Cirrus@Austlit

'Asylum seekers to Australia in the early twenty-first century have been largely depicted in the national press as an anonymous threat demanding military action and offshore detention. Australia’s responses to asylum seekers have taken place within a paranoid atmosphere of a nation under siege. This essay examines the negative narratives regarding asylum seekers in Australia and the historical and cultural structures they are built upon. The essay suggests eyewitness accounts as a way to pierce the blanketing anonymity of asylum seekers in the media and traces some of the methods made possible by social media and corresponding networks to bring these narratives to the public at large.'(Publication abstract)

'Ideas of Australia being invaded by a foreign ‘Other’ have been present throughout much of its history and this legacy is still present today. My paper will reveal the red thread of control that runs through Australia’s attitude and policy towards asylum seekers since European arrival. Claims of current restrictions against asylum seekers being mere Islamophobia ignore this history. From the grudging admission of Jewish refugees during times of Nazi oppression to quotas placed on certain nationalities and later draconian punishments for those claiming asylum without a prior visa, control of the ‘Other’ has been a constant theme, with current policies of mandatory detention and off shore processing on far away Pacific islands separating the Australian ‘Self’ from the foreign ‘Other.’'  (Publication abstract)