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.