Refugees, Asylum Seekers, and Emotions

The issue of asylum seekers and refugees is one of the most contested political issues in Australia. This chapter examines ensuing debates, focusing closely on how refugees and asylum seekers are perceived and responded to in relation to the spatial and emotional dynamics that prevail in Australian society and politics. Specifically, the chapter examines how the issue of asylum is intimately connected to and influenced by highly emotional images circulating in the national media. To do this, the authors first discuss the history of refugees at Australia’s borders. In doing so, the authors underline the key role that political and media representations play in shaping refugee debates and policy. The chapter then undertakes an empirical investigation of two crucial recent periods when refugee debates proliferated in both the media and in politics: August to December 2001 and October 2009 to September 2011. By conducting a content analysis of front-page coverage in The Australian and the Sydney Morning Herald, the authors focus on the particular visual framing that has been used to depict asylum seekers and its emotional and political consequences, highlighting how recurring frames have been used to dehumanize and further displace asylum seekers and refugees in the Australian context. The authors then argue that these visual media depictions associate refugees not with humanitarian challenges and responsibilities, but instead with threats to sovereignty and security.