Category: Immigration

  • I am ashamed to be Australian.

    I decided to become a photojournalist to help refugees tell their stories, and to show their plight.  I was stunned by the lack of compassion and the outright racism I saw in my countrymen.  I was angry as only a teenager can be with the politicians who fanned the flames of xenophobia.  (more…)

  • RAMESH THAKUR. AHRC President Gillian Triggs: a year of living dangerously. Part 2 of 3.

    Asylum seekers and children in detention

    There are four separate issues that typically get lumped into one confusing debate: the policies on asylum seekers, boats turnback and offshore detention; and the treatment of detainees.  (more…)

  • Australia’s Death by Numbers

    The dead refugee had a name. But even in death Australia did not want to humanize him. For years now he had been no more than a registration number — BRF063 — under the country’s cruel refugee deterrence system known as “offshore processing.”  (more…)

  • WALTER HAMILTON. Japan’s New Blood

    The Australian servicemen who left behind mixed-race children during the postwar Occupation of Japan set in motion changes that are chipping away at a nation’s stubborn myth of racial homogeneity.   (more…)

  • Broken men in paradise.


    ‘The world’s refugee crisis knows no more sinister exercise in cruelty than Australia’s island prisons.’

    In this long, searing account in the New York Times, Op-ed columnist, Roger Cohen, describes what he found on a recent visit to Manus Island. (more…)

  • ROBERT MANNE. Yes Virginia, there is a solution to Australia’s asylum-seeker problem.

    A new chapter of humanly decent policy with regard to asylum seekers, more reflective of the many fine and generous impulses in our history of welcoming refugees, can at long last be opened.  For pity’s sake, let it be.

    (more…)

  • HENRY SHERRELL, PETER MARES & ANNA BOUCHER. Another obstacle on the road to citizenship?

    Making migrants ‘provisional’ risks Australia’s multicultural success. (more…)

  • Shakespeare on refugees, strangers and inhumanity.

    In a series of speeches written by Shakespeare, Thomas More makes the argument for the humane treatment of those forced to seek asylum after being expelled from their homeland. This is a repost from August 23, 2016.   (more…)

  • JOHN MENADUE. Series: We can say ‘no’ to the Americans. How the Fraser Government said ‘no’ on Chile and El Salvador.

    In 1982, when I was Secretary of the Department of Immigration and Ethnic Affairs, the Fraser Government ignored the pressure from the US that we should not help people in South America suffering at the hands of US-supported military governments. (more…)

  • FRANK BRENNAN SJ. Will the refugee deal with the US come off?

    IF United States President-elect Donald Trump decides not to honour an agreement to accept refugees from Nauru and Manus Island then they should be settled permanently in Australia, Jesuit theologian and lawyer Fr Frank Brennan says. (more…)

  • BOB KINNAIRD. Indian IT professionals on rock bottom 457 wages undermine Turnbull’s ‘innovation’ dream

    The Coalition’s cheap labour 457 visa wage policy is destroying jobs for young Australians lured into studying IT courses under the Turnbull government’s high profile ‘Innovation’ push… Indian 457 visa IT workers are being approved at much lower rates than experienced Australian IT professionals and even new IT graduates. (more…)

  • Aung San Suu Kyi’s government appears unable – or unwilling – to halt what some describe as ‘ethnic cleansing’.

    The Rohingya in Myanmar are facing increasing attacks and harassment. Australia and the region must be prepared to respond.  (more…)

  • Asia Dialogue on Forced Migration – the desperate situation of Rohingya in Myanmar.

    Situation in Rakhine State in Myanmar of grave concern – the region must be on high alert. Mass displacement inevitable if violence continues to escalate. (more…)

  • ANDREW MARKUS. Australians more alarmed about state of politics than impact of migration and minorities.

    There is no shortage of expert commentary on current shifts in public opinion, understood as a revolt against political elites.

    Within Europe and the United States interpretations are supported by the British vote to leave the European Union, the increasing popularity of far-right parties campaigning on anti-immigration and nationalist platforms, and the success of Donald Trump in winning the US presidency.

    In Australia, commentators point to instability in politics, elections that fail to return clear majorities, the loss of office of first-term governments in Queensland and Victoria, growing minor party representation in the Senate, and public unease at immigration policy and the Muslim presence. (more…)

  • IAN MACPHEE. Peter Dutton has it wrong on Malcolm Fraser.

    The attack by Immigration Minister, Peter Dutton, on Malcolm Fraser’s refugee policies is outrageous. We have had a succession of inadequate immigration ministers in recent years but Dutton is setting the standards even lower. Yet, Turnbull recently declared him to be “an outstanding immigration minister”. The Liberal Party has long ceased to be liberal.

    Dutton’s attack on Fraser’s refugee policies grabbed headlines he had hoped for. The SMH headline was “Peter Dutton attacks Malcolm Fraser’s refugee legacy”. The Australian’s was: “Peter Dutton says Malcolm Fraser’s immigration policy to blame for crime gangs.” These were the headlines that Dutton must have wished for after his interview with the extremist Andrew Bolt on Sky News. (more…)

  • JOHN MENADUE. Peter Dutton has got it wrong in blaming Malcolm Fraser on refugees.

     

    This is a slightly edited text of an interview with Elizabeth Jackson on The Saturday AM program on ABC radio on 19 November 2016-11-19

    ELIZABETH JACKSON: The former head of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet and former secretary of the Department of Immigration and Ethnic Affairs has hit back at comments from the Immigration Minister, Peter Dutton, that Australia is now paying for the mistakes of former prime minister Malcolm Fraser.

    In a television interview Mr Dutton said Malcolm Fraser made mistakes in bringing some people to Australia the 1970s and he said, “We’re seeing that today.”

    Mr Dutton said many foreign fighters getting involved in conflict zones were the children or grandchildren of migrants who came in the 1970s.

    John Menadue was a senior public servant under both Gough Whitlam and Malcolm Fraser in the 1970s and in the 1980s in the Immigration portfolio.

    I asked John Menadue whether Australia was, in fact, now paying for Malcolm Fraser’s mistakes. (more…)

  • JOHN MENADUE. Donald Trump – a false prophet and implications for Australia.

     

    Trump prides himself in being a change-agent, but he really wants to restore the past and protect privilege. He will also do a great deal of social damage.

    Analysis of the US election tells us that many American ‘working class whites’ were sick of elites, whether they were in business, the media, Wall St, the banks, political parties, government and Washington with all of its special interests. These Americans in the rust belt states around the Great Lakes felt that the elites were not listening to them and that the political left was more concerned about culture wars and gender politics than the dignity of work. They knew that globalization and trade agreements brought great benefits for the 1%, but they were left behind. (more…)

  • FRANK BRENNAN SJ. A Welcome Deal and an Acceptable Legislative Compromise

     

    The Turnbull government has struck a deal with the USA which provides hope at last for the 1600 proven refugees on Manus Island and Nauru. There’s still a lot of work to be done before these refugees, including children, can get on with their lives after three years of unnecessary, hopeless agony. I welcome the government’s decision, and await the further detail.

    Sunday’s announcement was packaged in the usual Canberra wrapping with lots of military brass, restating the need to smash people smuggling rings, keeping the boats stopped, and turning back boats when it is safe and legal to do so. No boats have arrived in the last 840 days. 29 boats have been turned back. (more…)

  • JOHN MENADUE. A refugee swap with the US to end the horror of refugees in Manus and Nauru may be on the cards!

     

    I hope that this is so but it may not be straightforward.

    There is history in such a swap that journalists and others should be aware of.

    In its last year the Howard Government negotiated with the USA what came to be called the Mutual Assistance Arrangement .It was 1 to 1 resettlement. Australia agreed to resettle Cubans who had been intercepted at sea (that is they had not made landfall on US territory) and transferred to the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base. In return the US agreed to resettle people found to be refugees who were in Nauru.

    While the population in Guantanamo Bay also consisted of Haitians the US had a separate arrangement with Canada for their resettlement. Canada would not resettle the Cubans as they were technically still on Cuban territory and therefore were not considered to be refugees.  (more…)

  • TESSA MORRIS-SUZUKI. Trump: it’s time to go back to basics.

     

    The election of billionaire and reality TV host Donald Trump to the most powerful political position in the world has created global shockwaves. As countless commentators have already observed, Trump’s election is a stunning reminder of the depth of social division in the United States. For millions of Americans, particularly in the rust-belt states and rural areas, Trump’s candidacy provided a golden opportunity to stick a finger up at the political establishment that has so long neglected their needs and anxieties. And the more outrageous his statements, the better he became a symbol of that finger. (more…)

  • IAN MARSH. Trump’s Victory and Australian Politics

     

    A new anti-globalisation surge.

    Trump’s ascension no doubt creates new agenda challenges for Australia. But his campaign generated so many diverse and inconsistent statements that the policy landscape remains obscure. What is crystal clear is the gulf between elite worldviews and large swathes of public opinion. Remember those panegyrics to economic globalisation: The World is Flat and The Golden Straightjacket? What now of Thomas Friedman’s assured analysis?

    Here is one potted reading of the past half century or so. Start with the mass party world. The parties drew their power and reach from class identity. Here is Ernest Bevin’s description of his (British) socialisation: ‘I had to work at ten years of age while my employer’s son went to the university until he was twenty. You have set out for me a different set of conditions. I was taught to bow to the squire and touch my hat to the parson; my employer’s son was not. All these things have produced within me an intense hatred, a hatred which has caused me to organise for my fellows and direct my mind to a policy to give to my class a power to control their own destiny and labour….At present employers and employed are too often separated by something akin to a barrier of “caste” …The operatives are frequently regarded by employers as being of a different and inferior order…So long as these views continue to exist they inevitably produce an intense class bitterness.’ (more…)

  • ROBERT MANNE. It’s Time

     

    The Turnbull government has recently introduced new asylum seeker legislation into parliament. It has two parts. The first part aims to prevent any asylum seeker who tried to reach Australia after July 19 2013, including those who have been found to be genuine refugees, from ever being allowed to settle in Australia. The second part aims at banning the adults in this cohort settled in another country from ever visiting Australia even on a tourist or a business visa.

    The first part of this proposal writes into law what has previously been a bipartisan political agreement. Turning this consensus into legislation has however three implications. (more…)

  • FRANK BRENNAN SJ. Dog-whistling again on asylum seekers.

     

    Labor has decided not to support the Turnbull government’s latest asylum bill which was announced in a most hamfisted way on the Sunday morning before last, and which contains very unacceptable overreach measures. So now it will be a matter for the Senate cross benchers. The Turnbull-Dutton bill is a disgraceful mishmash of dog whistle measures. (more…)

  • MUNGO MacCALLUM. Paranoia about boat people and manufactured demagogic outrage.

     

    There must surely be more to the government’s latest assault on the boat people than simply crude wedge politics and gratuitous cruelty; but if there is, the Prime Minister is not saying – at least not yet.

    This, of course, is part of a long-standing tradition. When and where asylum seekers are concerned, nothing is to be revealed unless it is absolutely necessary, and not always then.

    But Malcolm Turnbull’s announcement last week that anyone seeking to arrive to Australia by boat after July 2013 is now to be banned from our fair shores always and forever seems more than usually puzzling. The boats stopped two years ago. So the new move is not only sadistic: the image of a jackboot trampling on the faces of the already defeated and helpless is hard to avoid. It is also, as Bill Shorten equivocally avers, ridiculous; and worse, it is almost certainly unworkable. (more…)

  • PHIL GLENDENNING. We Need To End Australia’s Refugee Shame. Now

     

    ‘Human beings are never a means to an end. They are an end in themselves’. Emmanuel Kant’s words in the seventeenth century echo down the centuries in stark contrast to Australia’s treatment of asylum seekers and refugees on Nauru and Manus Island. The recent Four Corners program, The Forgotten Children gave Australians an all too rare opportunity to hear from the refugee children of Nauru themselves, and to see for ourselves what is being done in our name.

    Two days ago a young asylum seeker rose early, turned on his computer and read that the Government was preparing to ban all post-July 2013 boat arrivals from ever entering Australia under any circumstances. He went to his bathroom and swallowed a bottle of sleeping pills. He is one of the 30,000 asylum seekers in the community without rights or resolution to his case. (more…)

  • FRANK BRENNAN SJ. Turnbull’s Policy Challenge Wrapped in Turnbull Cant

     

    On Sunday morning, Malcolm Turnbull and Peter Dutton held a joint press conference to announce new legislation in relation to the asylum seekers who have been held on Nauru and Manus Island now for over three years.

    In this policy area, the perfect is the enemy of the good, and the prospect of a bipartisan approach on ‘means’ despite agreement on ‘ends’ has been slight since the Tampa affair in 2001. (more…)

  • JOHN NIEUWENHUYSEN. How Australian Political Leaders Can Abandon and Mistreat Asylum Seekers

     

    Living as a White youth in apartheid South Africa in the 1950’s, I often wondered how it was possible for a small minority to dominate and oppress the large majority of the population who were denied the vote because of the colour of their skins.

    Much of the answer lay, I believed, in the capacity of the apartheid system to separate the lives of the different racial groups and to ensure that when people met, it was always in the context of White master-Non-White servant relationships. Members of the different defined racial groups were thus hardly ever able to converse ordinarily and to learn of the lives and aspirations of their fellow South Africans of different skin colours. (more…)

  • ROBERT MANNE. How we came to be so cruel to asylum seekers.

    This is an edited extract of a talk delivered to the Integrity 20 Conference at Griffith University on October 25, 2016

    If you had been told 30 years ago that Australia would create the least asylum seeker friendly institutional arrangements in the world, you would not have been believed.

    In 1992 we introduced a system of indefinite mandatory detention for asylum seekers who arrive by boat. Since that time, we have accepted the idea that certain categories of refugees and asylum seekers can be imprisoned indefinitely; that those who are intercepted by our navy should be forcibly returned to the point of departure; that those who haven’t been able to be forcibly returned should be imprisoned indefinitely on remote Pacific Islands; and that those marooned on these island camps should never be allowed to settle in Australia even after several years.

    How then has this come to pass? There are two main ways of explaining this. (more…)

  • JOHN MENADUE. Our Working Holiday Programs have lost their way.

     

    I have been an advocate of Working Holiday Programs (WHPs) for over 40 years. These programs were an excellent opportunity to ‘foster closer ties and cultural exchanges between Australia and partner countries with particular emphasis on young adults.’. The programs were reciprocal.

    But the nature of WHP’s have changed dramatically in recent years. In Australia they have become mainly labor market and cheap labor programs.

    A recent report of the Fair Work Ombudsman has drawn attention to widespread exploitation and underpayment of working holiday makers.  (more…)

  • MUNGO MacCALLUM. Concealing crimes in Manus and Nauru.

     

    Those eminent jurists Malcolm Turnbull and George Brandis are normally very careful with the words they use; indeed, Brandis did his best to bore a senate committee rigid as he spent many minutes explaining exactly what he meant by the term “consult.”

    But in spite of their learning and erudition, our latter day Perry Masons seem unable to distinguish between the difference between “refute” (which is the one they constantly use) and “rebut” (which what they presumably mean). (more…)