Group Work Practice with Australia's Asylum Seekers

Abstract

Australia's asylum seekers have been rendered voiceless by the circumstances in which they find themselves, circumstances that include being subjected to punitive government policies, denial of basic rights and needs, economic impoverishment and social disadvantage. The Asylum Seekers Centre (ASC) in Sydney provides an individualised casework service to asylum seekers. The ASC also provides opportunities for asylum seekers to improve their circumstances through attending English classes and participating in other educational and social group programmes. The present paper is concerned with small group facilitation of mutual aid processes at the ASC. It focuses on one group programme, ‘Open Forum’, to illustrate a strengths-based empowerment practice. The paper concludes with some suggestions for extending group work practice with and on behalf of asylum seekers.     

Asylum Policies, Trafficking and Vulnerability

This article is located at the intersection of three recent debates on asylum in Europe: the efficacy of asylum policies; the trafficking of asylum seekers, and their growing vulnerability. Most commentators agree that there are relationships between these three debates, but the nature of those relationships remain unclear. Yet the need properly to understand the nature of these links has become especially pressing in the context of a raft of new policy initiatives on both asylum and trafficking, and concerns for their consequences for asylum seekers. At least part of the reason for this lack of clear understanding is significant gaps in empirical research. This article begins to fill some of these gaps, and in so doing to unpick some of the relationships between asylum policies, trafficking and vulnerability. It focuses on the experiences of asylum seekers in Europe, thus presenting a "bottom up" perspective on trafficking and asylum policies. The findings are derived from research among Iranian asylum seekers in the Netherlands, conducted between 1994 and 1996. The article discusses some of the reservations that surround this approach, including methodological issues such as trust, and the difficulties of applying more widely a narrow case study. Within the context of these reservations, it draws three main conclusions. First, empirical evidence to support the view that increasing proportions of asylum seekers are being forced to turn to traffickers in order to negotiate restrictive asylum policies. Second, the ways in which trafficking is exposing asylum seekers – including at least some "genuine" refugees – to new forms of vulnerability. Third, that direct links exist between asylum policies, trafficking and vulnerability, and that the blame for growing vulnerability lies more with asylum policies than with traffickers or with asylum seekers themselves. Finally, these empirical conclusions are targeted on a series of policy implications.     

Changing the Status Quo of Migration and Asylum Policies in Turkey: A Narrative Inquiry

Abstract

Turkey has been experiencing a migration policy transformation in the wake of a new ruling entitled the ‘Foreigners and International Protection Law’ (FIPL). This qualitative inquiry investigates this major change process by focusing on the planned reorganisation which is a result of the legislation process, with the aim of connecting the change process to a change model. The researcher interviewed twenty-seven middle and upper-level managers and experts from the Foreigners, Border, and Asylum Department (FBAD) and Asylum and Migration Bureau (AMB) of the Turkish Ministry of the Interior. Both their implementation of the change process and perceptions on such a transformation period were investigated. The study also examined the change process of the irregular migration and asylum regime within Turkey’s bid for full European Union membership as well as implementation of the draft FIPL. This study provides an example of a policy change process by analysing how governmental practice and legislation have evolved with regard to irregular migration, asylum seekers, and refugees in Turkey. The results noticeably reveal that, instead of seeing irregular migration and asylum as merely a threat to national security or a welfare issue, Turkey has chosen a way of developing a humanitarian approach in both the legislative and administrative fields. This is the first study which attempts to analyse a particular policy change process in the migration and asylum regime in Turkey. The results could influence policy dynamics and set priorities by suggesting policy solutions.     

Conceptualizing and Measuring Immigration Policies: A Comparative Perspective

In the last decade, researchers have developed many innovative ideas for the construction of indices measuring immigration policies. Methodological considerations have, however, been largely absent from the discussion. To close this gap, this paper investigates the characteristics of existing indices by critically comparing and discussing them. We start by providing a definition of immigration policy which may serve as a benchmark when assessing the indices. By means of the analytical framework developed by Munck and Verkuilen (2002), which we adapt and customize for our analysis, we then evaluate the conceptualization, measurement, and aggregation, as well as the empirical scope of thirteen immigration policy indices. We discuss methodological strengths and weaknesses of the indices, how these affect the research questions that can be answered and what the next steps in index building within the field of immigration policy should be.     

Intergroup Behaviour and Ethnicity: A Social Psychological Perspective

Humans exist not only as unique individuals, but also as members of social groups that are formed on the basis of ethnicity, gender, age and so forth. Reflecting this duality are interpersonal and intergroup modes of behaviour, respectively. Thus, humans can act in terms of their personal self and treat others as individuals (interpersonal behaviour); they can also act in terms of group membership and relate to others as members of this or that group (intergroup behaviour). In a mixed marriage, for example, the couple's behaviour toward each other is ‘normally’ interpersonal, but can become intergroup when war breaks out between their respective ethnic groups. Contrary to common sense, factors more minimal than a war are often sufficient to trigger intergroup behaviour. Indeed, seemingly interpersonal encounters are in fact intergroup. How does behaviour shift from interpersonal to intergroup, and with what consequences? To address these questions, I outline a social psychological perspective based on social identity theory and conclude with a discussion on the enigmas of ethnicity.     

Legitimizing Work with Extra-Therapeutic Transferences: A Self Psychological Perspective

Transferences from patients’ everyday lives, or extra-therapeutic transferences, provide rich material in psychoanalytic psychotherapy practice, but the literature has mainly ignored this topic, reserving the term transference for the therapy relationship. While references to the therapy relationship may also be present or emerge from this material, at times explicit interpretations of extra therapeutic transferences are appropriate, without reference to the therapy relationship. Through an extensive literature review and case illustrations from the author’s practice, this paper suggests that the concept of extra-therapeutic transference should be revisited and integrated with a broader understanding of transference, to bring theory more in line with actual practice.     

Asylum Legislation and Asylum Applications: A Geographical Analysis of Belgian Asylum Policy by Country of Origin (1992‐2003)

In many European countries a traditional policy and legal response to an undesirable increase of asylum applications has been the change of asylum law and procedures. By making it more difficult to obtain asylum and refugee status, the attractiveness as a possible country of asylum is believed to diminish. In the period from 1992 to 2003 three major revisions of the Belgian asylum procedure were enacted. When speaking in absolute figures these changes resulted in a certain decrease in the number of asylum applications filed. However, upon a closer examination of the number of asylum applications per country of origin, the effects appeared to be quite differential. Hence, factors other than geographical ones, such as the location of the country of origin or distance, must be decisive for the effect of a change in legislation on the number of asylum claimants coming from one particular country. Nevertheless, it has been possible to distinguish seven clusters of countries of origin where similar developments in patterns of asylum applications and shifts therein, depending on changes in asylum law, can be seen.     

Sanctuary Cities: Policies and Practices in International Perspective

Sanctuary cities in the USA, UK, and Canada aim to accommodate illegalized migrants and refugees in their communities. The concept of the “sanctuary city,” however, is highly ambiguous: it refers to a variety of different policies and practices, and focuses on variable populations in different national contexts. In this article, I examine the international literature to show how urban sanctuary policies and practices differ between national contexts and assess whether there are common features of sanctuary cities. I uncover legal, discursive, identity‐formative, and scalar aspects of urban sanctuary policies and practices. These aspects assemble in ways that differ between countries. The article concludes by raising important practical and theoretical questions about urban sanctuary.     

Asylum Provision: A Review of Economic Theories

In recent years, economic theories have been used to examine asylum provision by non‐persecutor countries. Unfortunately, the nature of the analyses makes the results inaccessible to many who are interested in understanding the topic from multidisciplinary perspectives but are unfamiliar with mathematical methods in economics. We communicate the findings of those analyses in a non‐mathematical fashion, thereby contributing to a facilitation of interdisciplinary research on asylum policy.     

The Culture of Poverty and Learned Helplessness: A Social Psychological Perspective*

This paper links the sociological work of Ball on the analgesic subculture-a subculture of Appalachian poverty-with the sociological research of Merton on adaptation, the social psychological research of Seeman on alienation, and the psychological research of Seligman on learned helplessness. We suggest that (1) Ball's cultural explanation work has not been pursued because it has not been integrated with relevant structural and relevant psychological theory and (2) the analgesic subculture of Appalachia is an extreme intensification of the consequences of alienation resulting in a psychology of learned helplessness.     

The Relationship Between Work-Life Policies and Practices and Employee Loyalty:A Life Course Perspective

Using a representative sample of 3,381 American workers, this study investigates relationships among work/life policies, informal support, and employee loyalty over the life course (defined by age and parental status and age of youngest child). The central thesis is that our understanding of the impact of work/life policies on employee loyalty will be enriched by consideration of the non-work and work contexts that influence employee attitudes and behavior. The relationship between employee child care policies and loyalty varies for women and men at different stages of parenthood. Flexible-time policies have a consistent, positive association with employee loyalty with some variation based on life stage. Informal support (via supervisors and co-workers) has the greatest positive relationship with employee loyalty.     

A Technological Science Perspective for Sociology1

Abstract The traditional positivist model is an inadequate foundation for sociology as a science. The phenomena of society differ from the phenomena assumed by positivism and existing in the world of nature in ways that prevent the successful use of that traditional approach. Agency, the ability to choose among alternatives where the choice makes an important difference, exists in social phenomena but has no counterpart in nature and cannot be dealt with adequately by positivism. A technological science perspective is suggested as an alternative for a science of sociology that can deal with the reality and importance of agency. Eight differences between the traditional perspective and the alternative are sketched. The alternative requires changes in the kind of generalized knowledge produced and the way it is produced, accumulated, and refined. The changes, though seemingly small, would produce a major reconstruction of much of sociology; such changes could result in important progress by the field of sociology.     

Supporting People with a Mental Handicap in the Community: A Social Psychological Perspective

Community care is a key concept in policy-making and service provision for people with a mental handicap. Yet the nature of the 'community' and the source of 'care' referred to is rarely specified. The meaning of 'community' is examined in relation to sociological and social psychological research and the assumption that geographical proximity promotes shared identity and caring relationships is called into question. It is argued that an emphasis on place and nostalgic notions of neighbourliness can obscure the difficult social psychological work of creating relationships within which people with a mental handicap can develop positive social and personal identities. The paper emphasises the importance of such relationships and argues that, for many people with a mental handicap, spontaneous local contact will not provide adequate levels of support and involvement. The creation of artificially maintained supportive networks is recommended and the resource implications of achieving good-quality care in the community are noted.     

Asylum Seekers and Undocumented Migrants’ Increased Social Rights in Sweden1

The most direct way to regulate immigration is to decrease the possibilities to reach a state’s territory through visa demands, carrier sanctions, and limiting the chances of granting a residence permit even when a person succeeds in reaching a state’s territory. However, during the last decade several scholars noted that in an attempt to decrease the number of asylum seekers, states have also started to curb asylum seekers and undocumented immigrants’ right to work and social benefits. Intriguingly, even though Sweden has followed this international pattern of using direct ways to curb the number of asylum seekers, this paper shows that to a large extent Sweden has abstained from using the more recent indirect methods. Although there are examples of reductions in social benefits, the trend has generally been the reverse in Sweden. Unexpectedly, we suggest that an economic crisis, such as the one that occurred in Sweden in the early 1990s, may lead to an increase of certain rights. We also discuss a number of possible explanations for the Swedish case, including whether a proportional electoral system creates possibilities for small parties to influence policies pertaining to social rights. Furthermore, since we demonstrate that in recent years children have been the primary beneficiaries of an increase in social rights, we suggest that groups perceived to be vulnerable are more likely to experience an increase in social rights.     

Conceptualizing Simultaneity: A Transnational Social Field Perspective on Society1

This article explores the social theory and consequent methodology that underpins studies of transnational migration. First, we propose a social field approach to the study of migration and distinguish between ways of being and ways of belonging in that field. Second, we argue that assimilation and enduring transnational ties are neither incompatible nor binary opposites. Third, we highlight social processes and institutions that are routinely obscured by traditional migration scholarship but that become clear when we use a transnational lens. Finally, we locate our approach to migration research within a larger intellectual project, taken up by scholars of transnational processes in many fields, to rethink and reformulate the concept of society such that it is no longer automatically equated with the boundaries of a single nation‐state.     

Migration and Development: A Theoretical Perspective1

The debate on migration and development has swung back and forth like a pendulum, from developmentalist optimism in the 1950s and 1960s, to neo-Marxist pessimism over the 1970s and 1980s, towards more optimistic views in the 1990s and 2000s. This paper argues how such discursive shifts in the migration and development debate should be primarily seen as part of more general paradigm shifts in social and development theory. However, the classical opposition between pessimistic and optimistic views is challenged by empirical evidence pointing to the heterogeneity of migration impacts. By integrating and amending insights from the new economics of labor migration, livelihood perspectives in development studies and transnational perspectives in migration studies – which share several though as yet unobserved conceptual parallels – this paper elaborates the contours of a conceptual framework that simultaneously integrates agency and structure perspectives and is therefore able to account for the heterogeneous nature of migration-development interactions. The resulting perspective reveals the naivety of recent views celebrating migration as self-help development “from below”. These views are largely ideologically driven and shift the attention away from structural constraints and the vital role of states in shaping favorable conditions for positive development impacts of migration to occur.     

Rahimi,A.: The Evolution of EU Asylum Policy

RJB Review of Journals and Books

Rahimi, A.: The Evolution of EU Asylum Policy