4
Jul
Hello from New Editor – Sarah Hughes
I’m delighted to join the RRO team as an editor! My name is Sarah Hughes, and I hold a Vice Chancellor’s Research Fellowship in the Geography department at Northumbria University (Newcastle, UK). I’m a political geographer, working on questions of asylum politics, resistance, citizenship, and the politics of knowledge production in the academy. Mark has... Read More
22
Jun
The Role of Technology in Refugee Education
The Covid-19 pandemic has brought increased attention to education technology (EdTech). Refugees worldwide in particular have suffered a disproportionate amount of harm as one outcome of the pandemic, exacerbating already existing challenges. Now, as-and-when schools reopen, refugee children and youth are more likely than others to stay out of school; or if they do, may... Read More
20
Apr
What Have We Become?: The UK Begins the Offshore Processing of People Seeking Asylum
“What has become of us when it is we who now commit such crimes?”. The Australian novelist Richard Flanagan posed this question in his Foreword to Behrouz Boochani’s No Friend But The Mountains. Boochani had been imprisoned on Manus Island, Papua New Guinea in 2013 by the Australian government for attempting to enter Australia by... Read More
13
Apr
Australia’s current refugee policies and obligations under international refugee law
The Migration and Maritime Powers Legislation Amendment (Resolving the Asylum Legacy Caseload) Act 2014 (Cth) (MMPLA) significantly changed how Australia treats asylum seekers, especially those who arrive by boat. The Migration Act 1958 (Cth) (Migration Act) as amended by the MMPLA introduced new key statutory changes, which included the removal of references to the 1951... Read More
9
Mar
Echoes of the Past in Europe’s Two-Tier Approach to Refugees
They are the lucky ones. A group of female journalists, legislators and judges from Afghanistan who have found a temporary safe haven in Greece and await visas to resettle in Europe. These women were the focus of a recent New York Times piece highlighting Europe’s two-tier system for people seeking asylum. European Union nations strongly... Read More
23
Feb
Book Review: Refugee Journeys – ed. Jordana Silverstein and Rachel Stevens
‘Refugee Journeys: Histories of Resettlement, Representation and Resistance’, ed. Jordana Silverstein and Rachel Stevens, ANU Press, 2021, 244 pages The growth in Australian refugee research over recent decades has provided wider and critical perspectives, often from compelling first person accounts of post-refugee and subsequent generation experience. Originating from a Melbourne University conference on ‘Global Histories’,... Read More
10
Feb
Book Review: After the Tampa – Abbas Nazari
‘After the Tampa: From Afghanistan to New Zealand’ by Abbas Nazari, Allen and Unwin, 2021, 367 pages This is a well-written account by a young Afghan refugee (now 27 years old) of his remarkable life, and the insights he’s gained on how the world works, and could work better. Abbas Nazari is modest enough to... Read More
24
Nov
Book Review: ‘Smuggled: An Illegal History of Journeys to Australia’ – Ruth Balint and Julie Kalman
‘Smuggled: An illegal history of Journeys to Australia’, by Ruth Balint and Julie Kalman, NewSouth Publishing, 2021, 204 pages As the European Union moves further towards Fortress Europe with migrant pushbacks and performative disdain for human dignity, ‘people smugglers’ also are in the frame. They now include parents “endangering the life of (their) child”, who can be... Read More
10
Nov
Book Review: ‘Escape from Manus’ – Jaivet Ealom
“Escape from Manus”, Jaivet Ealom, Penguin Viking, 2021, 347 pages I expected this book to be like Henri Charriere’s 1969 memoir Papillon, about his escape from life imprisonment in French Guiana. Its popular appeal came from his racy and exciting adventures in South America, rather than its expose of the French justice system. Much of... Read More
27
Oct
Book Review: ‘White Russians, Red Peril: A Cold War History of Migration to Australia – Sheila Fitzpatrick
“White Russians, Red Peril, a Cold War History of Migration to Australia”, Sheila Fitzpatrick, La Trobe University Press, 2021, 368 pages Sheila Fitzpatrick, from a famous family of Australian historians, is an internationally-recognised expert on Stalinist Russia, but her interest in Russian emigration came through researching her late husband, Michael, the Latvian-born son of a... Read More