Suchergebnisse

"This book offers an ethnographically-informed critique of the hyper-politicized debate on the facilitation of irregularised migration for people seeking asylum between Indonesia and Australia. While state authorities decry such facilitation as 'people smuggling' and push for its criminalisation, the book's focal points are: the need for unsanctioned passages for people seeking asylum and the detrimental consequences of the criminalisation of 'people smuggling' for both the facilitators and the people seeking asylum. Drawing on court verdicts and interviews with convicted facilitators and law enforcement officials in Indonesia, this book provides a unique and holistic picture of the causes, conditions, procedures and intricacies surrounding the facilitation of irregularised maritime journeys between Indonesia and Australia covering almost four decades. It scrutinises the micro-level operational and place-specific characteristics of people smuggling and the consequences of anti-people-smuggling policies in Indonesia and relates those consequences to changes in the macro-environment, which include relevant legal, political, social and economic factors that determine the overarching conditions of irregularised mobility. Compared to other states in the global north, Australia has claimed to be more 'successful' with its comprehensive approach to eliminate unsanctioned migration at sea by combining punitive, communicative-preventative and interceptive measures. This book challenges key achievements and objectives in regard to criminalising the facilitation of irregularised migration by foregrounding the many negative side-effects that have emanated from 'stopping the boats'. The book will be of interest to researchers in the fields of anthropology and sociology, law and criminology, Asia-Pacific Studies, Southeast Asian Studies and international migration"--

"The socio-political activities of the Acehnese diaspora, located mainly in Malaysia, Scandinavia, the USA and Australia, has been of fundamental importance to conflict and politics within Aceh. The intensity of the relations between the diaspora and the homeland was mainly determined by the conflict that afflicted the region between 1976 and 2005, and the resulting hardship was experienced by Acehnese both at home and abroad. This book looks at the thirty years of long-distance politics exercised by the Acehnese diaspora. It interprets the social, political and cultural aspects of the small-scale conflict in Aceh, as well as focusing on the external factors related to the Acehnese overseas and their impact on homeland politics. The book goes on to contribute to the argument that the Acehnese diaspora had a significant impact on those who remained in Aceh. By focusing on the triangular relationships between the homeland, the host countries and the Acehnese diaspora, the book draws attention to the exchange of people, ideas, and financial and material resources that has occurred."--

Buchbesprechung von:Genia Findeisen, Kristina Großmann und Nicole Weydmann (Hg.), Herausforderungen für Indonesiens Demokratie: Bilanz und Perspektiven. Regiospectra, Berlin 2010, 236 Seiten, ISBN 978-3-940132-13-0.

Recent research has found that since 2001 a disproportionate number of Indonesian offenders sentenced to jail for people smuggling, both in Indonesia and Australia, are fishermen from Eastern Indonesia, the poorest part of the country. Based on three field trips to the Eastern Indonesian island of Rote, a frequent departure point for asylum seekers to Australia, and semi-structured interviews, this article investigates the socio-economic backgrounds of sentenced offenders from this area to explain their high numbers amongst imprisoned people smugglers. Through the narratives of fishermen who have been involved in the transport of asylum seekers, this article seeks to reconstruct their decision-making and risk-taking strategies in light of their generally precarious lives. Their motivations to become involved in people smuggling are correlated with two structural problems they face, overfishing and pollution, which have exacerbated their economic situation over the last years. Understanding the local structural constraints of these impoverished fishermen helps provide a clearer understanding of why and how transnational people-smuggling networks succeed in recruiting them. Rather than viewing the decision to become involved in people smuggling as an individual's poor judgement and its negative outcome as self-inflicted misery, this article stresses the notion of collective hyper-precariousness, which is enhanced by extrinsic factors such as Australian policies that have further limited the meagre choices for making a living legally on Rote. (Pac Aff/GIGA)

After the end of almost thirty years of armed conflict in 2005 and following a devastating tsunami in 2004, Aceh has become a "social laboratory" for foreign researchers who study Indonesia's northern-most province from every angle. Over the last five years, this effort has resulted in the publication of a considerable number of articles in major journals. For some foreign researchers, Aceh became a fast track accelerating their careers. Yet, how much did local Acehnese researchers benefit from being at the center of this scholarly attention, and how much were they able to participate in academic debates? To answer these questions, this article examines the involvement of Acehnese scholars in the process of knowledge production in and about contemporary Aceh. One of the key findings is that local researchers are often involved in data collection, but left out from its analysis and interpretation due to a general lack of structural conditions for publishing, such as under-funding, lack of access to major academic literature, and language barriers. Embedding this inquiry about research cooperation and competition in wider debates about representation and academic development support, this article stresses critical evaluations of current academic ventures. Moreover, Aceh as a post-conflict/tsunami site illustrates the enormous difficulties that developing countries such as Indonesia face in tertiary education and academic research. Long-standing structural imbalances responsible for uneven research outcomes cannot disappear overnight or only as a result of foreign educational initiatives. Nevertheless, this article introduces a specific example of short-term academic collaboration named Aceh Research Training Institute (ARTI)-a flicker of hope in an otherwise rather unpromising situation. (Crit As Stud/GIGA)

Australia is a sought-after destination for international students, including from countries of the Global South such as Indonesia. Prior to the pandemic, the tertiary education of international students was its second largest export. At the onset of the pandemic, Australia's Prime Minister told international students they should return home immediately, warning them that they would not be supported by the government if they chose to stay. Throughout 2020 and 2021, Australian media outlets offered shocking reports and images of international students who had lost their homes and were queuing at soup kitchens. Experts feared that these images and the overall treatment of international students would do long-lasting damage not only to the education sector but also to Australia's people-to-people relations overseas. In this article, we explore the destinies of postgraduate students from Indonesia during the pandemic in Australia. As Indonesia's closest neighbor, Australia is the preferred destination for Indonesian students studying abroad and Australia has targeted Indonesia as a growth market in recent years. Based on qualitative interview data, we offer a picture of how this cohort of international students "muddled through" the pandemic. We ask what damage may have been done by the Australian government's closure of its international borders and strict pandemic restrictions to its reputation as a welcoming country and center of educational excellence. What consequences might there be for this vital Indonesia–Australia relationship, in particular, and for the future of student and broader university engagement between the two countries? Our findings show a much more optimistic outlook than expected. (ASEAS/GIGA)

Kutupalong - which, located near Cox's Bazar in Bangladesh, is the biggest refugee camp in the world with an estimated 700,000 inhabitants - has just witnessed its first coronavirus death. The 71-year-old victim was among at least 29 Rohingya refugees in the camp who had recently tested positive for the virus. The death of the refugee has increased concerns that the deadly virus could spread rapidly through refugee camps in Bangladesh, which are home to an estimated 1 million refugees. Observers also fear that the coronavirus outbreak could create panic in the camps and induce more Rohingya to seek refuge in Indonesia and Malaysia by crossing the Andaman Sea in boats. Malaysia and Indonesia are refusing to allow the passengers of any such boats to disembark over fears that they could be carrying the virus. According to official statements, Malaysia has turned back 22 boats since May 2020. In the second week of June, 269 Rohingya were detained in Malaysia after their vessel had reportedly been intentionally damaged, thus thwarting efforts to push it back to sea. These recent events have exacerbated fears that the current situation could turn into another Andaman Sea refugee crisis.

Eine Form der Migration ist die erzwungene Migration und einer der Gründe für die erzwungene Migration ist die politisch begründete Flucht. Ein Teil der Führungsriege der Unabhängigkeitsbewegung Gerakan Aceh Merdeka (GAM, Bewegung Freies Aceh) ist Ende der 1970er Jahre aus Aceh geflohen. Insbesondere seit Ende der 80er Jahre hat die Zahl der acehnesischen Flüchtlinge zugenommen

"Since 2008, the number of asylum seekers and refugees trying to reach Australia from Indonesia by boat has increased. With many of them hailing from conflict-ridden countries such as Afghanistan, Iraq and Sri Lanka, most entered Indonesia with short-term tourist visas or fraudulent papers or no documents at all. It is widely known that a significant number of these 'irregular' migrants pay various types of brokers (often labeled, accurately or otherwise, 'human smugglers') at least at one stage - either to enter the country or to escape it. As a non-signatory to the UN Refugee Convention, Indonesia does not permit local integration. While a substantial part of these migrants are detained in the 13 immigration detention centers scattered around the archipelago, many roam freely, looking for opportunities for onward migration. Due to the restrictive border protection arrangements between Australia and Indonesia and a number of bilateral intelligence measures for deterring 'unwanted' migrants, human smugglers have been gradually forced to adapt strategies, routes and prices. According to much of the available data, most human smugglers are not Indonesians but foreigners who have been lingering in Indonesia for many years. This article demonstrates, moreover, that these foreigners depend upon local contacts to successfully carry out their risky business. Most often, the Indonesian counterparts are solely facilitators or handymen, but in a number of cases Indonesian authorities have also been involved in this highly lucrative business." (author's abstract)

"A comprehensive exploration of the dynamics of contemporary Indonesia's politics, society, political economy, and culture, as well as its role in the international order"--