Abstract
This paper examines the rise of an asylum seeker and refugee advocacy movement in Australia in recent years. It situates this phenomenon within Alberto Melucci's understanding of social movements as variable and diffuse forms of social action involved in challenging the logic of a system. Following this theoretical framework, it explores the empirical features of this particular collective action, as well as the struggle to redefine the nature of the relationship between citizens of a sovereign state and 'the other' in the personage of asylum seekers and refugees.
Highlights
This paper examines the rise of an asylum seeker and refugee advocacy movement in Australia in recent years
There is evidence that many aspects of the policy toward asylum seekers are inconsistent with international human rights agreements, such as the Refugee Convention, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (Amnesty International Australia 1998, 2005; Glendenning et al 2004; HREOC 2004)
The policy has long enjoyed support from the two major political powers in Australia, the Coalition of the Liberal Party and the National Party that has been in government since 1996, and the Australian Labor Party, which introduced the policy of mandatory detention for asylum seekers in 1992
Summary
This paper examines the rise of an asylum seeker and refugee advocacy movement in Australia in recent years. The range of activities undertaken is a particular feature of the collective action of the ‘later wave’ of engagement—from political activism to lobbying; to public advocacy in the form of community education; to practical, financial, social and emotional support for asylum seekers and refugees affected by the Australian onshore refugee policy.
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