Discuss about the Human Rights for Foreign Policy.
Human rights issues are highly considered as issues of social significance in the contemporary times of uncertainty and change. This report seeks to discuss on the role of academics and their researches in the issue of human rights and their contribution towards handling the challenges that are faced in that context. Australia is notoriously renowned for their low human rights standards. They have been rebuked largely for failing in managing indigenous health, counter-terrorism, foreign policy and more (NewsComAu 2016). Academics have studied these issues extensively, put in their useful opinions in the matter, and attempted to help mellow down the situation with recommendations. This report would focus on two academics, Professor Sandra Gifford from Swinburne Institute for Social Research and Dr Lisa Hartley from Curtin University. Both of their contribution in the field of human rights issues would be analysed and compared to find out which one is more useful in the context.
Human rights follow the basic concept of all human beings being equally created and deserving equal treatment. It is the belief none of the human beings deserve to be treated unfairly based on their ethnicity, religion, gender, financial status, origin country, age or any other parameter of discrimination. Its main agenda is that every individual receives the basic needs of food, water, shelter and clothing (Donnelly 2013). Several people agree on a basic definition of human rights, but there are many who do disagree and that gives rise to many global issues. Some of the current issues of human rights abuse include injustice against children, women, refugees and disabled people, international injustice, religious freedom and labor rights (Fariss 2014).
The two academics, whose articles are to be discussed in the purview of human rights, both have a rich background of human rights research behind them. Sandra Gifford is currently a professor of Anthropology and Refugee Studies at the Swinburne Institute for Social Research, Australia. Prior to that, she was engaged as a founding director of the La Trobe Refugee Research Centre – La Trobe University. With her background in medical anthropology, she extensively researched on the issues of ethnicity, migration, settlement and health in the Australian context. Sandra mostly contributes and supervises in the fields of refugee settlement, young people having a refugee background, identity and belonging and the employment of ICTs in enforced migration and displacement (Swinburne.edu.au 2017).
Lisa Hartley at present works at the Centre for Human Rights Education and has been associated since 2012. She has spread out in interdisciplinary teaching and research in the field of human rights and social change. She is driven by the desire to close the gap between theory and practice. Her studies expand across the domains of refugee and migrant issues, community and social psychology. She touches upon topics of refugee resettlement concerns, refugees and asylum seekers rights and bigotry towards marginalized social groups and intercessions for reduction in prejudice. She has a wide range of experience in casework and advocacy by working for asylum seekers in immigration detention and refugees in the society (Oasisapps.curtin.edu.au 2017).
Taking Sandra Grifford’s research journal “Working for a better life: Longitudinal evidence on the predictors of employment among recently arrived refugee migrant men living in Australia”, which she wrote with fellow researchers Ignacio Correa-Velez and Adrian G Barnett, it can be seen that her research can be considered as one of the very few longitudinal studies on refugee migrant employment. Although she specializes in young people researches, this particular study focuses on adult men, refugees, and the predictors of their employment. The predictors of employment identified by her in this particular study significantly helped in understanding the employment patterns in the market for migrant workers. The perseverance she showed in completing this research, which needed her to extend it for two years to get the longitudinal data, shows her commitment towards her work (Von Culin, Tsukayama and Duckworth 2014). Sandra’s specialty lies in ethnographic longitudinal studies that has been carried out with the help of a mixing of methods stretching from homogenous surveys and comprehensive interviewing to digital media, film and hands-on art based approaches. Her major research interests count in forced migration and anthropology that encompasses all her research works.
In comparison to Sandra’s work, Lisa Hartley’s research paper “Asylum Seekers and Resettled Refugees in Australia: Predicting Social Policy Attitude From Prejudice Versus Emotion” that she has composed with the help of fellow researcher Anne Pedersen focuses entirely on a different aspect. Her paper examines the initial situation refugees and asylum seekers face on arrival in Australia, the social policy attitudes for examining of prejudice and the predictors of these attitudes. Similar to Sandy Gifford’s research, Hartley’s paper “People Seeking Asylum in Australia and their Access to Employment: Just What Do We Know?” that she composed together with Caroline Fleay and Anita Lumbus also examines the employment situation of refugees and asylum seekers. She has a different approach to the situation, using research reviews on employment experiences and policies for acquiring a more nuanced picture. What she finds from her research are almost similar to that of Gifford’s – employment situations and opportunities improve with time for the refugees and asylum seekers. She also talks about prejudice and how the representations in front of the public determines the public’s attitudes towards them. In another of Hartley’s research she conducted with Anne Pedersen, “Can We Make a Difference? Prejudice Towards Asylum Seekers in Australia and the Effectiveness of Antiprejudice Interventions”, she made it a point to find out about the antecedents that lead to prejudice against asylum seekers (Smith 2014). She even discusses about the practical implications of the antiprejudicial interventions. Hartley has her interest fixed on areas of refugee rights and women’s rights. She is in constant coordination with the Human Rights Project units of the Master in Human Rights course.
Gifford has her eyes set on finding the patterns of migration injustices in terms of education focusing majorly on young people. Her background in medical anthropology drives her need to connect the refugee injustices with sociological patterns. The conducts her research around forced migration and the resettled asylum seekers. Her papers come under the overall category of social change and humanitarianism. On the other hand, Hartley has a much broader categories of topics under her sleeves. She reaches across the subjects of migrant studies, sociology, community and social psychology. She has a genuine attempt towards mitigating the injustices and depressive situations the refugees come face-to-face with. Instead of sticking to just one variable in her researches she explores multiple others (Bryman and Bell 2015). This makes her contribution in the field more broad and diverse.
Conclusion
Human rights have been seen in this report in a single way – the injustice that takes place against refugees and asylum seekers and the prejudice they face. Two researchers, Sandra Gifford and Lisa Hartley have been chosen to compare their contribution in this field. They both have significant contributions in this human rights field of research. They both assess the situations the refugees and forced migrants in Australia face. Their research work, if compared shows Gifford looks at the employment variable and the situations of young people, whereas Hartley looks at the situations and issues in a much broader perspective.
In the context of the dire and depressing situation migrant and asylum seekers face in Australia in terms of attitude and employment, certain recommendations can be put forward to aid them further:
References
Bryman, A. and Bell, E., 2015. Business research methods. Oxford University Press, USA.
Donnelly, J., 2013. Universal human rights in theory and practice. Cornell University Press.
Fariss, C.J., 2014. Respect for human rights has improved over time: Modeling the changing standard of accountability. American Political Science Review, 108(02), pp.297-318.
NewsComAu. 2016. Advance Australia not fair: Oz named and shamed. [online] Available at: https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/real-life/news-life/human-rights-watch-world-report-2016-australia-criticised/news-story/94577b43adcaadbaede97eb162d41d45
Oasisapps.curtin.edu.au. 2017. View staff profile. [online] Available at: https://oasisapps.curtin.edu.au/staff/profile/view/Lisa.Hartley
Smith, E.R., 2014. Social identity and social emotions: toward new concepitualizations of prejudice. Affect, cognition and stereotyping: Interactive processes in group perception, 297.
Swinburne.edu.au. 2017. Profile | Swinburne University of Technology. [online] Available at: https://www.swinburne.edu.au/health-arts-design/staff/profile/index.php?id=sgifford
Von Culin, K.R., Tsukayama, E. and Duckworth, A.L., 2014. Unpacking grit: Motivational correlates of perseverance and passion for long-term goals. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 9(4), pp.306-312.
Correa?Velez, I., Barnett, A.G. and Gifford, S., 2015. Working for a better life: Longitudinal evidence on the predictors of employment among recently arrived refugee migrant men living in Australia. International Migration, 53(2), pp.321-337.
Fleay, C., Lumbus, A. and Hartley, L., 2016. People Seeking Asylum in Australia and their Access to Employment: Just What Do We Know?. Cosmopolitan Civil Societies: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 8(2), pp.63-83.
Hartley, L.K. and Pedersen, A., 2015. Asylum seekers and resettled refugees in Australia: Predicting social policy attitude from prejudice versus emotion. Journal of Social and Political Psychology, 3(1), pp.179-197.
Pedersen, A. and Hartley, L.K., 2015. Can we make a difference? Prejudice towards asylum seekers in Australia and the effectiveness of antiprejudice interventions. Journal of Pacific Rim Psychology, 9(01), pp.1-14.
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