11 asylum

AsylumThe Racial State Week 11Dr Alana Lentin

[email protected], 6 May 13

mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

Overview Definitions & legal obligations

Numbers & key events

Forced migration

Life in detention

Producing ‘wasted lives’, ‘falling from the sky’

Activist responses

Monday, 6 May 13

ref·u·gee

/ˌrefyo ͝oˈjē/

Any person who owing to a well founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his/her nationality and is unable, or owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself/herself of theprotection of that country.

United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees (1951)

Monday, 6 May 13Australia is a signatory to 1951 Convention on Refugees.

An asylum seeker is someone who is waiting to have their claim for refugee status approved. If a person is found to be a genuine refugee, Australia (and all other signatories) are legally bound to offer protection and to ensure that theperson is not sent back unwillingly to a country in which they risk being persecuted.

This is called the principle of ‘non-refoulement’.

Background to Geneva Convention:

Written in the context of WW3 aftermath.

Geared towards a European public and never meant to cope with non-European (African, Asian etc.) immigration.

But, sharp rise in ethnic conflict - often fuelled by the West - in the Middle East (Iraq-Iran war, Palestinians…) or in Latin America (Chilean and Argentinian dictatorships…) or famine and conflict in various African countries - led to increase in people seeking refuge in the West.

Further increased since wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Asylum seeking in Australia also fuelled by the tensions in Sri Lanka and the dangers to the Tamil minority.

Numbers

Monday, 6 May 13Global figures:

S. Castles (2003): Global refugee population grew from 2.4 m in 1975 to 10.85m in 1985 and 14.9 m in 1993.

Declined to 12.1 m by 2000.

Climbed again over the decade.

8% increase in asylum applications in 2012.

Most applications made in Europe and US.

Australian figures:

Australia is of a lower order - 15,800 asylum applications in 2012. Compare with 64,500 in Germany or 83,400 in the US.

Internally displaced:

Most people who have been displaced due to war, famine, political persecution etc. do not leave their own countries or regions but are internally displaced (e.g. in refugee camps).

Grewock: In 2010, 4/5ths of the world refugee population live in the developing world.

[Click to reveal quote from UNHCR]

Global figures

Numbers







Australian figures:






Global figures

Australian figures

Numbers







Australian figures:






Global figures

Australian figures

Internally displaced people

Numbers







Australian figures:






Numbers

‘The number of asylum claims received across all industralised countries is still smaler than the population of Dadaab, a single refugee camp in north-east Kenya.’

UN High Commissioner for Refugees (2011)







Australian figures:






Monday, 6 May 13Refugee Council of Australia:

[Click 1] $1.058 b = total cost of the Government’s offshore asylum seeker management program.

[Click 2] This is a 247% increase on 2009-10.

$800 m = spent on detention alone.

$ 1.058 billionTotal Cost of offshore asylum management programme in 2011-12





$ 1.058 billionTotal Cost of offshore asylum management programme in 2011-12

247%increase on 2009-10





Theorizing forced migration?

Multiple push factor

Why a theory of forced migration?

Monday, 6 May 131. Multiple push factors:

Changing definition of what pushed people to flee.

Beyond traditional reasons - political persecution, war, famine, etc. - there are new factors:

Castles mentions:

- Environmental factors - ‘development projects such as dams, airports, roads, luxury housing, conservation areas and game parks.’

Often affect poor or indigenous people more - World Bank says that there are 10,000 environmental refugees (in 2003). But Castles warns against this label - as the factors are economic and political as well as purely environmental (i.e. people without political power unable to resist, e.g. mining projects).

- Sex trafficking: growing demand in the industrialised north coupled with heavy migration controls increases the illegal ‘trade’ in prostitution (often affects women from conflict zones).

2. Why a theory of forced migration?

Castles (2003): it is not the numbers alone that make a theory necessary.In fact, only 2% of the world’s population are mobile. Most stay in their own localities. Given, global inequality, it is a wonder more people don’t migrate.

A theory is necessary because of (a) the reasons for which people move and (b) the growing criminalisation of asylum seeking (despite being enshrined in law).

Next slides:

1. A discussion of Bauman’s discussion of ‘glocalisation’ - the fact that, today, ‘the riches are global, the misery is local’ - being able to move is itself a coveted privilege. Under globalisation, only the rich can be mobile, everyone else is stuck. So when poor people - or people perceived as poor - they are deemed de facto illegitimate.

2. The criminalisation of the right to seek asylum and the production of anti-asylum seeker sentiment - the role of politics and the media.

Worthy lives, Wasted lives

Monday, 6 May 13Migration seems to have become intensified during globalisation (era since the 1970s defined by the interconnectedness of economic and political structures at a global level).

Many have pointed out that, under globalisation goods and money flow freely while the movement of people is constrained.

Z. Bauman: to understand globalisation, it is better to see it is a two-way process - for some the world is becoming more global, while for the majority it is becoming more local.

Glocalization

Zygmunt Bauman argues that globalization can be described as the ‘new world disorder’.

In globalised times, no one seems to be in control, there is no one centre of power, the world has become a man-made wilderness.

Bauman thinks that we should speak of glocalization rather than globalization. This describes the way in which global processes are translated for a local context. Globalization is not about cultural uniformity, but the increasing choice from a variety of possibilities available to us through the increase in knowledge about the world.

However, not everyone benefits from this. In fact, while globalization has allowed the rich to make more money more quickly, two-thirds of the world has actually lost out due to globalization.

Those who benefit from globalization live in time rather than space. They are not constrained by their geographical location because their wealth allows them to move freely.

In contrast, those who lose out are stuck in space. As Bauman puts it, ‘in their time, nothing ever happens’ because they do not have the ability to move as they please.

So globalization and localization should be seen as two sides of the same coin.

Bauman refers to the first (rich, global) group as tourists and the second (poor, local) group as vagabonds.

Tourists become wanderers because they want to. It doesn’t matter to them if they have no fixed home because their wealth allows them to enjoy all that is good about the world and permits them to feel at home anywhere. This might apply to bankers, international business-people, ‘ex-pats’, some international students...

But, not all wanderers move out of choice. They move because they have to. This could apply to migrant workers, many of whom migrate within their own countries (e.g. in China) because multinational companies have set up industrial centres in particular regions. Because work is scarce in their home towns/villages, they are forced to migrate.

Bauman refers to this group as vagabonds. “The vagabonds are the waste of the world which has dedicated itself to tourist services” (Bauman 1998: 47).

Wasted lives:

Globalisation can be defined as excess - the parts of the world with the smallest number of people consume the most (energy, food, etc.). We require the rest of the world in order to be wealthy. It is because the majority of the world has less that we have more.

Bauman’s example - Overpopulation has become a very big topic for those concerned with the sustainability of the planet. But although people in the majority world have more children, it is the rich countries that are actually more heavily populated.

Holland is the one of the most heavily populated countries in the world (1,100 people per square mile as opposed to 55 in Africa).

Holland imports cheap foods (beans, peas, lentils...) from poorer countries to feed cattle which it then exports as meat and dairy at a very high price.

Bauman: ‘rich nations can afford a high density of population because they... draw resources... from the rest of the world.’

When poor countries are further impoverished because of this, our reaction is to want to stop their populations from coming into ours to share in the wealth we have made. There is no understanding that under globalisation, the fact that we are wealthy is dependent on the fact that we can exploit the resources of the rest of the world.

The reason there has been an increase in people seeking asylum since 2002, is at least in part due to wars waged by the West on countries like Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya.

Globalisation is about interconnected processes. Effects of events in one part of the world are increasingly felt in other parts.

Falling from the skyMonday, 6 May 13Guardian UK report (25.4.2013):‘A young man whose body was found on a pavement in west London almost certainly died after stowing away inside the landing gear of a British Airways flight from Angola in a desperate attempt to make a new life in the UK, an inquest has heard.José Matada was either dead or at the point of death due to hypothermia and lack of oxygen when he fell from the plane as its undercarriage opened for its descent into Heathrow airport, west London coroners court was told.He died on his 26th birthday, with a single pound coin in his pocket, as well as currency from Botswana. He is believed to have originally come from Mozambique, but authorities have been unable to trace any family or official confirmation of his identity.His body was found on the pavement of Portman Avenue, in East Sheen, an affluent west London suburb, shortly before 7.45am on 9 September last year, just after flight BA76 from Luanda, the Angolan capital, passed overhead.’

In ‘Falling from the Sky’ (2010), Les Back describes a number of other similar events, in 2001 and 2002. On one occasion, a driver saw a body falling from the sky, but no one was ever found.

Clearly, people are taking desperate measures to get to their destination of choice.

In Australia, people take voyages on overcrowded and unseaworthy boats. In Europe, asylum seekers cling to the undercarriage of the high-speed Eurostar train into the tunnel across the English channel.In 2009, the French government dismantled a camp in the port city of Calais, known as ‘the jungle’, where migrants camped waiting for their chance to cross to the UK in this way.

Despite this, people keep finding ways to get in.

Nevertheless, there seems to be a disconnect between these human stories of bravery and desperation and the ability to extend empathy.

Les Back suggests this is because the words ‘immigrant’ and ‘immigration’ have become loaded with negativity (as we shall see in the next slide).

Around 150,000 migrant visas are granted to Australia each year. However, only around 14,000 asylum seekers are granted protection visas. While people are waiting to have their claims for asylum assessed, they are not allowed to work.

Despite popular opinion, many asylum seekers are highly skilled. The only thing that separates them from migrants entering through a migrant worker visa programme (e.g. 457) is the perception of illegality.

How is this perception of illegality achieved?

Producing illegality

Monday, 6 May 13Introduce and explain the two pictures.

Since the late 1990s, it has become commonplace to link asylum seekers with criminality, sponging, and increasingly with terrorism.

Criminality: Two aspects

1. Seeking asylum is increasingly portrayed as illegal. In fact it is not illegal to seek asylum whatever the means of transport used to get into a country.

2. Asylum seekers themselves are portrayed as criminals, or potential criminals. This can be seen in calls for communities to be told about asylum seekers living in their areas (as one would for sex offenders).

Sponging:

Asylum seekers are seen as freeloaders.British tabloid press describes them as ‘bogus asylum seekers’, or ‘economic migrants in disguise’. They are widely believed to be making up stories to be granted refugee status.

However, the difficulty of getting refugee status makes this unlikely in the majority of cases.

Stephen Castles: there a variety of push factors, causing people to become forced migrants, which can include economic hardship. He advocates for seeing the line between forced and voluntary migrants as much more blurred than allowed for by the system.

Consider the case of people dispossessed by natural disasters or dam building etc. causing them to lose their livelihoods. They may not face political persecution, but a government decision (i.e. to allow a business to encroach on their lands and livelihood) has directly resulted in them having to flee.

Asylum seekers are not allowed to work, so while their claims are being processed, they are paid for through the state. However, they do not access benefits in the same way as citizens or residents. Once they are granted refugee status, they have access to the same rights and benefits as anyone else (not more, often less considering discrimination against them making it more difficult for them to get work).

Terrorism:

As Stephen Castles has observed, 'following the events of 11 September 200I, refugees have been branded as a sinister transnational threat to national security - even though none of the 11 September terrorists were actually refugees or asylum seekers.'

Bauman: two fears are enmeshed in this Sun newspaper headline: ‘'We have an open invitation to terrorists to live off our benefits.'

How does the media achieve this divide between legality and illegality in immigration? Why are some migrants alright and other not?

Bauman: An article in a British newspaper written by the then Home Secretary about the myths about asylum seekers and terrorism was placed opposite a report about the shooting of a police-office while arresting an immigrant suspect.

This plants the idea that all immigrants are dangerous criminals, although the two stories are unrelated.

Bauman: growth in fear of asylum seekers and immigrants becomes acute with growing fear for the security of the population, due to the retraction of the state (less investment in social security, etc.) and the increase in job insecurity.

Immigrants become easy targets for our fear. They remind us of who we once were or who we fear becoming.

[reveal quote]

In an era of globalisation, when governments have less and less control over their own affairs, being tough with the weakest in society (e,g. asylum seekers) allows governments to appear strong, it also gives the appearance of having control over one’s own territory (border control) in an age when less and less is actually decided within any one border (e.g. global economic crisis affects everywhere).

As Bauman puts it, ‘the figure of the 'asylum seeker', once prompting human compassion and spurring an urge to help, has been sullied and defiled, while the very idea of 'asylum', once a matter of civil and civilized pride, has been reclassified as a dreadful concoction of shameful naivety and criminal irresponsibility.’

Producing illegalityThere is a sort of 'elective affinity' between immigrants (that human waste of distant parts of the globe unloaded into 'our own backyard') and the least bearable of our own, home-grown fears. When all places and positions feel shaky and are deemed no longer reliable, the sight of immigrants rubs salt into the wound. Immigrants, and particularly the fresh arrivals among them, exude the faint odour of the waste disposal tip which in its many disguises haunts thenights of the prospective casualties of rising vulnerability. For their detractors and haters, immigrants embody - visibly, tangibly, in the flesh - the inarticulate yet hurtful and painful presentiment of their own disposability. One is tempted to say that were there no immigrants knocking at the doors, they would have to be invented...’

Zygmunt Bauman (2004)

Monday, 6 May 13Introduce and explain the two pictures.

Since the late 1990s, it has become commonplace to link asylum seekers with criminality, sponging, and increasingly with terrorism.

Criminality: Two aspects

1. Seeking asylum is increasingly portrayed as illegal. In fact it is not illegal to seek asylum whatever the means of transport used to get into a country.

2. Asylum seekers themselves are portrayed as criminals, or potential criminals. This can be seen in calls for communities to be told about asylum seekers living in their areas (as one would for sex offenders).

Sponging:

Asylum seekers are seen as freeloaders.British tabloid press describes them as ‘bogus asylum seekers’, or ‘economic migrants in disguise’. They are widely believed to be making up stories to be granted refugee status.

However, the difficulty of getting refugee status makes this unlikely in the majority of cases.

Stephen Castles: there a variety of push factors, causing people to become forced migrants, which can include economic hardship. He advocates for seeing the line between forced and voluntary migrants as much more blurred than allowed for by the system.

Consider the case of people dispossessed by natural disasters or dam building etc. causing them to lose their livelihoods. They may not face political persecution, but a government decision (i.e. to allow a business to encroach on their lands and livelihood) has directly resulted in them having to flee.

Asylum seekers are not allowed to work, so while their claims are being processed, they are paid for through the state. However, they do not access benefits in the same way as citizens or residents. Once they are granted refugee status, they have access to the same rights and benefits as anyone else (not more, often less considering discrimination against them making it more difficult for them to get work).

Terrorism:

As Stephen Castles has observed, 'following the events of 11 September 200I, refugees have been branded as a sinister transnational threat to national security - even though none of the 11 September terrorists were actually refugees or asylum seekers.'

Bauman: two fears are enmeshed in this Sun newspaper headline: ‘'We have an open invitation to terrorists to live off our benefits.'

How does the media achieve this divide between legality and illegality in immigration? Why are some migrants alright and other not?

Bauman: An article in a British newspaper written by the then Home Secretary about the myths about asylum seekers and terrorism was placed opposite a report about the shooting of a police-office while arresting an immigrant suspect.

This plants the idea that all immigrants are dangerous criminals, although the two stories are unrelated.

Bauman: growth in fear of asylum seekers and immigrants becomes acute with growing fear for the security of the population, due to the retraction of the state (less investment in social security, etc.) and the increase in job insecurity.

Immigrants become easy targets for our fear. They remind us of who we once were or who we fear becoming.

[reveal quote]

In an era of globalisation, when governments have less and less control over their own affairs, being tough with the weakest in society (e,g. asylum seekers) allows governments to appear strong, it also gives the appearance of having control over one’s own territory (border control) in an age when less and less is actually decided within any one border (e.g. global economic crisis affects everywhere).

As Bauman puts it, ‘the figure of the 'asylum seeker', once prompting human compassion and spurring an urge to help, has been sullied and defiled, while the very idea of 'asylum', once a matter of civil and civilized pride, has been reclassified as a dreadful concoction of shameful naivety and criminal irresponsibility.’

Tutorial QuestionsAsylum Myths

List prevalent myths about asylum seekers and refugees.

What are the counter arguments?

How are ‘moral panics’ about asylum seekers and refugees created?

Why have societal attitudes towards refugees changed so dramatically over the last two decades?

Monday, 6 May 13

11 asylum

Documents

global refugee population

asylum applications

world refugee population

refugee camps

refugee status

genuine refugee

global guresnumbersmonday

developing world