Wendrik Sandwi Lukito 2101709881

Foreign Policy of Developed Countries – Final Exam

Australia’s Foreign Policy on Refugee and Asylum

Introduction

Australia reside in a very ambivalent space in the world. As we know, Australian people
are mostly white or Caucasian, with almost in every aspect are more related to the western, but
geographically located on the periphery of Asia. The merely fact that they must reside in the
Asian region makes them have to maintain a good-neighborly trait. Although historically,
throughout the decades Australia has been tagged along with fellow Western countries, and the
most common partnerships are between Australia, United States, and the Great Britain. It is
arguably due to Australia’s origin itself. According to research, Aboriginal Australians are the
origin inhabitants of Australia since long time ago. However, they are the minority race in
Australia right now. In the 18th century, the United Kingdom started to enter Australia and New
Zealand to put the convicts there and asked all the convicts to work on the island to gain more
wealth for United Kingdom. Until in the 1920s, the Western convicts and their offspring started
to become the majority of people on that island, due to the genocide of the Aboriginal
Australians also, then started to recognize themselves as Australians.

Ever since that time, the western people that were all United Kingdom’s convicts before,
started to have their own personal life and began to recognized themselves as the real Australian
we know right now, and totally demolished the Aboriginal Australians. Culturally, politically,
economically, racially, et cetera, in this contemporary era Australia is often referred to a country
that adopt all the Western values, however still in the periphery of Asia. This merely
geographical condition leads them to several partnerships within the region although they are
truly diverse with Australia except in terms of geography. Australia seems to be really opened to
any partnerships, and rarely have an enemy in the international realm. The interesting part about
this openness of Australia, seems to be related with their origins as comers that has been shaped
into a nation. By the very fact of Australia is neighboring with Asian countries makes them have
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to cope with the surrounding areas, and starts to loosen its relation with Western countries as
they are way further geographically. Prior to Howard’s era as the Prime Minister of Australia,
Gareth Evans and Paul Keating attempted to shift Australia’s international focus away from
distant, great and powerful Western friends to further engagement with neighborhood countries
[ CITATION Dav13 \l 1033 ]. Since Gareth Evans’ era, Australia has seen several partnerships with
its surrounding countries.

This openness trait of Australia even drives them further, that it also makes them apply a
very “open” traits in terms of its foreign policy as well. Especially in terms of refugee policy and
asylum seekers. It is known that Australia is open for refugees. This then creates a big question
that this paper would like to answer. Do the origins of Australia impact their openness especially
in terms of refugee and certain foreign policies? Thus, this paper would like to exert the idea of
‘imagined communities’ by Benedict Anderson as a fundamental aspect of what is Australia now
[ CITATION And06 \l 1033 ] . By that basis, this paper would attempt to make linkages with
Australia’s foreign policy on refugee. This paper would try to assert the state-level of analysis
method to analyze further on this issue within the concept of ‘imagined communities by Benedict
Anderson. This paper argues that the shared imagination that was created in Australia impacts on
their openness for certain policies and partnerships especially in dealing with refugee.

Discussion

As been stated in the introduction section, the western culture and other aspects that have
been shaped have its own origin. Australia were not like what we know as Australia right now.
There are several events that leads them to a condition where we pictured Australia as Australia.
Not only “outsiders”, they themselves even has its own history where they began to be
recognized themselves as Australians. In fact, that the Aboriginal Australians were the
mainlanders of Australia, also give us another fact that the current Australian we know are not
originally resided on the island from the very first time. However, that might not be the main
issue in this paper. This paper asserted the merely fact just to give us a background on how the
Australian recognized themselves as Australian are a part of shared imagination idea explained
further by Benedict Anderson. Similar cases are the European Union, where they would
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Foreign Policy of Developed Countries – Final Exam
recognize themselves as one, Europe, due to historical events and shared imagination were
concepted then. Thus, this paper would try to seek the linkages between Australia as an imagined
community with their foreign policy, especially on accepting refugee.

Before we get to the analysis part, it is best for us to conceptualized what Benedict
Anderson means when he concepted shared imagination and why is that concept fits with the
situation of Australia in contemporary. As what has been explained brief and shortly in the
introduction part about the background of Australia, this part will try to elaborate more on that
statement and connect the variables into a research statement. As we have known, the Indigenous
Australians (Aboriginal Australians) argued by several researchers inhabited the continent for
centuries. However, since the European arrival, which made the western people came to the
continent still as British convicts only. But later on, the indigenous population were all been
genocide, got an infectious disease, and died as a result of frontier conflict with settlers
[ CITATION Att03 \l 1033 ]. Since that moment, Australians are depicted as Western people and
Caucasian, like what we know in this contemporary era. Benedict Anderson’s concept of
imagined communities is at the forefront of Australia’s situation. Furthermore, they feel akin to
fellow their region because of their shared experiences.

By using Anderson’s work, we can claim that Australia as a western is an imagined

community which is imagined as both limited and sovereign in the same way that a nation is
[ CITATION And06 \l 1033 ]. It is imagined, as the Australian especially the white people merely
considered themselves as an Australian now. And what does these linkages with its foreign
policy, especially on refugee? The idea of Australia is a shared community will be the basis of
the state-level of analysis of this paper, as it is aligned with the idea itself. This paper then will
apply this state-level of analysis into the foreign policy of Australia, particularly on the case of
refugee. On the next part of this paper will explain briefly about the refugee to help us
understanding the issue and attempt to link the foreign policy of Australia on refugee with its
origin and the idea of shared community.

A refugee, on a brief explanation is an uprooted individual or displaced, who has been

compelled to cross national boundaries and who cannot return to its place or nation securely.
Sometimes they refer refugee to an asylum seeker, until granted refugee status by the contracting
state or the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees [ CITATION UNH67 \l 1033 ]. The
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Foreign Policy of Developed Countries – Final Exam
interesting part is that research found that asylum in Australia has been granted to asylum
seekers or refugees ever since 1945, not long after the imagined community of western
Australian are concepted in 1920s as I stated in the introduction part. Half a million Europeans
displaced by World War II were given asylum in Australia. From that point forward, there have
been intermittent rushes of asylum seekers from South East Asia and the Middle East, with
government policy and public opinion changing throughout the years. Ever since that time also,
thousands of refugees have sought asylum in Australia over the past decade, and from the 1945
to the early 1990s, more than half a million refugees and other displaced persons were accepted
into Australia[ CITATION Gib04 \l 1033 ] . This merely fact shown that Australia is having its
“openness” trait as a nation, which what this paper has explained in the introduction part. With a
total more than half a million refuges were accepted in Australia from 1945 to the early 1990s,
that is a big number for such a country that accept refugees. Not to mention that might be several
increases from 1990s until contemporary. It is found that in 2012 the annual refugee quota
increased 20,000 every year, and most asylum seekers arrived by plane. However, there was an
increasing number of asylum seekers arriving by boat in the late 2000s and early 2010s
[ CITATION Phi11 \l 1033 ]. Australia might be on the top list for country that are accepting refugee
with that high capacity or numbers.

From this fact, we might be wonder, why would Australia in the first place would allow
refugees to seek for asylums in their country? There are several debates and theories to answer to
that brief question. Some authors argued that it might be one of its political agenda, to create a
liberated country culturally and politically, that will hopefully bring an impact towards their
economy as well. That might be true to some extent. As if there are more people living in
Australia, knowing that they are also a highly developed country according to International
Monetary Fund (IMF), with the world’s 14th largest economy that has a high-income economy,
with the world’s tenth-highest per capita income [ CITATION Int18 \l 1033 ]. From that fact, we
could say an increase in population would obviously helps them increase their income and per
capita income.

Asides from that, there are not many authors looking at this certain foreign policy
adopted by Australia because of their historical background. When we are talking about state-
level of analysis, some authors would tend to focus more on the economic and political aspects
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Foreign Policy of Developed Countries – Final Exam
to magnify certain foreign policies. However, in the case of Australia in its refugee policy, I
argue that the historical background plays a big role in shaping the openness trait of Australia for
refugees or asylum seekers. As what have been stated before, Australia that we have depicted
right now as a western were originally also depicted themselves as an Australians. Originally,
they are western convicts that finally resided in the continent. They began to shape up their own
identity into a truly new identity, and no longer consider themselves as part of the western
people. Although at the middle of 19th century they were still tagging along with western
countries (United States and United Kingdom specifically) as much as possible, but has been
shifted to put closer their relations also with surrounding states which are mainly Asians. By the
very fact that they began to open up with surrounding areas and loosen up their relations with the
western countries shows that the imagined community as an Australian that is residing in the
Asian periphery has been shaped up. This openness has led them to several partnerships as well.
Inherently, the openness has become its national trait and is applied within their policies itself.
That is why their foreign policy on refugee is also shaped up from this openness trait where
originally were concepted through the shared imagination by Benedict Anderson that I have
stated before.

This case is very similar to the origins of United States, although their policy on refugees
are so different. But historically, they have two things in common that could give us a clear
picture on how their foreign policy especially in terms of refugees are reliant on their own
historical background. Mainly, Australia and the United States have two things in common. First,
is that they are both products of British colonialism. Second, they are both settler societies or
immigrant; that is, they are to a large extent populated by people whose ancestors travelled to
these countries from United Kingdom during and after the colonial period. As we shall see, it is
the combination of these two conditions that frames the distinctive ways in which the
problematic of national identity and national culture has been dealt in these two nation-states
[ CITATION Str94 \l 1033 ]. That is how they merely shaped their national identity then to be each
nation-state and defined themselves as Australian and American. The only difference is that
United States “succeed” on its own and became the unipolarity in the world that at least made
them have their own pride and would not pay more attention to increasing number of populations
through refugees because they are “strong” on their own. Even United States are battling with
“outsiders”, especially since the tragedy of 9/11. Meanwhile, Australia by the merely fact are
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Foreign Policy of Developed Countries – Final Exam
“stuck” in the Asian periphery, would indirectly ask them to have the openness trait towards
something that are even truly diverse from them, and this also impacts their foreign policy as
well, as seen with several partnerships with surrounding countries. That is also what impacted
Australia’s foreign policy on refugees as well.

Conclusion

Refugees and asylum seekers are indeed a big issue in IR and have become a public
debate throughout the years. There are several countries that highly supports the openness for
refugees and asylum seekers, while some of them are truly rejected the idea as it will harm
sovereignty and boundaries. However, Australia is one of countries that shows their openness in
terms of refugees and asylum seekers. In fact, is that they also have to reside in a very
ambivalent world, where they almost adopt every value of Western while surrounded by the
Asian countries geographically. This makes Australia have to cope with the situation that are
truly diverse from Australia. However, they managed to be able to cope with this kind of
situation, and even could have this openness trait that are shown through several partnerships
with surrounding countries, and most notable is through their openness for refugees. This is also
due to its historical background if we analyze from the landscape of state-level of analysis.
Australians we know right now are historically settler societies are what we called as
immigrants. But at the end they managed to define themselves as Australians that is in line with
Benedict Anderson’s concept of shared imagination and pictured them as Australians in the
realms of shared community. This merely fact, makes them open toward each other and has
established the openness trait since then. That is also why they are open to the surrounding areas,
and even applied to their foreign policy on refugee.

References

Anderson, B. (2006). Imagined communities: reflections on the origin and spread of

nationalism. London: Verso.
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Attwood, B., & Foster, S. G. (2003). Frontier Conflict: The Australian Experience. National
Museum of Australia.

Davis, A. E. (2013). Rethinking Australia's international past: identity, foreign policy and India
in the Australian colonial imagination.

Gibney, M. J. (2004). The Ethics and Politics of Asylum: Liberal Democracy and the Response
to Refugees. Cambridge University Press.

International Monetary Fund. (2018). World Economic Outlook Database. International

Monetary Fund.

Phillips, J., & Spinks, H. (2011, January 5). Boat arrivals in Australia since 1976. Boat arrivals
in Australia since 1976.

Stratton, J., & Ang, I. (1994). Continuum. Multicultural imagined communities: Cultural
difference and national identity in Australia and the USA, 124-158.

UNHCR. (1967). Convention and Protocol relating to the Status of Refugees. Geneva:
Communications and Public Information Service.