Constructed realities: Framing an inclusive multicultural Australia’s exclusion of people seeking asylum

This post forms part of our series in showcasing abstracts of presentations featured at the 2019 Migration, Refugees and Statelessness conference, hosted in November 2019 at The University of Melbourne.

Holly McCarthy – REMESO (Institute for Research on Migration, Ethnicity and Society), Linköping University

Australia’s increasingly securitised and exclusionary asylum policy has been legitimated through a damaging discourse surrounding people who seek asylum. While political elites across the West are distancing themselves from a discourse of inclusive multiculturalism, Australia continues to celebrate its multicultural success despite the ongoing tension between a rhetoric of inclusion and one justifying exclusion. Since discourse is both productive and reflective of the social world, shaping discourse can be understood as a means to shape reality. This research explores how discourse is constructed and reproduced through framing; a discursive practice that influences how certain issues are understood.

By generating greater discussion about framing and the role of discourse in shaping public perception, we can counteract narratives that have come to be accepted as truth.

Nine primary frames were identified through an analysis of communications from Australian Prime Ministers and senior political figures between 2001 and 2019. These texts either directly engaged with the exclusion of people seeking asylum as part of a policy vision for Safe, Secure & Free Australia or discussed the policy vision for a harmonious and inclusive Multicultural Australia. The frames identified (Fairness, Security, Moral & Humanitarian, Australian Values, Crime & Illegality, Liberal Rights & Freedoms, Successful Multiculturalism, Australian Way of Life and Citizenship & Obligation) reproduce narratives which maintain the hegemonic position of discourses which present Australia as a humanitarian, welcoming and inclusive multicultural society and situate people who seek asylum by boat as illegal, seeking an unfair advantage, and as a threat to national security. My hope is that by generating greater discussion about framing and the role of discourse in shaping public perception, we can counteract narratives that have come to be accepted as truth.

Holly McCarthy is a recent MA graduate in Ethnic and Migration Studies from Linköping University and an alumnus of the University of Melbourne (BA). She has a breadth of experience working and volunteering in the Australian refugee sector and is interested in researching the potential language has to affect positive social change.