Uncertain lives: migration, the border and neoliberalism in Australia

Over the last twenty years or so there has been a greatly increased anxiety in Australia over those people now often identified as asylum seekers. In this article I argue that this change of attitude is connected with the ongoing reconstruction of Australia as a neoliberal state. I link the importan...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Stratton, Jon
Format: Journal Article
Published: Taylor & Francis 2009
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/17572
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author Stratton, Jon
author_facet Stratton, Jon
author_sort Stratton, Jon
building Curtin Institutional Repository
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description Over the last twenty years or so there has been a greatly increased anxiety in Australia over those people now often identified as asylum seekers. In this article I argue that this change of attitude is connected with the ongoing reconstruction of Australia as a neoliberal state. I link the importance of the border of the nationstate with the development of capitalism and go on to argue that there is a direct relation between the assumptions of neoliberalism and Giorgio Agamben’s theorization of the state of exception. With this argument I suggest that the state of exception is fundamentally raced. I discuss the Australian relationship between migrants, race and capitalism, which historically worked in terms of the White Australia policy, and think about how asylum seekers are understood to threaten the racialized, neoliberal order of Australian capitalism.
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-175722019-02-19T05:34:59Z Uncertain lives: migration, the border and neoliberalism in Australia Stratton, Jon migration state of exception neoliberalism Agamben asylum seekers Australia border race Over the last twenty years or so there has been a greatly increased anxiety in Australia over those people now often identified as asylum seekers. In this article I argue that this change of attitude is connected with the ongoing reconstruction of Australia as a neoliberal state. I link the importance of the border of the nationstate with the development of capitalism and go on to argue that there is a direct relation between the assumptions of neoliberalism and Giorgio Agamben’s theorization of the state of exception. With this argument I suggest that the state of exception is fundamentally raced. I discuss the Australian relationship between migrants, race and capitalism, which historically worked in terms of the White Australia policy, and think about how asylum seekers are understood to threaten the racialized, neoliberal order of Australian capitalism. 2009 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/17572 10.1080/13504630903205324 Taylor & Francis fulltext
spellingShingle migration
state of exception
neoliberalism
Agamben
asylum seekers
Australia
border
race
Stratton, Jon
Uncertain lives: migration, the border and neoliberalism in Australia
title Uncertain lives: migration, the border and neoliberalism in Australia
title_full Uncertain lives: migration, the border and neoliberalism in Australia
title_fullStr Uncertain lives: migration, the border and neoliberalism in Australia
title_full_unstemmed Uncertain lives: migration, the border and neoliberalism in Australia
title_short Uncertain lives: migration, the border and neoliberalism in Australia
title_sort uncertain lives: migration, the border and neoliberalism in australia
topic migration
state of exception
neoliberalism
Agamben
asylum seekers
Australia
border
race
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/17572