Deter, Detain, Dehumanise: The Politics of Seeking Asylum

Bringing together leading academics across criminology, geography, law, political science, social work and sociology, this edited collection provides an understanding and critical assessment of Australian government policy as a series of systems, structures and operations that seek to normalise the detention and deterrence of those seeking asylum, explicitly defying Australia’s international human rights obligations. Complemented by shorter, creative writings by refugees with lived experience of detainment at Australia’s behest, chapters pursue an overtly political and innovative conceptual approach to the politicisation of seeking asylum, offering new insights into its structural framings.

Taken together, this body of work examines how Australia has politicised the right to seek asylum, to the detriment of asylum seekers and refugees as well as Australian citizens, and tentatively offers hope on how we might seek to normalise, legitimise and re-humanise the processes.