Australian Social Policy, Immigrants and Refugees

The essay brings about the discussion on the Australian social policy, immigrants, refugees and the related aspects of the policy. Immigration detention in Australia was introduced in 1992, by Labour government. It has been found that this system was maintained in the country by the successive government of Australia over the past 22 years. The system refers to the rules or policy in Australia stating that any individual without a valid visa entering into the country must be detained. The essay includes the concept or description of the refugees or immigrants who arrive in the Australia, as the country has the humanitarian and the legal obligations to accept refugees and reunite their families (Paxton et al., 2015).

Some of the beliefs or values formulated through the Australian social institution or social policy, that Australia’s cultural, ethnic, and linguistic diversity must be celebrated and there should be no discrimination on the immigration on any ground, and the treatment of the refugees or immigrants entering the country. Some aspects that will be included in this essay, such as the historical events, which has influenced the policy in Australia, and the recommendations for the policy (Australian Government Department of Home affairs, 2018).

The 1951 Convention, which relates to the state of Refugees, is the international document that defines who is a refugee. An individual who lives outside his country of origin is called as a ‘refugee’. A person who lives with a fear of the persecution may be on the grounds of several aspects such as race, religion, national origin, or membership in a particular social group (Australian Human Rights Commission, 2014).

 In addition, it refers to the person who finds himself incapable or unwilling to avail protection of that particular country or free from the fear of persecution. Discussing about the immigration, it can be stated that an immigrant is the person who moves out or leaves one’s country to settle in another. Immigration is considered as the natural phenomenon in comparison to the refugee, and is subject to the legal laws of their adopted country (Vaughan et al., 2015). The number of humanitarians and refugees accepted in Australia has varied in the recent years, As of the year 2015-2016, 17, 555 refugees in total has been accepted by the country. Australian law and the immigration detention stated that if any unlawful-citizen enters through unlawful means by sea, are termed as ‘unauthorised maritime arrivals’. A person is not granted a visa or community detention then under the immigration detention, they may be continued to be detained even after the arrangement has been done to remove them from the country (Sanggaran, Haire & Zion, 2016).

Definitions and Social Issues Faced by Australia

A social issue refers to the problem that influences the individuals, in a society with respect to the country. In context to the country, Australia a number of social problems has been identified in the current scenario, and some other prevailing social issues in the country include social welfare and welfare dependency. Youth issues in the country include anger, depression, and drug abuse. Thus, it can be stated that Australia is facing number of social problems currently, which mainly include disability, housing, unemployment, and the health issues (Silove & Mares, 2018).

To discuss about the social institution or social policy of Australia in relation to the immigrants and refugees, it has been discovered that the compliance of this policy is only found in Australia. The policy states about imposing the mandatory and indefinite detention to the people who seek for mental asylum. Australia has a refugee and Humanitarian program that includes an onshore and offshore component (Valtonen, 2016). The component of on-shore includes about people, as when they seek for the status of refugees are called as mental asylum seekers, till the time their case is resolved and they enter into  the country without a valid entry (Ehntholt et al., 2018). As a matter of concern of the social policy for the immigrants and refugees in Australia, the country has established a link between the components of on-shore and offshore. It has been found that those an  increase in the visas to those who are found as refugees  and they have arrived in the country, onshore, and then there will be a decrease in the visas offered to the refugees offshore (Luke, 2018).

Mandatory detention in Australia includes all the citizens who arrive without a proper validation or visa. Thus, the social policy has studied in respect to the infants, pre-schoolers and the children who arrived in the country to seek mental asylum, without a valid visa, are required to stay detained well beyond the time taken to acquire the information regarding the asylum. It has been analysed from the reports that the emotional and mental health development of children is influenced due to their prolonged detention (Parliament of Australia, 2018). The findings have reported that the children, under the program of immigration detention are prone to mental health disorders, in comparison to other children in the Australian community (Correa-Velez et al., 2017). The ministers of Prolonged detention of children does not facilitate in deterring the people smugglers or asylum seekers, as stated by Australian Government. After the launching of enquiry to the detention program, it has been found that there were some changes introduced in the Government policy, and practice (Refugee Council of Australia, 2018).

Mandatory Detention and Impact on Children

Moreover, it affects the high court decisions, as it influences the asylum seeker children in detention (Martinez et al., 2015). The changes made in this respect stated that the children were provided the medical care, detected with the problems of physical and mental illness. All the detention centres are well equipped with the CCTV cameras, in order to capture any significant incident with the children. Therefore, detention of children after the year 1992, government assures them with the mental support (Dal Grande et al., 2015). However, there are some of the human right is considered important for the children and women detention. It states that the detention of a child in any cases should be considered as the last resort for the short and appropriate period. According to the policy of detention, it is the right of every detained child to challenge or question about their legal detention before the court, to the prompt decisions made on such action. In addition, none of the children in such cases should be detained arbitrarily (Chang, 2016). 

The major cases of people in this category include those who enter in Australia by the boat alternatively, by a valid visa (either student or tourist) visa. Over past few, the people seeking asylum in Australia are found to be thousands in numbers, with some of the  driving force including, movement during the war, civil unrest, or persecution. Therefore, it has been determined through the social policy of Australian immigration detention that there are principles, which still underpins the Australia’s refugee policy. These include, Australia is the country, which still recognises the humanitarian commitment, and the responsibility to admit the resettlement of refugees (Bull et al., 2012). They also consider the fact that it is the right of the Australian government to accept refugees, must always remain with the Australian government. Third principle in respect to the social policy of refugee stated that for the resettlement of the refugees in their designated situations, a special assistance is essentially required. The fourth principle, which must be taken care of while resettling refugees, that there may be some refugees who do not want to resettle in Australia, thus their interests should be settled somewhere else (Bronstein & Montgomery, 2011).

Thus, from the above discussion, the attitude of the citizens of Australia towards the social policies has been understood. According to the policies made in the country, these two categories are provided assistance or settlement. The policies aim at providing assistance or settlement to the two categories of new arrivals in Australia. These two categories include refugees, resettled refugees (ones who have arrived through official refugee settlement program), and the asylum seekers arrived via boat and then seeking for the status of refugees (Lau et al., 2018). The attitude of these people towards the social policy was examined as they developed feelings such as, anger, threat, along with the prejudice. Participants felt significantly higher level of anger, fear, threat, and prejudice towards those who were asylum seekers than the resettled refugees. Prejudice act as the most crucial indicator for both the refugees, and the asylums seekers of more restrictive social policy attitudes (Fazel, Karunakara & Newnham, 2014).  

Attitudes of Citizens towards Social Policies

Migration and humanitarian program outcomes, deals and brings about the discussion of the annual statistical data, provided by the Immigration department since 1980s. It provides the data, as how many people are there who are planning to migrate to Australia. The total entrants or the refugees and humanitarian who have entered in Australia since the year 1947-48, was around 297,053, and with the year 2015-16, the government planning revealed the number around 13,750. In addition, it has been analysed that the migration program is compared with the humanitarian program visa grants since the year 1984-85 to the year 2015-16. The results on the comparison of humanitarian as the percentage of the total migration and the total humanitarian intake brought about the figure around as 8.5, in the year 2016 (Phillips, 2015).

  The annual refugee quota that has observed in the country is almost 20,000 people. Australia has ranked 47^th out of the 198 countries in the world according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, in terms of the number of refugees that were hosted between the year 2005 and 2009. In the later years, in 2012 it has been found that the Refugee council of Australia based on per capita amongst the countries who accept refugees ranks Australia on 22nd. Discussing about the asylum seekers, the council has found that in terms of resettlement, the country has been ranked at the 2^nd in the overall world, 3^rd per capita and the proportion of GDP (Silove & Mares, 2018).

Discussion of the historical events, which occurred in the past decades and have influenced the policy of immigrants and refugees, a number of things has been analysed. In the 1930s, the number of refugees from the Nazi Germany, above 7000 refugees was accepted into Australia. After the end of World War II, in the eight years, almost 200,000 Europeans resettled into Australia.  On the draft of Universal Declaration of Human rights, the country mentioned about their reluctance to recognise the right of asylum for the refugees (Zwi & Mares, 2015).

There were some other events, which has influenced the refugee and immigrants social policy, it includes that a young Somali who lived in Nauru, set herself on fire. An event as in the year 2012, depicted about more than 100 boats, carried in excess  to 5,000 refugees, particularly from Iraq, Afghanistan, and Sri Lanka arrived in Australia in that year. In the past killing of hundreds, was witnessed that stated about failed attempts to reach the country by boat. Therefore, the above aspects mentioned about the historical events, which influenced the social policy of refugees, and immigrants in Australia (Asylum Seeker resource centre, 2018).

Migration and Humanitarian Program Outcomes

According to the above description stated on the refugees, and immigrants detention policy in Australia, a number of things has been analysed which must be changed. Thus, there are some recommendations in this regard. It has been observed that the Australian refugee policy resulted into adverse health outcomes, especially to the women and younger children. It is known that the policies, which foster, hopelessness, and the threat of exposure to the dangerous situations or conditions seem to be the most disastrous to the individuals or community. The recommendations for the policy are that it should aim at reducing the negative influence on the mental health of the asylum seekers in the country. There must be a removal or eradication of the detention especially to the offshore facilities of ‘unauthorised arrivals’. In case of any requirements for health, and security checks, it must be completed within the period of two weeks maximum. It is also suggested that the permanent refugee visa collection must be increased; as a part of this increment, TPVs are required to be converted into permanent visas (Australian Human Rights Commission, 2018).  

It is the duty of the child-care detention centres to protect them any kind of physical, mental violence, thus it is essential to establish the royal commission to monitor the long-term impacts. In addition, it is the duty of their caregivers or educators to provide children with the routine-opportunities to participate in the learning environment. As per the Immigration detention standards (IDS), for the children, it is recommended that the educators must provide all the detainees access to the education programs, according to their age, and abilities (Mares & Zwi, 2015). Children must be given services, including pre-school, primary, & secondary-aged children. Sports, crafts, entertainment facilities, playgrounds, regular excursions, and management of those, living as unaccompanied minors, and face difficulty in understanding or learning. Thus, it is the essential suggestion for the child-care and educators, which must be incorporated into their policy for the children mandatory detention programs (Parliament of Australia, 2018).

To conclude the above discussion it has been analysed that social policy welfare is important to be considered in any country. Firstly, these policies are important to those who could receive any benefit from them and help the country. Secondly, these policies are important as lead to the strong and effective social institution of any country. In respect to the social institution or social policy of Australia, it has found that the country employs appropriate policies for detaining unauthorised arrivals through boat or ship, for those who have entered without a legal permission. Australia has been the only country with the mandatory detention programme, for the children as one of the 147 countries. Hence, the essay discussed various aspects of the immigration detention and their impacts in Australia.

References

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Australian Government Department of Home affairs. (2018) Refugee and Humanitarian programme. Retrieved from: https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/trav/refu

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Zwi, K. & Mares, S. (2015). Stories from unaccompanied children in immigration detention: A composite account. Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health, 51(7), 658-662.