‘Genuine’ refugees or illegitimate ‘boat people‘: Political constructions of asylum seekers and refugees in the Malaysia Deal debate

Immigration to Australia has long been the focus of negative political interest. In recent times, the proposal of exclusionary policies such as the Malaysia Deal in 2011 has fuelled further debate. In these debates, Federal politicians often describe asylum seekers and refugees as ‘illegal’, ‘queue jumpers’, and ‘boat people’. This article examines the political construction of asylum seekers and refugees during debates surrounding the Malaysia Deal in the Federal Parliament of Australia. Hansard parliamentary debates were analysed to identify the underlying themes and constructions that permeate political discourse about asylum seekers and refugees. We argue that asylum seekers arriving in Australia by boat were constructed as threatening to Australia's national identity and border security, and were labelled as ‘illegitimate’. A dichotomous characterisation of legitimacy pervades the discourse about asylum seekers, with this group constructed either as legitimate humanitarian refugees or as illegitimate ‘boat arrivals’. Parliamentarians apply the label of legitimacy based on implicit criteria concerning the mode of arrival of asylum seekers, their respect for the so‐called ‘queue’, and their ability to pay to travel to Australia. These constructions result in the misrepresentation of asylum seekers as illegitimate, undermining their right to protection under Australia's laws and international obligations.     

Resource Description and Access: It’s Really Not So Bad

Abstract

This article provides a background for Comics Librarianship and the sources which can be, and are, used. The author describes the application of FRBR (Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records) for serials to the cataloging of the comic book format and ways to adapt these methods to flat MARC records, to aid in retrieval of items. Sample records are included for illustration of methods.     

The McDonald Weibull model

For the first time, we propose a five-parameter lifetime model called the McDonald Weibull distribution to extend the Weibull, exponentiated Weibull, beta Weibull and Kumaraswamy Weibull distributions, among several other models. We obtain explicit expressions for the ordinary moments, quantile and generating functions, mean deviations and moments of the order statistics. We use the method of maximum likelihood to fit the new distribution and determine the observed information matrix. We define the log-McDonald Weibull regression model for censored data. The potentiality of the new model is illustrated by means of two real data sets.     

Examination of Influential Observations to Improve Discriminant Analysis

Three simple transformations are proposed in the context of ratio and product methods of estimation, based on any probability sampling design, and the usual unbiased estimation under varying probability sampling. These transformations may be effected

after the data are collected in a survey. The objective is to obtain improved estimators of the population total     

A Log-Linear Regression Model for the Beta-Weibull Distribution

We introduce the log-beta Weibull regression model based on the beta Weibull distribution (Famoye et al., 2005 Famoye , F. , Lee , C. , Olumolade , O. ( 2005 ). The beta-Weibull distribution . Journal of Statistical Theory and Applications 4 : 121 – 136 . [Google Scholar]; Lee et al., 2007 Lee , C. , Famoye , F. , Olumolade , O. ( 2007 ). Beta-Weibull distribution: Some properties and applications to censored data . Journal of Modern Applied Statistical Methods 6 : 173 – 186 .[Crossref] , [Google Scholar]). We derive expansions for the moment generating function which do not depend on complicated functions. The new regression model represents a parametric family of models that includes as sub-models several widely known regression models that can be applied to censored survival data. We employ a frequentist analysis, a jackknife estimator, and a parametric bootstrap for the parameters of the proposed model. We derive the appropriate matrices for assessing local influences on the parameter estimates under different perturbation schemes and present some ways to assess global influences. Further, for different parameter settings, sample sizes, and censoring percentages, several simulations are performed. In addition, the empirical distribution of some modified residuals are displayed and compared with the standard normal distribution. These studies suggest that the residual analysis usually performed in normal linear regression models can be extended to a modified deviance residual in the proposed regression model applied to censored data. We define martingale and deviance residuals to evaluate the model assumptions. The extended regression model is very useful for the analysis of real data and could give more realistic fits than other special regression models.     

Modeling Nonignorable Nonresponse in Categorical Panel Data With an Example in Estimating Gross Labor-Force Flows

Many large-scale sample surveys use panel designs under which sampled individuals are interviewed several times before being dropped from the sample. The longitudinal data bases available from such surveys could be used to provide estimates of gross change over time. One problem in using these data to estimate gross change is how to handle the period-to-period nonresponse. This nonresponse is typically nonrandom and, furthermore, may be nonignorable in that it cannot be accounted for by other observed quantities in the data. Under the models proposed in this article, which are appropriate for the analysis of categorical data, the probability of nonresponse may be taken to be a function of the missing variable of interest. The proposed models are fit using maximum likelihood estimation. As an example, the method is applied to the problem of estimating gross flows in labor-force participation using data from the Current Population Survey and the Canadian Labour Force Survey.     

Formal Infrastructure and Ethical Decision Making: An Empirical Investigation and Implications for Supply Management

Building on Rest's (1986) conceptual model of ethical decision making, we derive and empirically test a model that links an organization's formal ethical infrastructure to individuals’ moral awareness of ethical situations, moral judgment, and moral intention. We contribute to the literature by shedding light on the importance of a multifaceted formal ethical infrastructure—consisting of formal communication, recurrent communication, formal surveillance, and formal sanctions—as a crucial antecedent of moral awareness. In so doing, we discern how these four elements of a formal ethical infrastructure combine to collectively influence moral awareness based on a second‐order factor structure using structural equation modeling. We test our model based on survey data from 805 respondents with significant work experience across three separate ethical scenarios. Our results across the three scenarios provide overall support for our model. We found that a second‐order factor structure for the formal ethical infrastructure explains the variance among the four infrastructure elements and that a multifaceted formal ethical infrastructure significantly increases moral awareness. Our results further suggest a strong positive effect of moral awareness on moral judgment, which in turn was found to have a positive impact on moral intention. These results were substantiated when taking several individual and contextual control variables into account, such as gender, age, religiosity, work satisfaction, and a de facto ethical climate. Implications for theory, practice, and supply management are discussed.     

Effects of an introductory letter on response rates to a teen/parent telephone health survey

The authors conducted a pilot study in preparation for a larger investigation that will rely on telephone surveys to assess select health behaviors of teens and their parents, with a focus on indoor tanning. This study used a randomized design to assess the impact of a presurvey letter on response rates to a telephone survey, as well as prevalence estimates of ever having used an indoor tanning facility. The letter did not have a significant effect on response rates or prevalence estimates in the two cities under study. Findings suggest that researchers should not assume that a letter sent in advance of a telephone survey will necessarily increase response rates enough to justify their use.     

Hazards of stigma: the sexual and physical abuse of gay, lesbian, and bisexual adolescents in the United States and Canada

Some studies suggest lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) teens are at higher risk than peers for violence at home, in school, and in the community. That can bring them into the child welfare system or services for runaway and homeless teens. This study compared self-reported experiences of sexual and physical abuse based on sexual orientation and gender in seven population-based surveys of youth. The authors used c2 and age-adjusted odds of abuse to compare bisexual to heterosexual, mostly heterosexual, and gay and lesbian students. They also provide case studies to illustrate the experiences of such youth.