Australia and the United States have signed an agreement to exchange a few hundred refugees held at island detention camps in an effort by both governments to discourage future asylum seekers, Australian officials said Wednesday.
Refugee advocates have expressed outrage at a plan to swap asylum seekers intercepted en route to Australia with those detained while trying to enter the United States, describing the scheme as a “dark and murky” political fix.Under the new refugee exchange scheme announced by Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews, asylum seekers detained on Nauru would be taken to the US and Cuban refugees held at Guantanamo Bay would be resettled in Australia.
While commentators and politicians debate over whether this will “deter” or “attract” more refugees (as if refugees are rats in mazes), the bigger picture — of how this is about the Australian nation-state — is being lost. As many indigenous Australians have pointed out, debates within white Australia about who’s “allowed” into the country actually have the effect of undermining indigenous sovereignty. They’re about consolidating the rule of an elite by skewing the terms of engagement over these issues into ones of paternalistic responsibility, or realpolitik.
The actual political costs and benefits to be wrung from these peoples’ lives aren’t being measured by the numerous editorials and opinions floating around. It’s not just about the upcoming election; it’s about white Australia’s entitlement to steal peoples’ sovereignty, both within the Australian territory and in the Pacific. It’s about the nation-state constituting itself as a deputy sheriff in the Pacific, getting power by tacking itself onto the USA. It’s about state power making itself more important than people.
