Babacan, A: Seeking Asylum in a Global World

The book looks at refugee and asylum policies of Australia, Canada and New Zealand in light of current debates on globalisation and citizenship. The resettlement of refugees was a by product of the Cold War, coupled with a quest on to boost populations and to fulfil labour shortages. The pressures of global restructuring have resulted in a reformulation of refugee policies. The once humanitarian responses have been converted into policies of containment, with increased controls to prevent the arrival of asylum seekers. Measures imposed have resulted in barriers for asylum seekers and exclusion by nation states by reference to national sovereignty and security. The authors stress that so called ‘illegal migration‘ is primarily related to the political and economic structures across the world, primacy of transnational capital. Border controls and interdiction measures are bound to fail as they reinforce this divide.The authors call for the entrenchment of rights firmly into the Refugee Convention as well as the development of a new form of citizenship, where citizenship and belonging is not embedded in a single nation.