Negotiating integration: Refugees and asylum seekers in Australia and the UK

Susanne Schech, Sophia Rainbird

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapterpeer-review

1 Citation (Scopus)

Abstract

Introduction In the first decade of the new century, refugees and asylum seekers in the Global North have faced a challenging environment in which to negotiate their rights to asylum, integration and citizenship. In the recipient communities, the new arrivals are increasingly associated with negative concepts such as welfare dependency, social disharmony and terrorism and are viewed as people who should be kept at a safe distance if not actively expelled. These associations are shaped and reinforced through government and media discourses which focus on the deviancy of asylum seekers and the dependency of refugees. At the same time, there is ever greater insistence on the rapid and successful integration of immigrants as productive, self-sufficient and responsible members of the wider community. In this chapter we explore two aspects of the contemporary environment – the fragmentation and racialization of the refugee label and the shift from multiculturalism to integration as the preferred mode of incorporating newcomers, associated with integration being contrasted with segregation as its opposite. First, the label ‘refugee’ no longer designates a respectable identity location. It has been torn from its moorings in humanitarian discourse and become politicized through the proliferation of bureaucratic categories that are designed to manage the growing number of displaced people, including ‘asylum seekers’, ‘temporary’ and ‘humanitarian’ protection and country specific labels (Zetter 2007). In this ‘fragmentation of the refugee label’, each label carries a different package of rights, entitlements and resources, which refugees and asylum seekers can only claim by adopting their label but, in doing so, they risk exclusion from host communities that are increasingly preoccupied with social cohesion and cultural homogeneity (Zetter 2007). Being positioned between a rock and a hard place, between refugee identity and fitting in, evokes a range of responses ranging from denying one’s refugee identity (Kumsa 2006) and evading questions about one’s refugee status, to retreating into refugeeness and diaspora communities. Second, the past decade has seen a backlash against multiculturalism which has been accused of fostering segregation among ethnic minorities and growing ethnic tensions.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationMigration and Insecurity
Subtitle of host publicationCitizenship and Social Inclusion in a Transnational Era
PublisherTaylor and Francis
Pages108-126
Number of pages19
ISBN (Electronic)9781136233364
ISBN (Print)9780415665490
Publication statusPublished or Issued - 27 Nov 2012
Externally publishedYes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Social Sciences

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