Refugee Without Refuge: Wasim, Phillip Adams, and a Nation Divided

Asylum Seekers and Resettled Refugees in Australia: Predicting Social Policy Attitude From Prejudice Versus Emotion

While most of the world's refugees reside in developing countries, their arrival to western countries is highly politicised, giving rise to questions about the types of entitlements and rights that should, or should not, be granted. In this study, using a mixed-methods community questionnaire (N = 185), we examined attitudes towards social policies aimed at providing assistance to two categories of new arrivals to Australia: resettled refugees (who arrive via its official refugee resettlement program) and asylum seekers (who arrive via boat and then seek refugee status). Social policy attitude was examined as a consequence of feelings of anger, fear, and threat, as well as levels of prejudice. Participants felt significantly higher levels of anger, fear, threat, and prejudice towards asylum seekers compared to resettled refugees. For both resettled refugees and asylum seekers, prejudice was an independent predictor of more restrictive social policy attitudes. For resettled refugees, fear and perceived threat were independent predictors for more restrictive social policy whereas for asylum seekers anger was an independent predictor of restrictive social policy. The qualitative data reinforced the quantitative findings and extended understanding on the appraisals that underpin negative attitudes and emotional responses. Practical implications relating to challenging community attitudes are discussed.

Can We Make a Difference? Prejudice Towards Asylum Seekers in Australia and the Effectiveness of Antiprejudice Interventions

Over the past few decades, Australia has implemented increasingly restrictive measures to try and deter the arrival of asylum seekers. In our article, we review what is known in the literature about the antecedents of prejudice against asylum seekers. We outline 11 mechanisms, or variables, as being particularly important. We then draw out the practical implications as they relate to antiprejudice interventions. Within the research and implications, we discuss our own experiences of working directly with asylum seekers over the past decade and in running antiprejudice interventions. We conclude that even though the situation is bleak in Australia at the time of writing this article (at the end of 2014), we must continue with attempts to combat the demonisation of asylum seekers both on an individual level and a structural level.

Prejudice and Discrimination From Two Sides: How Do Middle-Eastern Australians Experience It and How Do Other Australians Explain It?

There is little quantitative research regarding the causes and expression of prejudice and discrimination against Middle-Eastern Australians. We report two studies, one from the perspective of new settlers and a second from the perspective of host communities. The first found that Middle-Eastern Australians reported more discrimination compared with non-Middle-Eastern Australians. More discrimination was reported by Middle-Eastern males compared with females on dealings with the police, disrespect, name-calling, and distrust. The second study, focusing on attitudes of other Australians, found that they were more likely to perceive that Middle-Eastern Australians would be discriminated against compared with their own social group. When the non-Middle-Eastern Australians in the survey were asked for reasons why Australians from the Middle East were discriminated against, the most prevalent themes were (a) perceived conflict with ‘Australian values’, (b) fear of Muslims, (c) fear of terrorism, (d) negative media and (e) fear of difference. The overall finding that there are strong levels of public acknowledgment of the higher discriminatory burden endured by Middle-Eastern Australians is seen as a positive in terms of (1) community action to address that burden through (2) counteracting the socially negative attitudes that underpin discrimination in some Australian communities.

Forced Migration, Social Exclusion and Poverty: Introduction

This special issue of the journal, which is part of a global research initiative on psychology and poverty reduction, focuses specifically on the experiences of refugees and asylum seekers. Application of contemporary constructions of relative poverty and social exclusion to understanding asylum and humanitarian refuge emphasises the relative financial and social disadvantages experienced by many of these forced migrants, which may lead subsequently to them having negative experiences of resettlement and poor mental health and overall wellbeing. We argue that governments need to be cognisant of the poverty pitfalls of forced migration and to examine carefully their policies on social inclusion to ensure that current and future humanitarian and climate change refugees arriving on their shores are not forced into relative poverty.