Citizenship and Government - Projects

Political asylum, minority rights and citizenship

A Swinburne University Strategic Initiative

Peter Mares, Peter Browne, Klaus Neumann and Glenn Nicholls

Over the past four years Australia has seen an intense debate over the rights of refugees and asylum seekers. Yet this debate has been surprisingly narrow, focusing on the relatively small number of individuals, mainly from Afghanistan, Iraq and Iran, arriving in Australia by boat. These arrivals comprise a tiny percentage of total movements of people around the world as a result of individual persecution, war, famine and other forms of disruption. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees considers nearly 21 million people to fall within his area of responsibility. Although Australia has been criticised internationally for its treatment of boat people, it is one of only eight countries –the "resettlement countries" –which take refugees in any significant numbers through the UNHCR's resettlement program. But, in common with most of the resettlement countries, Australia's refugee intake has been crisis-driven, responding to emergencies in Eastern Europe and Central Asia rather than to protracted situations in other parts of the world, especially in Africa. Recently, however, the federal government has announced a new commitment to taking refugees from Africa, the site of the largest populations of long-term refugees.

With the number of detainees in Australia now quite small, the opportunity exists to promote an informed debate about the size and character of Australia's refugee intake, how it relates to our broader migration program, and how Australia can play a more positive role in the development of international agreements, policies and programs. In particular, there is a need to examine the ways in which different communities in Australia have responded to arrivals of refugees and other migrant groups, how host countries in the developing world are coping with much larger refugee and immigration flows, and what factors influence the decision of refugees and other emigrants to leave their home country.

In response to these issues, researchers within the Citizenship and Government program will conduct a three-year study of the political, social and institutional resources which are necessary to manage global population flows and the responses to them. Our research will locate questions concerning political asylum and minority rights in the broader context of debate concerning the future of multiculturalism and liberal pluralism. Through visiting fellows, the project will establish collaborative research links with academic centres in the UK, Europe and North America. These visits will be a focus for workshops and discussions with Australian researchers, government agencies, and NGOs and non-profit bodies.