Australian Social Policy on Immigration Detention and its Impact on Refugees and Immigrants

This essay discusses the Australian social policy on immigration detention and its impact on refugees and immigrants. It includes historical events, recommendations for the policy, and the attitude of citizens towards the policy.

Running Head: WORKING WITH FAMILIES
0
Working with families
10/23/2018

WORKING WITH FAMILIES
1
The essay brings about the discussion on the Australian social policy, immigrants,
refugees and the related aspects of the policy. Immigration detention in Australia was
introduced in 1992, by Labour government. It has been found that this system was maintained
in the country by the successive government of Australia over the past 22 years. The system
refers to the rules or policy in Australia stating that any individual without a valid visa
entering into the country must be detained. The essay includes the concept or description of
the refugees or immigrants who arrive in the Australia, as the country has the humanitarian
and the legal obligations to accept refugees and reunite their families (Paxton et al., 2015).
Some of the beliefs or values formulated through the Australian social institution or
social policy, that Australia’s cultural, ethnic, and linguistic diversity must be celebrated and
there should be no discrimination on the immigration on any ground, and the treatment of the
refugees or immigrants entering the country. Some aspects that will be included in this essay,
such as the historical events, which has influenced the policy in Australia, and the
recommendations for the policy (Australian Government Department of Home affairs, 2018).
The 1951 Convention, which relates to the state of Refugees, is the international
document that defines who is a refugee. An individual who lives outside his country of origin
is called as a ‘refugee’. A person who lives with a fear of the persecution may be on the
grounds of several aspects such as race, religion, national origin, or membership in a
particular social group (Australian Human Rights Commission, 2014).
In addition, it refers to the person who finds himself incapable or unwilling to avail
protection of that particular country or free from the fear of persecution. Discussing about the
immigration, it can be stated that an immigrant is the person who moves out or leaves one’s
country to settle in another. Immigration is considered as the natural phenomenon in
comparison to the refugee, and is subject to the legal laws of their adopted country (Vaughan
et al., 2015). The number of humanitarians and refugees accepted in Australia has varied in
the recent years, As of the year 2015-2016, 17, 555 refugees in total has been accepted by the
country. Australian law and the immigration detention stated that if any unlawful-citizen
enters through unlawful means by sea, are termed as ‘unauthorised maritime arrivals’. A
person is not granted a visa or community detention then under the immigration detention,
they may be continued to be detained even after the arrangement has been done to remove
them from the country (Sanggaran, Haire & Zion, 2016).

WORKING WITH FAMILIES
2
A social issue refers to the problem that influences the individuals, in a society with
respect to the country. In context to the country, Australia a number of social problems has
been identified in the current scenario, and some other prevailing social issues in the country
include social welfare and welfare dependency. Youth issues in the country include anger,
depression, and drug abuse. Thus, it can be stated that Australia is facing number of social
problems currently, which mainly include disability, housing, unemployment, and the health
issues (Silove & Mares, 2018).
To discuss about the social institution or social policy of Australia in relation to the
immigrants and refugees, it has been discovered that the compliance of this policy is only
found in Australia. The policy states about imposing the mandatory and indefinite detention
to the people who seek for mental asylum. Australia has a refugee and Humanitarian program
that includes an onshore and offshore component (Valtonen, 2016). The component of on-
shore includes about people, as when they seek for the status of refugees are called as mental
asylum seekers, till the time their case is resolved and they enter into the country without a
valid entry (Ehntholt et al., 2018). As a matter of concern of the social policy for the
immigrants and refugees in Australia, the country has established a link between the
components of on-shore and offshore. It has been found that those an increase in the visas to
those who are found as refugees and they have arrived in the country, onshore, and then
there will be a decrease in the visas offered to the refugees offshore (Luke, 2018).
Mandatory detention in Australia includes all the citizens who arrive without a proper
validation or visa. Thus, the social policy has studied in respect to the infants, pre-schoolers
and the children who arrived in the country to seek mental asylum, without a valid visa, are
required to stay detained well beyond the time taken to acquire the information regarding the
asylum. It has been analysed from the reports that the emotional and mental health
development of children is influenced due to their prolonged detention (Parliament of
Australia, 2018). The findings have reported that the children, under the program of
immigration detention are prone to mental health disorders, in comparison to other children in
the Australian community (Correa-Velez et al., 2017). The ministers of Prolonged detention
of children does not facilitate in deterring the people smugglers or asylum seekers, as stated
by Australian Government. After the launching of enquiry to the detention program, it has
been found that there were some changes introduced in the Government policy, and practice
(Refugee Council of Australia, 2018).

WORKING WITH FAMILIES
3
Moreover, it affects the high court decisions, as it influences the asylum seeker
children in detention (Martinez et al., 2015). The changes made in this respect stated that the
children were provided the medical care, detected with the problems of physical and mental
illness. All the detention centres are well equipped with the CCTV cameras, in order to
capture any significant incident with the children. Therefore, detention of children after the
year 1992, government assures them with the mental support (Dal Grande et al., 2015).
However, there are some of the human right is considered important for the children and
women detention. It states that the detention of a child in any cases should be considered as
the last resort for the short and appropriate period. According to the policy of detention, it is
the right of every detained child to challenge or question about their legal detention before
the court, to the prompt decisions made on such action. In addition, none of the children in
such cases should be detained arbitrarily (Chang, 2016).
The major cases of people in this category include those who enter in Australia by the
boat alternatively, by a valid visa (either student or tourist) visa. Over past few, the people
seeking asylum in Australia are found to be thousands in numbers, with some of the driving
force including, movement during the war, civil unrest, or persecution. Therefore, it has been
determined through the social policy of Australian immigration detention that there are
principles, which still underpins the Australia’s refugee policy. These include, Australia is the
country, which still recognises the humanitarian commitment, and the responsibility to admit
the resettlement of refugees (Bull et al., 2012). They also consider the fact that it is the right
of the Australian government to accept refugees, must always remain with the Australian
government. Third principle in respect to the social policy of refugee stated that for the
resettlement of the refugees in their designated situations, a special assistance is essentially
required. The fourth principle, which must be taken care of while resettling refugees, that
there may be some refugees who do not want to resettle in Australia, thus their interests
should be settled somewhere else (Bronstein & Montgomery, 2011).
Thus, from the above discussion, the attitude of the citizens of Australia towards the
social policies has been understood. According to the policies made in the country, these two
categories are provided assistance or settlement. The policies aim at providing assistance or
settlement to the two categories of new arrivals in Australia. These two categories include
refugees, resettled refugees (ones who have arrived through official refugee settlement
program), and the asylum seekers arrived via boat and then seeking for the status of refugees
(Lau et al., 2018). The attitude of these people towards the social policy was examined as

WORKING WITH FAMILIES
4
they developed feelings such as, anger, threat, along with the prejudice. Participants felt
significantly higher level of anger, fear, threat, and prejudice towards those who were asylum
seekers than the resettled refugees. Prejudice act as the most crucial indicator for both the
refugees, and the asylums seekers of more restrictive social policy attitudes (Fazel,
Karunakara & Newnham, 2014).
Migration and humanitarian program outcomes, deals and brings about the discussion
of the annual statistical data, provided by the Immigration department since 1980s. It
provides the data, as how many people are there who are planning to migrate to Australia.
The total entrants or the refugees and humanitarian who have entered in Australia since the
year 1947-48, was around 297,053, and with the year 2015-16, the government planning
revealed the number around 13,750. In addition, it has been analysed that the migration
program is compared with the humanitarian program visa grants since the year 1984-85 to the
year 2015-16. The results on the comparison of humanitarian as the percentage of the total
migration and the total humanitarian intake brought about the figure around as 8.5, in the year
2016 (Phillips, 2015).
The annual refugee quota that has observed in the country is almost 20,000 people.
Australia has ranked 47th out of the 198 countries in the world according to the United
Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, in terms of the number of refugees that were
hosted between the year 2005 and 2009. In the later years, in 2012 it has been found that the
Refugee council of Australia based on per capita amongst the countries who accept refugees
ranks Australia on 22nd. Discussing about the asylum seekers, the council has found that in
terms of resettlement, the country has been ranked at the 2nd in the overall world, 3rd per
capita and the proportion of GDP (Silove & Mares, 2018).
Discussion of the historical events, which occurred in the past decades and have
influenced the policy of immigrants and refugees, a number of things has been analysed. In
the 1930s, the number of refugees from the Nazi Germany, above 7000 refugees was
accepted into Australia. After the end of World War II, in the eight years, almost 200,000
Europeans resettled into Australia. On the draft of Universal Declaration of Human rights,
the country mentioned about their reluctance to recognise the right of asylum for the refugees
(Zwi & Mares, 2015).

WORKING WITH FAMILIES
5
There were some other events, which has influenced the refugee and immigrants
social policy, it includes that a young Somali who lived in Nauru, set herself on fire. An event
as in the year 2012, depicted about more than 100 boats, carried in excess to 5,000 refugees,
particularly from Iraq, Afghanistan, and Sri Lanka arrived in Australia in that year. In the past
killing of hundreds, was witnessed that stated about failed attempts to reach the country by
boat. Therefore, the above aspects mentioned about the historical events, which influenced
the social policy of refugees, and immigrants in Australia (Asylum Seeker resource centre,
2018).
According to the above description stated on the refugees, and immigrants detention
policy in Australia, a number of things has been analysed which must be changed. Thus, there
are some recommendations in this regard. It has been observed that the Australian refugee
policy resulted into adverse health outcomes, especially to the women and younger children.
It is known that the policies, which foster, hopelessness, and the threat of exposure to the
dangerous situations or conditions seem to be the most disastrous to the individuals or
community. The recommendations for the policy are that it should aim at reducing the
negative influence on the mental health of the asylum seekers in the country. There must be a
removal or eradication of the detention especially to the offshore facilities of ‘unauthorised
arrivals’. In case of any requirements for health, and security checks, it must be completed
within the period of two weeks maximum. It is also suggested that the permanent refugee visa
collection must be increased; as a part of this increment, TPVs are required to be converted
into permanent visas (Australian Human Rights Commission, 2018).
It is the duty of the child-care detention centres to protect them any kind of physical,
mental violence, thus it is essential to establish the royal commission to monitor the long-
term impacts. In addition, it is the duty of their caregivers or educators to provide children
with the routine-opportunities to participate in the learning environment. As per the
Immigration detention standards (IDS), for the children, it is recommended that the educators
must provide all the detainees access to the education programs, according to their age, and
abilities (Mares & Zwi, 2015). Children must be given services, including pre-school,
primary, & secondary-aged children. Sports, crafts, entertainment facilities, playgrounds,
regular excursions, and management of those, living as unaccompanied minors, and face
difficulty in understanding or learning. Thus, it is the essential suggestion for the child-care
and educators, which must be incorporated into their policy for the children mandatory
detention programs (Parliament of Australia, 2018).

WORKING WITH FAMILIES
6
To conclude the above discussion it has been analysed that social policy welfare is
important to be considered in any country. Firstly, these policies are important to those who
could receive any benefit from them and help the country. Secondly, these policies are
important as lead to the strong and effective social institution of any country. In respect to the
social institution or social policy of Australia, it has found that the country employs
appropriate policies for detaining unauthorised arrivals through boat or ship, for those who
have entered without a legal permission. Australia has been the only country with the
mandatory detention programme, for the children as one of the 147 countries. Hence, the
essay discussed various aspects of the immigration detention and their impacts in Australia.

WORKING WITH FAMILIES
7
References
Asylum Seeker resource centre. (2018). Timeline of Events. Retrieved from:
https://www.asrc.org.au/resources/fact-sheet/timeline-of-events/
Australian Government Department of Home affairs. (2018) Refugee and Humanitarian
programme. Retrieved from: https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/trav/refu
Australian Human Rights Commission. (2014). National inquiry into children in immigration
detention 2014. Transcripts from Fourth Public Hearing, 22. Retrieved from:
https://www.humanrights.gov.au/our-work/asylum-seekers-and-refugees/national-
inquiry-children-immigration-detention-2014
Australian Human Rights Commission. (2018). Major Findings and Recommendations for
the inquiry. Retrieved from: https://www.humanrights.gov.au/publications/last-resort-
national-inquiry-children-immigration-detention/17-major-findings-and
Bronstein, I. & Montgomery, P. (2011). Psychological distress in refugee children: a
systematic review. Clinical Child & Family Psychological Review, 14(1):44-56.
Bull, M., Schindeler, E., Berkman, D. & Ransley, J. (2012). Sickness in the system of long-
term immigration detention. Journal of Refugee Studies, 26 (1): 47-68
Chang, G. (2016). Disposable domestics: Immigrant women workers in the global economy.
Australia: Haymarket Books.
Correa-Velez, I., Gifford, S. M., McMichael, C. & Sampson, R. (2017). Predictors of
secondary school completion among refugee youth 8 to 9 years after resettlement in
Melbourne, Australia. Journal of International Migration and Integration, 18(3), 791-
805.
Dal Grande, E., Chittleborough, C. R., Wu, J., Shi, Z., Goldney, R. D. & Taylor, A. W.
(2015). Effect of social mobility in family financial situation and housing tenure on
mental health conditions among South Australian adults: results from a population
health surveillance system, 2009 to 2011. BMC public health, 15(1), 675.

WORKING WITH FAMILIES
8
Ehntholt, K. A., Trickey, D., Harris Hendriks, J., Chambers, H., Scott, M. & Yule, W. (2018).
Mental health of unaccompanied asylum-seeking adolescents previously held in
British detention centres. Clinical child psychology and psychiatry, 23(2), 238-257.
Fazel, M., Karunakara, U. & Newnham, E. A. (2014). Detention, denial, and death: migration
hazards for refugee children. The Lancet Global Health, 2(6), 313-314.
Lau, W., Silove, D., Edwards, B., Forbes, D., Bryant, R., McFarlane, A. & Felmingham, K.
(2018). Adjustment of refugee children and adolescents in Australia: outcomes from
wave three of the building a new life in Australia study. BMC medicine, 16(1), 157.
Luke, A. (2018). Critical literacy in Australia: A matter of context and standpoint. In Critical
Literacy, Schooling, and Social Justice (pp. 168-188). United Kingdom: Routledge.
Mares, S. & Zwi, K. (2015). Sadness and fear: The experiences of children and families in
remote Australian immigration detention. Journal of paediatrics and child health,
51(7), 663-669.
Martinez, O., Wu, E., Sandfort, T., Dodge, B., Carballo-Dieguez, A., Pinto, R. & Chavez-
Baray, S. (2015). Evaluating the impact of immigration policies on health status
among undocumented immigrants: a systematic review. Journal of Immigrant and
Minority Health, 17(3), 947-970.
Parliament of Australia. (2018). Children in Detention. Retrieved from:
https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/
Parliamentary_Library/Publications_Archive/archive/Childrendetention
Parliament of Australia. (2018). Recommendations. Retrieved from:
https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Joint/Former_Committe
es/immigrationdetention/report/b02
Paxton, G., Tosif, S., Graham, H., Smith, A., Reveley, C., Standish, J. & Marais, B. (2015).
Perspective: ‘The forgotten children: national inquiry into children in immigration
detention (2014)’. Journal of paediatrics and child health, 51(4), 365-368.
Phillips, J. (2015). Australia's Humanitarian Program: a quick guide to the statistics since
1947. United Kingdom: Parliamentary Library.

WORKING WITH FAMILIES
9
Refugee Council of Australia. (2018). Recent changes in Australian refugee policy. Retrieved
from: https://www.refugeecouncil.org.au/publications/recent-changes-australian-
refugee-policy/
Sanggaran, J. P., Haire, B. & Zion, D. (2016). The health care consequences of Australian
immigration policies. PLoS Medicine, 13(2), 1001960.
Silove, D., & Mares, S. (2018). The mental health of asylum seekers in Australia and the role
of psychiatrists. BJ Psych International, 15(3), 65-68.
Valtonen, K. (2016). Social work and migration: Immigrant and refugee settlement and
integration. United Kingdom: Routledge.
Vaughan, C., Murdolo, A., Murray, L., Davis, E., Chen, J., Block, K. & Warr, D. (2015).
ASPIRE: A multi-site community-based participatory research project to increase
understanding of the dynamics of violence against immigrant and refugee women in
Australia. BMC public health, 15(1), 1283.
Zwi, K. & Mares, S. (2015). Stories from unaccompanied children in immigration detention:
A composite account. Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health, 51(7), 658-662.