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Research
Yearning to Breathe Free: Seeking Asylum in Australia - Book edited by RAS Coordinator Dean Lusher and RAS Director, Nick Haslam
Forced Migration Web Info - Online Publications
Psychological
Effects of Detention
Philosophical issues
Commentary
and Events
Research
Papers and Projects: University of Melbourne & Other Institutions
RAS Information Pack
Political party policies
on asylum seekers
for Federal Election 2004
Yearning to Breathe Free: Seeking Asylum in Australia
Edited by RAS Coordinator, Dean Lusher
and RAS Director, Nick Haslam
Yearning to Breathe Free presents an overview of the historical, social and political contexts that have shaped Australia’s recent treatment of asylum seekers. An eminent group of authors offers a clear-eyed view of the many dimensions of the asylum seeker predicament, including its psychological and humanitarian consequences, and lays out an agenda for change in policy.
A key feature of the book is the diversity of its perspectives. Authors include politicians from all major parties, advocates and activists, lawyers, journalists, and academics from disciplines as diverse as history, linguistics, media studies, psychiatry and neuroscience. Together they provide the most comprehensive examination of the current conditions facing asylum seekers that has been attempted to date.
For a full chapter breakdown and contributing author list, please go to The Federation Press website.
Read a review by Dr Bob Rich.
All royalties for this book will go to the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre.
To order copies of Yearning to Breathe Free at the direct price of $35.00 (Australian RRP is $39.95), click here to download the order form. Return form, with payment, to The Federation Press Pty Ltd.
Reviews
Yearning to Breathe Free
Seeking Asylum in Australia
Edited by Dean Lusher & Nick Haslam
The Federation Press, Sydney, 2007
ISBN 978 186287 656 9
I would expect a book with this title, compiled and produced by an organisation called Researchers for Asylum Seekers, to be passionate and biased. The passion is there, but the bias is not. The 26 essays by 37 contributors form a document that is fair, even-handed and informative.
I am a refugee myself, although from a time when Australia actively sought migrants. I’ve been involved in working for asylum seekers for years. All the same, I learned many interesting facts from reading Yearning to Breathe Free.
As just one example, today’s response to asylum seekers is the child of the Labor Party, not of the Liberals. John Howard merely used a tool developed for him by Bob Hawke. When the boat people started to arrive from Vietnam, Labor was scared they would all turn out to be staunch right wingers; future Liberal voters. Misleading terms like ‘queue jumpers’ and mandatory detention were the result. In recent years, Howard simply used the same strategies, and the same turns of phrase, to oppress and vilify a different group of people desperate to escape oppression and violence.
I was impressed by the list of contributors. Some names were new to me, but most Australians will know Malcolm Fraser, Carmen Lawrence, Lindsay Tanner and Lyn Allison; Phillip Adams, Sir Gustav Nossal and Arnold Zable. Anyone involved with human rights issues will have been inspired by Julian Burnside, QC, another contributor.
Any collection of contributions from a wide range of authors can be expected to vary in both style and quality. All I can say is that someone has performed a wonderful bit of editing, because the writing is uniformly of very high quality, clear and understandable. Style varies from dry academic to poetry in prose, but all of it is informative and inspiring.
The level of difficulty of this book is such that any senior high school student should be able to understand it. And I have no doubt that all high school students, and their parents, should be set Yearning to Breathe Free as compulsory reading.
Dr Bob Rich.
Forced Migration Web Info - Online Publications
The Refugee Studies Centre at Oxford University in the UK moderates an email list called “Forced Migration”. It is a great source of information for people working in this area. To sign up to the list please go to: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?SUBED1=forced-migration&A=1
The list recently sent out links to a number of online publications that might be useful to some RAS members.
**Online Articles/Publications**
Asylum Law and Female Genital Mutilation: Recent Developments (Congressional
Research Service, Feb. 2008) - http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RS22810.pdf
Climate Change, Environmental Degradation and Migration: Addressing
Vulnerabilities and Harnessing Opportunities - Background Paper (IOM & Greek
Chairmanship of the Human Security Network, Feb. 2008) -
http://www.iom.int/jahia/webdav/shared/shared/mainsite/events/docs/hsn_background_paper.pdf
The Destitution Tally: an indication of the extent of destitution among asylum
seekers and refugees (Asylum Support Programme Inter-Agency Partnership, Jan.
2008) - http://icaruk.wordpress.com/2008/03/10/49/
EXCOM Standing Committee, 41st Meeting, Documents (4-6 March 2008) -
http://www.unhcr.org/doclist/excom/418f47444.html
- Issues discussed include protracted refugee situations, supporting the return
and reintegration of displaced populations, assessing unmet needs of populations
of concern, among others.
Handbook for the Protection of Women and Girls (UNHCR, March 2008) -
http://www.unhcr.org/protect/PROTECTION/47cfae612.html
"Managing Migration: The Global Challenge," Population Bulletin, vol. 63, no.1
(March 2008) - http://www.prb.org/bulletins/63.1migration.pdf
Migration and Climate Change, IOM Migration Research Series, no. 31 (IOM, 2008) -
http://www.iom.int/jahia/webdav/site/myjahiasite/shared/shared/mainsite/published_docs/serial_publications/MRS-31_EN_correct.pdf
More responsive public services? A guide to commissioning migrant and refugee
community organisations (Joseph Roundtree Foundation, Feb. 2008) -
http://www.jrf.org.uk/bookshop/details.asp?pubID=941
Public Health Facility Toolkit: Tools for Assessing, Monitoring and Evaluating
the Quality of Public Health Services Supported by UNHCR (UNHCR, Jan. 2008) -
http://www.unhcr.org/protect/PROTECTION/47c3dfce2.pdf
UNHCR Observations on the Commission Proposal for a Council Directive Amending
Directive 2003/109/EC Establishing a Long-Term Residence Status to Extend its
Scope to Beneficiaries of International Protection (UNHCR, 2008) -
http://www.iom.int/jahia/webdav/site/myjahiasite/shared/shared/mainsite/published_docs/serial_publications/MRS-31_EN_correct.pdf
UNHCR second rapid assessment of return of Iraqis from displacement locations in
Iraq and from neighbouring countries (UNHCR, March 2008) -
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900sid/SHIG-7CEDPJ?OpenDocument&rc=3&cc=irq
**Annual Reports**
2007 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices (U.S. Department of State) -
http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2007/index.htm
Annual Review of Global Peace Operations 2008 (Center on International
Cooperation) -
http://www.rienner.com/viewbook.cfm?BOOKID=1677&search=global%20peace
- Briefing paper summarizing report’s findings:
http://www.cic.nyu.edu/internationalsecurity/docs/Final2008briefingreport.pdf
Global Humanitarian Assistance 2007/2008 (Development Initiatives) -
http://www.globalhumanitarianassistance.org/gha2007.htm
State of the World's Minorities 2008 (Minority Rights Group International) -
http://www.minorityrights.org/?lid=6138
**Journals/Newsletters**
AWR Bulletin, vol. 45, no. 4 (2007) -
https://bwv-verlag.de/Zeitschriften/AWR-Bulletin/AWR_Inhalt0407.pdf (contents)
- Mix of articles on asylum and migration policies in Europe and North America.
Disaster Prevention and Management, vol. 17, no. 1 (2008) -
http://tinyurl.com/2payct (contents)
- Mix of articles including one on learning the lessons of disasters from the
past 105 years.
Disasters, vol. 32, no. 1 (March 2008) -
http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/toc/disa/32/1 (contents)
- Mix of articles including one on IDP women in Colombia.
European Journal of Migration and Law, vol. 9, no. 4 (2007) -
http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/mnp/emil/latest (contents)
- Mix of articles.
Field Exchange, no. 32 (Jan. 2008) - http://www.ennonline.net/fex/32/fex32.pdf
(full-text)
- From the Emergency Nutrition Network (ENN).
International Journal of Refugee Law, vol. 19, no. 4 (Dec. 2007) -
http://ijrl.oxfordjournals.org/content/vol19/issue4/index.dtl (contents)
- Mix of articles.
Journal of Refugee and Migration Issues, vol. 4, no. 1 (2008) -
http://www.sandstonepress.net/jmri/contents.php (contents)
- Two articles, including one on immigration and asylum law in Australia.
Journal of Refugee Studies, vol. 21, no. 1 (March 2008) -
http://jrs.oxfordjournals.org/current.dtl (contents)
- Mix of articles.
Refugee Rights News, vol. 4, no. 1 (Jan. 2008) -
http://www.refugee-rights.org/Assets/PDFs/RRNJan08.pdf (full-text)
- Includes feature article on Kenya.
Refugee Survey Quarterly, vol. 26, no. 4 (2007) -
http://rsq.oxfordjournals.org/current.dtl (contents)
- This issue reproduces presentations to the 12th Annual Humanitarian Conference
of Webster University, Geneva. The theme was "The Spirit of Geneva in a
Globalized World."
Women's Asylum News, no. 73 (March 2008) -
http://www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/refworld/rwmain?docid=47ce9e0e2
(full-text)
- From the Refugee Women's Resource Project (RWRP).
**Web Sites/Tools**
Global Database on the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement
(Brookings-Bern Project on Internal Displacement & ISIM) -
http://www.idpguidingprinciples.org/
- Provides access to “official documents, including recommendations of United
Nations treaty-monitoring bodies, reports of UN charter bodies, and UN General
Assembly resolutions about the rights of these IDPs.”
Protection Starter Kit (UNHCR) -
http://www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/refworld/rwmain?page=protection_kit
- “Compilation of basic protection and protection-related documents…” from
Refworld.
World Directory of Minorities and Indigenous Peoples (Minority Rights Group
International) - http://www.minorityrights.org/directory
- Provides access to profiles of some 700 minority and indigenous groups by
region, country, or group.
Elisa Mason
Information Specialist
http://fm-cab.blogspot.com
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Note: The material contained in this communication comes to you from the
Forced Migration Discussion List which is moderated by the Refugee Studies
Centre (RSC), University of Oxford. It does not necessarily reflect the
views of the RSC or the University. If you re-print, copy, archive or
re-post this message please retain this disclaimer. Quotations or extracts
should include attribution to the original sources.
List archives are available at: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/forced-migration.html
http://www.ras.unimelb.edu.au/
melbourne australia
This page,
its contents and style, are the responsibility of the author and do not represent
the views, policies or opinions of The University of Melbourne
Author:
Mr Dean Lusher from the School of
Behavioural Science, University of
Melbourne
Last updated: 12 May 2008