ‘White Australia’ policy in the 1970s; a policy which saw restrictions placed on non-European migration for over 70 years (Crock & Berg, 2011). Following the conclusion of the Vietnam war, a myriad of boats arrived in Australia, carrying asylum seekers from south east Asia. This lead to a stark increase in public concern over the arrivals and consequently, the term ‘boat people’ was born and spread through the media and public/political discourses alike (Grewcock, 2009).

Pedersen’s article is quite confrontational outlining the major issues that Australian individuals portray today, through their beliefs and thoughts about asylum seekers and Indigenous Australians. The sample group taken in Perth, is used as a representation of the wider population of Australia, with majority of Australians revealing a strong negative view against both groups. “It was found that people are becoming increasingly hostile” (Pedersen, A. Clarke, S. Dudgeon, P & Griffiths, B 2005) and are becoming ignorant and unsympathetic about the current situations that the two groups face today. This is mainly due to the general aspect of racism, being misinformed and uneducated about the events that these cultures have faced or are still dealing

Asylum seekers are the world's number one problem and debate going on right now in most countries, Australia right now does not allow most asylum seekers in and turns them away bringing up one of the bigger questions in our time yet are asylum seekers people as well? Should we let them in? And do they pose a threat to Australia's economy? I think we should let them in

This essay examines the social issue of Australians holding negative attitudes towards asylum seekers. Asylum seekers are those people claim to be refugees, but their claim has not yet been finalised or evaluated, it is approximated that there are one million people seeking asylum every year (UNHCR, 2016). There is a significant amount of research indicating that many Australians hold a negative attitude against asylum seekers, Pedersen, Atwell, & Heveli, (2005) and Schweitzer, Perkoulidis, Krome, Ludlow & Ryan, (2005) found that more than 60% of participants in their studies expressed negative attitudes towards asylum seekers. In her study Klocker (2004) found extreme negativity against asylum with 70% of participants viewing asylum seekers

Mungo MacCallum Quarterly Essay 5- ‘Girt by sea: Australia, the refugees and the politics of fear’ published in 2002. Within the realms of this essay, MacCallum unlocks the truth behind the political agenda to turn the public image against refugees. He breaks down the events that follow the Liberal-National coalition and indicates that ‘refugees’ have always been hitherto. I discovered the callousness of our key people and found it led all the way to the top, Mr John Winston Howard.

Good morning delegates of the youth parliament and observing members. Today I stand before you to discuss an issue that continues to evoke high emotions and create deep divisions within Australian society. I refer to the matter of refugees and Australia's immigration policy. Not since the second world war has the world faced such an upheaval with so many people displaced. In 2015 there were 65.3 million people forcibly displaced from their homes because of conflict and persecution. Developing countries hold 84% of refugees while wealthier countries like Australia prioritise the need to reduce asylum seekers within their borders. The current policy contravenes the proper treatment of refugees and asylum seekers; because regardless of their mode of entry, once here Australia has a duty to provide protection.

Asylum seekers in Australia always been the focal point of negative political concern for a long time. To stop asylum seekers continue arriving in Australia by boat, Australia enforces the policy of obligatory detention of asylum seekers, unauthorised asylum seekers arriving by boat will be sent to Papua New Guinea camp where operated by the Australian government (‘Asylum seekers: Australia’s shame’ 2017). However, this policy was reported as disgraceful because of the deficient living condition, indefinite and arbitrary of detention and lack of health care (United Nations 2017). Cohen (2011 p. 242) stated that moral panic could be more likely to develop in anything associated with 'immigration, migrants, multicultural absorption, refugees, border controls and asylum seekers’. Is Australia's response to asylum seekers an example of moral panic? By analysing the five criteria from the moral panic theory by looking at the Australian public reaction to asylum seekers with references support, it could be found that the reaction to asylum seekers in Australia is an example of moral panic.