Suchergebnisse

The Bangladesh Liberation War against West Pakistan in 1971 triggered an exodus of ten million refugees, the deaths of approximately 1.5 million people and widespread destruction of villages, crops and infrastructure. Preoccupied with the Cold War and domestic politics, powerful nations such as the US and UK did not intervene directly and reluctantly provided aid. The Australian government, for its part, was particularly slow to offer aid, trailing efforts of New Zealand and most Western European governments. While the McMahon administration remained indifferent, Australians from diverse backgrounds engaged with this conflict by raising public awareness, fundraising and lobbying the Australian government to increase its aid contribution to Bangladeshis displaced by war. At a time when Australian government policies focused on the war in Indo‐China, Cold War politics and development in south‐east Asia and the south Pacific, I consider the ways Australian individuals offered aid to Asian, non‐Christian refugees, some of whom held Maoist views. Using archival materials, historical newspapers and census data, this article argues that, paradoxically, it was individuals with little political capital who spearheaded Australian efforts to aid Bangladeshi refugees. In short, the Bangladesh Liberation War provoked a groundswell of suburban activism that acted independently of government policies.

In 1965 and 1973, the governments of the USA and Australia, respectively, abolished their racially discriminatory immigration policies. A line had seemingly been drawn in the sand in which one's race, nationality or ethnicity would no longer be grounds for exclusion. As a consequence of these reforms, the source countries of immigrants to Australia and the USA diversified. How did politicians react to this change? This article finds that although overtly racist immigration policies had become a relic of the past, a number of mainstream politicians in both countries did not welcome the outcomes of race-blind immigration policies. Adapted from the source document.

Between 1977 and 1982, the Australian Government resettled over 54,000 Vietnamese refugees. It also admitted 2,059 Vietnamese asylum seekers who arrived by boat without state authorisation. Although the number of Vietnamese asylum seekers was significantly smaller than the number of Vietnamese refugees processed offshore in refugee camps, the unexpected arrival of these boat people stimulated debate in Parliament and in the press about an appropriate response. This article examines the language politicians used to describe Vietnamese asylum seekers and the arguments used to justify their inclusion or exclusion. The evidence demonstrates that the political rhetoric used in this period in Australia's immigration history cannot be solely categorised as inclusive or humane. Rather, the overall impression is one of resistance and pragmatism.

Refugee Journeys presents stories of how governments, the public and the media have responded to the arrival of people seeking asylum, and how these responses have impacted refugees and their lives. Mostly covering the period from 1970 to the present, the chapters provide readers with an understanding of the political, social and historical contexts that have brought us to the current day. This engaging collection of essays also considers possible ways to break existing policy deadlocks, encouraging readers to imagine a future where we carry vastly different ideas about refugees, government policies and national identities.

The article documents the urban dimension of Australia's immigration experience that, since the 1940s, has seen the country become one of the world's most multicultural societies. The article argues that the greatest impact of immigration has been in the major cities, especially Sydney and Melbourne, which in recent decades have emerged as internationally‐significant immigrant hubs that, like similar immigrant‐receiving destinations across the globe, are increasingly demographically and culturally distinct from their host nation. Drawing on census materials, oral history interviews, local newspapers and other sources, we chart the demographic transformation of urban Australia from the 1940s to the present day and suggest that these changes have implications for how urban Australians — especially those resident in the two biggest cities — will understand and represent themselves and the nation into the future.

Part I: Labelling refugees. ch.1. Australian responses to refugee journeys: matters of perspective and context / Eve Lester ; ch.2. Once a refugee, always a refugee? The haunting of the refugee label in resettlement / Melanie Baak ; ch.3. 'His happy go lucky attitude is infectious': Australian imaginings of unaccompanied child refugees, 1970s-1980s / Jordana Silverstein ; ch.4. 'Foreign infiltration' vs 'immigration country': the asylum debate in Germany / Ann-Kathrin Bartels -- Part II: Flashpoints in Australian refugee history. ch.5. The other Asian refugees in the 1970s: Australian responses to the Bangladeshi refugee crisis in 1971 / Rachel Stevens ; ch.6. Race to the bottom: Constructions of asylum seekers in Australian federal election campaigns, 1977-2013 / Kathleen Blair ; ch.7. Behind the wire: An oral history project about immigration detention / André Dao and Jamila Jafari in conversation -- Part III: Understanding refugee histories and futures. ch.8. From Dahmarda to Dandenong via Denpassar: Hazara stories of settlement, success and separation / Laurel Mackenzie ; ch.9. Step by step: The insidious evolution of Australia's asylum seeker regime since 1992 / Savitri Taylor ; ch.10. Uses and abuses of refugee histories / Klaus Neumann -- Epilogue