‘Nation Prepares for War’: The Discursive Securitisation of Asylum Seekers

Understanding conviviality in Australian suburbs with high Muslim concentrations: A qualitative case study in Melbourne

“…Participants often raised the issue of Muslims “keeping to their own”—an attitude observed among non‐Muslim Australians in discussions of multiculturalism, largely as a defensive mechanism to legitimise exclusionary attitudes toward Muslims (see also Haw, 2018, 2023), and sometimes in the context of Muslims feeling safer and more accepted in areas with other Muslim residents (Phillips, 2015). Our participants tended to point toward the latter as a factor for low conviviality.…”

“…An important element of our findings is how they illustrate why certain racial and cultural minority groups in Australia might be reluctant to mix with people from other religious and cultural backgrounds. Indeed, prior research has highlighted a popular view that Muslim communities in Australia tend to socialise only with other Muslims (Haw, 2018). And as our interview data suggests, Muslims sometimes do “stick to their own”, often due to previous negative experiences (such as Islamophobia) and an earned distrust of government and/or the wider society.…”

The “good refugee” ideal: How discourses of deservingness permeate Australia's refugee and asylum seeker narratives

“…Despite its long history of providing permanent protection, Australia remains polarized on the topic of humanitarian resettlement with studies showing a strong tendency for political, public and media discourse to categorize refugees and asylum seekers as “illegal immigrants,” “queue jumpers,” “economic migrants” and a burden to taxpayers (Every & Augoustinos, 2008; Haw, 2018). Indeed, the legacies of colonialism and the White Australia Policy (1901–1966) remain embedded in how the nation collectively understands migration and difference, which in Hage's (1998) view, is underscored by a white‐centric past and an assimilationist present.…”

“…Indeed, the legacies of colonialism and the White Australia Policy (1901–1966) remain embedded in how the nation collectively understands migration and difference, which in Hage's (1998) view, is underscored by a white‐centric past and an assimilationist present. Tapping into white supremacist notions of assimilation (and what it means to “be Australian”) – coupled with the 9/11 paranoia of the Muslim other (see Poynting, 2006) – media and political discourse has routinely cast asylum seekers as a threat to Australia (Haw, 2018).…”