The Changes Of Australia's Refugee Policies(2001-2011):from "Pacific Solution" To "Malaysian Solution"

Human migration has been generating numbers of social issues in the world today, with refugees making an indispensable part of the movement. Australia is one of the most important refugee recipient countries and how it deals with the increasing number of refugees produces an important influence on the international community. Drastic changes in Australia's refugee polices have been taking place since the beginning of the21st century. In this dissertation, the author tries to account for those changes by mapping and analysing the key events in this period and to draw out prospects for Australia's refugee polices.In Chapter1, after clarifying the definition of "refugee", the author presents the aim of the study and reviews relevant literature and closes this chapter with a brief introduction of his study methodology.Considering the refugee matter is an international issue, the author begins Chapter2with a general view the status quo of the global refugee situation and then goes particularly into a review of the evolvement of Australian refugee polices from its first admission of refugees on a large scale in the aftermath of the Second World War.Chapter3and4constitute the main research of this dissertation-the changes of Australia's refugee polices from2001to2011. Chapter3discusses the refugee policy under the Liberal-National Coalition governments from2001to2007and expounds the key policy in this period-the "Pacific Solution" in terms of its historical, political and social background as well as external catalysts. The author also points out the problems of this solution from multiple perspectives. Chapter4discusses the refugee polices under the Labor governments from2007to2011. The author carries out a detailed analysis of the "a soft period" and the "Indonesian Solution" under the Rudd government and the "East Timor Solution" and "Malaysian Solution" under the incumbent Gillard government. Relevant deficiencies of those policies are elaborated.In Chapter5the author gives three possible approaches to better Australia's refugee policies-delinking the onshore and offshore programs; reforming the legislation and rearticulating the underlying public policy principles; furthering regional cooperation in refugee processing.The author presents his findings and suggestions in Chapter6and brings the dissertation to a natural ending. He finds that the changes in Australia's refugee policies were often associated with the impact of external impetus and sometimes influenced by changes in its domestic political leadership. The key "Solutions" discussed in this dissertation imply a trend of regional cooperation for future policy-making and Australia should always try to deal with the refugee issues with a more humane touch.