Can We Make a Difference? Prejudice Towards Asylum Seekers in Australia and the Effectiveness of Antiprejudice Interventions

Pedersen, Anne; Hartley, Lisa

doi:10.1017/prp.2015.1

Cited by 33 publications

(19 citation statements)

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“…Asylum seekers are not aliens, as considered by various politicians and the general public. Also, there is a difference between humanitarian entrants and asylum seekers; the latter perceived as non-humans with prejudice and resentment with a sense of danger (Pedersen & Hartley, 2015). According to the Refugee Convention Article 31 (1), asylum seekers and refugees should not be discriminated against by the rationale of the illegitimate entry to a country (UNHCR, 1951).…”

Section: Wwwmsocialworkcommentioning

confidence: 99%

The Structural Inequalities, Anti-Oppressive and Anti-Discriminatory Approaches Associated with the Marginalization of Asylum Seekers in Australian Historical Context: An Overview

Paudel

2020

ASWJ

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Asylum seekers still endure a lot of oppression and alienation, with many erroneous assumptions about them circulating not only in Australia but throughout the world. Asylum seekers are deemed illegal due to the lack of their legitimate visas and are overlooked. The anti-oppressive theory seeks to oppose the underlying institutional and structural challenges in society and power to maintain power balance among minorities. The approach is focused on social justice. Social justice is attained by improving not only the quality of life but also the wellbeing of micro, macro, and mezzo levels with this approach. The fundamental value of diversity is also maintained. The abuse of power among the members of the society with regards to asylum seekers strengthens the notion of oppression; hence the approach strives for the power redistribution by not only defying the structures but also by advocating for the rights of the oppressed. The oppression can arise because of the traditional functioning ways of the systems or individuals’ bigotry. Asylum seekers in Australia are marginalized by the structure through their stern policies and by individual’s bigotry through their hate and sense of threat.

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Section: Wwwmsocialworkcommentioning

confidence: 99%

The Structural Inequalities, Anti-Oppressive and Anti-Discriminatory Approaches Associated with the Marginalization of Asylum Seekers in Australian Historical Context: An Overview

Paudel

2020

ASWJ

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“…There are other important factors that need to be taken into account (see Pedersen & Hartley, 2015, for an overview of these). In particular, we note that what we see as 'rational communication' is unlikely to be enough to sway both politicians and the general public.…”

Section: Practical Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

False Beliefs About Asylum Seekers to Australia: The Role of Confidence in Such Beliefs, Prejudice, and the Third Person Effect

Pedersen

Hartley

2017

Journal of Pacific Rim Psychology

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T here has been much controversy about the treatment of asylum seekers in Australia in recent years, with the Australian Government continuing to enforce a very hard-line stance on asylum seekers who arrive to Australia by boat. The present study examined attitudes towards asylum seekers using 164 Australian community members during June 2015 by way of questionnaire. Our primary research question involved how five variables predicted false beliefs about asylum seekers. Specifically, we measured prejudice, the third-person effect, and confidence in the answers given to false beliefs about asylum seekers. Regression results indicated that the main predictors of false beliefs were right-wing political orientation, prejudice, confidence in espousing false beliefs, and the third-person effect (politicians). Furthermore, most of our community participants accepted a large number of false beliefs as being true, with approximately two-thirds of our participants scoring above the midpoint. This reflects similar findings over the last decade or so. Our results indicate that, if one believes in bottom-up change, a more nuanced approach needs to be undertaken with community anti-prejudice interventions.Keywords: asylum seekers, refugees, false beliefs, confidence, prejudice, third-person effect There has been much controversy about the treatment of asylum seekers in Australia in recent years, with the Australian Government continuing to enforce a very hardline stance on asylum seekers who arrive to Australia by boat. While community sentiment is mixed, with some Australians feeling compassion for asylum seekers (Surawski, Pedersen, & Briskman, 2008), many Australians have highly negative or prejudiced attitudes towards them (Markus, 2015). This is despite the fact that their arrival by boat does not violate any international or national law. Indeed, Markus (2015) found that many respondents of a community poll (approximately one-third) believed asylum-seeker boats should be turned back without asylum claims being assessed. We do not go into great detail about Australia's asylum-seeker policies as these can be found elsewhere (e.g., Fleay, 2010); however, suffice to say that they are extremely harsh, designed to both deter and punish asylum seekers who attempt to enter Australia by boat (Penovic, 2016). Furthermore, the fact that Australia's asylum-seeker policy regime (e.g., mandatoryAddress for correspondence: Anne Pedersen, Centre for Human Rights Education, Curtin University, Kent Street, Bentley, Perth WA 6102, Australia. Email: anne.pedersen@curtin.edu.au detention) is harmful both psychologically and physically to people seeking asylum cannot be disputed (Coffey, Kaplan, Sampson, & Tucci, 2010;Davidson, Murray, & Schweitzer, 2008;Steele et al., 2004). In response to various aspects of Australia's asylum-seeker policy, there has been considerable outrage from some quarters, including the Australian Human Rights Commission (2014). Relevantly, psychology's peak body strongly opposes Australia's immigration detention ...

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“…It should be noted, however, that the relationship between political discourse and prejudice is likely to be bi-directional. That is, politicians can influence the community's prejudice levels; alternatively some people may use political rhetoric to justify their own prejudices (Pedersen & Hartley 2015). This highlights the powerful role that political discourse can play in producing and reproducing prejudice and racism within the community, which includes potential employers of asylum seekers.…”

Section: Prejudice Discrimination and The Influence Of Public Represmentioning

confidence: 99%

People Seeking Asylum in Australia and their Access to Employment: Just What Do We Know?

2016

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Public and political claims about the employment of people from a refugee background in Australia do not always reflect the research findings in this area. For example, recent claims by a senior Coalition Government Minister about people seeking asylum who arrived to Australia by boat during the previous Labor Government's terms in office posit that many have limited employment prospects. However, given there is little research or government reporting on the experiences of asylum seekers who arrived during this time, and none that focuses specifically on their employment, there is no evidence to support this. A review of research on the employment experiences of people from a refugee background, and Australian policies, suggests a more nuanced picture. This includes research that found while initially people from a refugee background are more likely to be unemployed, have temporary jobs and lower incomes than other newly arrived immigrants, over the longer term second-generation refugees have higher levels of labour market participation than the general population and refugees and their families make significant economic and community contributions to Australia. Research also highlights that refugees may experience a range of barriers to accessing employment, including discrimination, and a review of Australian policies indicates these are likely to have exacerbated some of these barriers for asylum seekers who arrived to Australia by boat. In addition, given previous findings that public attitudes can be influenced by representations made in public and political discourses, the public statements of senior Ministers may be further deepening barriers to accessing employment faced by asylum seekers who arrived by boat.

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Can We Make a Difference? Prejudice Towards Asylum Seekers in Australia and the Effectiveness of Antiprejudice Interventions

Cited by 33 publications

References 78 publications

The Structural Inequalities, Anti-Oppressive and Anti-Discriminatory Approaches Associated with the Marginalization of Asylum Seekers in Australian Historical Context: An Overview

The Structural Inequalities, Anti-Oppressive and Anti-Discriminatory Approaches Associated with the Marginalization of Asylum Seekers in Australian Historical Context: An Overview

False Beliefs About Asylum Seekers to Australia: The Role of Confidence in Such Beliefs, Prejudice, and the Third Person Effect

People Seeking Asylum in Australia and their Access to Employment: Just What Do We Know?

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