Gorman, Alyx & Rick Kuhn: If Australia had its current refugee policy in 1939, we wouldn’t be alive today

Alyx Gorman & Rick Kuhn

If Australia had its current refugee policy in 1939, we wouldn’t be alive today‘, Guardian Australia, 19 September 2016

Compares Australia’s treatment of 1930s refugees from Nazism with today’s treatment of detainees on Manus and Nauru. The article attracted 507 comments

“Refo” was a straightforwardly racist, pejorative term [in the 1930s]. Now Australian governments use more sophisticated language like “unlawful boat arrivals” and “asylum seekers” to denigrate refugees. The rightwing mass media and populist politicians both in and outside mainstream political parties, and the fascist fringe are cruder with their mendacious ravings about “queue jumpers”, “deliberate self-harm” and “threats to the Australian way of life”. Regardless of the terminology, the underlying racist logic is the same.

Click here for all items related to: ,
Loading...