The truth behind "stopping the boats" ?

A federal election campaign always seems to be marred with controversial debates surrounding the Australian way of life. In 2010, that debate involves the so- called “boat people”, and a need to “stop the boats”. Indeed in the 2010 Federal election debate there are 9 references made to “stopping the boats”.

This phrase, "stop the boats", embodies both the current government and opposition opinions on the matter of asylum seekers. That is, that they [the boat people] should not be allowed to come to Australia, and furthermore, it seems to imply that asylum seekers are inherently deviant and a risk to Australia’s status quo.

However, in so saying, it should be acknowledged that it is not illegal to seek asylum. An asylum seeker is someone who has fled their country and applies to the government of another country for protection as a refugee, and this applies regardless of the mode of entry.

The continued construction of asylum seekers as deviant in nature has seen the debate in the 2010 election framed in the question of “where do we put the boat people?". Such a construction belies the real issues at hand. Boat people are not illegal immigrants as some people would have us believe. They are not committing a crime in arriving on our shores. Yet the government is intent on framing the issue as one of national security, rather than a humanitarian one. The categorisation of asylum seekers as a national security threat became particularly prominent in the 2001 Federal election. Arguably the 2001 election is the point where the issues of asylum seekers were irrevocably and erroneously intertwined with the threat of terrorism. It is through the labeling and criminalization of asylum seekers, that politicians can justify the detention of innocent individuals.

Perhaps the answer can be found within a racial analysis. According the Refugee council of Australia, in 2006-7 the top 4 countries of origin for asylum seekers were China, Sri-lanka, India and Iraq. This situation can be contrasted to those illegal immigrants, that is, those who overstay a visa. Most of these overstayers are from the US and UK. Interestingly, it is not the latter group of peoplewho are framed in the media by politicians as potential threats to our security, or indeed our way of life. By framing the issue of asylum seekers as one of national security, politics is able to play to the racial fears that have developed in a post september 11 period.

Thus, the matter of asylum seekers can be seen now in 2010, as it was in the White Australia era, as a policy shaped by Australia's xenophobic fears.