State Crime and Immigration Control in Australia: Jock Serong’s On the Java Ridge

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article discusses the Australian government’s immigration policies in the context of the global refugee crisis in the years 2015–2016, as reflected and dramatised through the polemical novel by Australian author Jock Serong, On the Java Ridge (2017). This novel testifies to one of the most disturbing effects of globalisation, namely, the unprecedented scale of population mobility, mainly as a result of famine, climate warming, and war conflicts of all kinds. In this atmosphere of anxiety and fear, the unrelenting flow of refugees is seen not only as a menace to the rule of law and human rights but also as a destabilising element that might compromise the comfortable lifestyle of First World countries. This has led many governments, including the Australian government, to take measures to stop refugees and asylum-seekers from reaching their soil. As a number of criminologists suggest, some of these measures might be regarded as state crime, as they often violate international law and human rights on the pretext of reaching organisational goals. This article shows how Serong’s novel illustrates a number of shady immigration control measures allegedly taken by the Australian government which, following Michael Welch’s terminology, can fall into two main categories: “loud panic/the wall of noise” and “quiet manoeuvring/the wall of governance,” with a view to criticising this system and urging rich countries, in particular Australia, to take action on one of the most pressing problems plaguing the world today.