Disrupting State Spaces: Asylum Seekers in Australia’s Offshore Detention Centres
The Australian government has spent over a billion dollars a year on managing offshore detention (Budget 2018–2019). Central to this offshore management was the transference and mandatory detention of asylum seekers in facilities that sit outside Australia’s national sovereignty, in particular on Ma...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2021-03-01
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| Series: | Social Sciences |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/10/3/82 |
| _version_ | 1797416462278721536 |
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| author | Rachel Sharples |
| author_facet | Rachel Sharples |
| author_sort | Rachel Sharples |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The Australian government has spent over a billion dollars a year on managing offshore detention (Budget 2018–2019). Central to this offshore management was the transference and mandatory detention of asylum seekers in facilities that sit outside Australia’s national sovereignty, in particular on Manus Island (Papua New Guinea) and Nauru. As a state-sanctioned spatial aberration meant to deter asylum seekers arriving by boat, offshore detention has resulted in a raft of legal and policy actions that are reshaping the modern state-centric understanding of the national space. It has raised questions of sovereignty, of moral, ethical and legal obligations, of national security and humanitarian responsibilities, and of nationalism and belonging. Using a sample of Twitter users on Manus during the closure of the Manus Island detention centre in October–November 2017, this paper examines how asylum seekers and refugees have negotiated and defined the offshore detention space and how through the use of social media they have created a profound disruption to the state discourse on offshore detention. The research is based on the premise that asylum seekers’ use social media in a number of disruptive ways, including normalising the presence of asylum seekers in the larger global phenomena of migration, humanising asylum seekers in the face of global discourses of dehumanisation, ensuring visibility by confirming the conditions of detention, highlighting Australia’s human rights violations and obligations, and challenging the government discourse on asylum seekers and offshore detention. Social media is both a tool and a vehicle by which asylum seekers on Manus Island could effect that disruption. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-09T06:04:38Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-af53fd897d244027891602dd64cd77cb |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2076-0760 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-09T06:04:38Z |
| publishDate | 2021-03-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Social Sciences |
| spelling | doaj.art-af53fd897d244027891602dd64cd77cb2023-12-03T12:05:40ZengMDPI AGSocial Sciences2076-07602021-03-011038210.3390/socsci10030082Disrupting State Spaces: Asylum Seekers in Australia’s Offshore Detention CentresRachel Sharples0School of Social Sciences, Western Sydney University, Sydney 2751, AustraliaThe Australian government has spent over a billion dollars a year on managing offshore detention (Budget 2018–2019). Central to this offshore management was the transference and mandatory detention of asylum seekers in facilities that sit outside Australia’s national sovereignty, in particular on Manus Island (Papua New Guinea) and Nauru. As a state-sanctioned spatial aberration meant to deter asylum seekers arriving by boat, offshore detention has resulted in a raft of legal and policy actions that are reshaping the modern state-centric understanding of the national space. It has raised questions of sovereignty, of moral, ethical and legal obligations, of national security and humanitarian responsibilities, and of nationalism and belonging. Using a sample of Twitter users on Manus during the closure of the Manus Island detention centre in October–November 2017, this paper examines how asylum seekers and refugees have negotiated and defined the offshore detention space and how through the use of social media they have created a profound disruption to the state discourse on offshore detention. The research is based on the premise that asylum seekers’ use social media in a number of disruptive ways, including normalising the presence of asylum seekers in the larger global phenomena of migration, humanising asylum seekers in the face of global discourses of dehumanisation, ensuring visibility by confirming the conditions of detention, highlighting Australia’s human rights violations and obligations, and challenging the government discourse on asylum seekers and offshore detention. Social media is both a tool and a vehicle by which asylum seekers on Manus Island could effect that disruption.https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/10/3/82seeking asylumdisruptiondetention centressocial mediarefugeesresistance |
| spellingShingle | Rachel Sharples Disrupting State Spaces: Asylum Seekers in Australia’s Offshore Detention Centres Social Sciences seeking asylum disruption detention centres social media refugees resistance |
| title | Disrupting State Spaces: Asylum Seekers in Australia’s Offshore Detention Centres |
| title_full | Disrupting State Spaces: Asylum Seekers in Australia’s Offshore Detention Centres |
| title_fullStr | Disrupting State Spaces: Asylum Seekers in Australia’s Offshore Detention Centres |
| title_full_unstemmed | Disrupting State Spaces: Asylum Seekers in Australia’s Offshore Detention Centres |
| title_short | Disrupting State Spaces: Asylum Seekers in Australia’s Offshore Detention Centres |
| title_sort | disrupting state spaces asylum seekers in australia s offshore detention centres |
| topic | seeking asylum disruption detention centres social media refugees resistance |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/10/3/82 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT rachelsharples disruptingstatespacesasylumseekersinaustraliasoffshoredetentioncentres |