Imagined Foreignness and the Refugee Crisis
The above image was recently released by the Australian government as part of ‘Operation Sovereign Borders’, the campaign which has been running since September 2013 to prevent asylum seekers from arriving in Australia by boat (1). This campaign is marketed as the essential defence of Australia’s borders and as protecting the country from ‘illegal’ asylum seekers, but I believe the campaign to be a violation of human rights. ‘Operation Sovereign Borders’ and the ideology behind it is an extreme example of the flaws in our modern conception of national identity and of the expansion of the concept of security. I argue that this advertisement emphasises the divide between who is and isn’t considered Australian, and the flaws of such an exclusive definition of nationality.
The Australian government often fails to recognise the human rights of asylum seekers. Refugees are stateless people, they are people who have been forced to leave their homes, their possessions and often their families due to unsafe conditions in their countries. They do not belong to any state, and so their rights are liable to be overlooked or abused as they have no protectorate. Current Australian law declares that all non-citizens without a visa be ‘processed’ offshore and detained indefinitely until a visa decision is made (2). To hold anyone indefinitely is a violation of human rights, and Amnesty International calls for the Australian government to change their policy so that after an initial (and defined) processing period asylum seekers are integrated into the community (3). The logic behind Australia’s detention policy for asylum seekers is that such people (without visas) are illegally residing in the country. However both the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the United Nations Refugee Convention state that people are legally allowed to enter Australia (or any country) if they are seeking asylum (4, 5). The right to seek asylum and freedom from indefinite detention are fundamental human rights, both of which are articulated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which Australia has ratified (4). Furthermore, Amnesty points out that asylum seekers arriving by boat make up less than 3% of Australia’s annual immigration, which crystalizes how extreme Operation Sovereign Borders is (3).
When we investigate the logic behind Operation Sovereign Borders questions of nationality arise. Why is it that an Australian can live unquestioningly in that territory but another person cannot? What makes an Australian Australian? Where a person is born has such an impact on their life; it determines their opportunities to healthcare and education, their safety, and their quality of life. A person could be born on one side of the US/Mexico border and have access to education, clean drinking water and legal representation, and a person born just a few meters away, on the other side of the border, could be denied these rights simply because of where they were born. This to me is ridiculous, yet the notion of territoriality is fundamental to our conception of national identity. If not by their birth within a territory, how else does a person become a citizen? National identities are exclusive definitions, by defining an ‘us’ we by default create a ‘them’. Benedict Anderson introduced the theory of the nation-state as an ‘imagined community’, he argues that because we cannot actually know all the people in our state, the sense of community and nationhood we feel binds us – to other Canadians, say – is imagined (6). Therefore by extension the exclusion of others, the definition of ‘foreign’, is also imagined, and can be expanded to include whomever we want. I believe that it is high time to see this realised in regards to the refugee crisis on Australia’s shores as well as on a global scale. As of January 2013, there were more than 10 million refugees around the world, which is something that must be changed (7).
The title of the campaign is interesting to me; ‘Operation Sovereign Borders’ suggests that refugees seeking asylum in Australia threaten the sovereignty and security of the country. One would think that a refugee – an individual possessing literally nothing except what they carry, backed by no one – would be one of the least-threatening figures imaginable. That they are not is a statement of the modern age that we live in, where threats to security are far broader than traditional military threats. In this world refugees can threaten a state’s security, by draining their economy and taking up space and other resources. However, I also believe that strong, wealthy states such as Australia are obligated to take in refugees, in the same way that wealthier individuals are obligated to help the poorer. Simply put, while it may be a cost to yourself, it is the right thing to do. While this may not be the strongest political statement, I genuinely believe that it is the only logic that should be necessary to justify foreign policy regarding refugees. The above advertisement declares that ‘no matter who you are or where you are from, you will not make Australia home’. This clearly demonstrates Australia’s reluctance to expand their notions of naitonality; people who are born in Australia or to Australian parents are by default Australian citizens, and there is ‘NO WAY’ anyone else will be able to live in their country and enjoy their public goods. Australia here is comparable to the child who refuses to share their toys because the other kids aren’t cool enough to play, except in this reality it is life-sustaining resources that are being denied, on the basis of imagined notions of nationality.
1 –
Australian Government,. (2014). Operation Sovereign Borders Poster. Retrieved from http://www.customs.gov.au/site/Translations/english.asp
2
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Australia: Act No. 62 of 1958, Migration Act 1958 – Volume 1 [Australia], 8 October 1958, available at: http://www.refworld.org/docid/4e23f3962.html [accessed 16 October 2014] |
3
Amnesty Australia,. (2014). Our campaign for refugees and asylum seekers. Retrieved 16 October 2014, from http://www.amnesty.org.au/refugees/comments/24019/
4
Un.org,. (2014). The Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Retrieved 16 October 2014, from http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/
5
UNHCR,. (2014). Convention and Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees. Retrieved 16 October 2014, from http://www.unhcr.org/3b66c2aa10.html
6
Anderson, B. (1991). Imagined communities (1st ed.). London: Verso.
7
UNHCR,. (2014). UNHCR 2014 – 15, Populations of Concern to UNHCR, available at: http://www.unhcr.org/528a0a0fe.html [accessed 15 October 2014]