Journal articles on the topic 'Migratory terrorism'

Resumen:La gestión coordinada de las fronteras y el funcionamiento eficaz de los sistemas de tratamiento de datos de circulación de personas pueden servir como mecanismo de alerta temprana frente al riesgo de ataques terroristas. Puede fortalecer la capacidad colectiva de los Estados para detectar, prevenir y combatir el terrorismo al facilitar el intercambio oportuno de información, permitiendo así adoptar de forma responsable decisiones cruciales.Este trabajo analiza los concretos instrumentos de gestión de datos en fronteras que pueden ser útiles en la lucha antiterrorista, porque el primer paso en inteligencia reside en la obtención de información, que luego será analizada y tratada para convertir esa información en conocimiento. Como tendremos oportunidad de comprobar, muchas de las bases de datos en fronteras se crearon para controlar la entrada de inmigrantes en las fronteras europeas, pero la información que ofrecen dichos sistemas puede servir también para luchar contra ese reto que nos amenaza, el del terrorismo yihadista. No obstante, este trabajo subraya que se trata de fenómenos distintos.Es cierto que la nueva oleada de ataques yihadistas ha coincidido, en el mismo espacio temporal, con la mayor crisis migratoria a la que se ha tenido que enfrentar Europa debido a crisis humanitarias y posteriormente a la guerra de Siria u otros conflictos. Pero, no son lo mismo. El terrorismo yihadista y la inmigración poco o nada tienen que ver, por mucho que se hayan querido vincular o se hayan pretendido justificar determinadas políticas contra la inmigración como algo necesario para luchar contra el terrorismo yihadista, con el fácil argumento de que frenando la inmigración se evita la entrada de potenciales terroristas en Europa.El trabajo advierte del riesgo de que la lucha contra el terrorismo sea utilizada para reforzar los controles de personas en las fronteras con el verdadero objetivo de frenar los flujos migratorios. Al tiempo, subraya la necesidad de que en dichos controles se sigan directrices y prácticas claras y se respeten plenamente las obligaciones que los Estados tienen de conformidad con el Derecho internacional, tal como ha recordado el Tribunal Europeo de Derechos Humanos y el Tribunal de Justicia de la Unión Europea. De hecho, no son pocos los casos en los que estos Tribunales han subrayado la relevancia indubitada de principios como la reserva de ley, la necesidad o la proporcionalidad como sustrato de la licitud de muchas medidas que incluyen el tratamiento de datos personales.Summary:1. Jihadist terrorism as a cross-border phenomenon. 2. The benefit of data exchange on crossing-borders in the Schengen area. 3. New guidelines on data processing and the safeguard of national security. 4. The register of passengers (The Personal Name Record or PNR). 5. When the data cross the external borders. The exchange of data with third countries. 5.1. The failed PNR Agreement with Canada and the EU Court of Justice’s standards regarding the transfer of passengers’ data. 5.2. The exchange of data with the United States. The EU-US Umbrella Agreement and the Privacy Shield. 6. The use of profiles and blacklists of alleged terrorists in cross-bording. 7. ConclusionsAbstract:EU Coordinated border management and effective functioning of data processing systems related to the movement of persons may serve as an early warning mechanism against the risk of terrorist attacks. It can strengthen the collective capacity of States to detect, prevent and combat terrorism by facilitating the timely exchange of information, thereby enabling crucial decisions to be adopted in a responsible manner.This paper analyzes the concrete border data management tools that can be useful in the fight against terrorism. The first step in intelligence lies in obtaining information, which will then be analyzed and treated to turn that information into useful knowledge. As we will have an opportunity to verify, numerous border databases were created to control the entry of immigrants into European borders, but the information offered by these systems can also serve to fight against this challenge that threatens us, that of jihadist terrorism.Nevertheless, we emphasize that terrorism and immigration are different phenomena. The truth is that the new wave of Jihadist attacks took place along the largest migratory crisis that Europe faced due to different humanitarian crises and to the war in Syria and other conflicts. But they represent different realities. Jihadist terrorism and immigration have little or nothing in common. In spite of this, many wish to link both with a view to justify certain anti-immigration policies as necessary actions for coping with Jihadist terrorism. This has been done based on a simple narrative: holding back immigration prevents the entry of potential terrorists in Europe.This paper shows that the risk that the fight against terrorism will be used as a basis to reinforce people controls at the borders, while the true objective of these measures is to curb migratory flows. At the same time, it underlines the need for clear guidelines and practices to be followed when implementing such controls. It also vindicates the need for States to observe their obligations laid down by international law, as recalled by the European Court of Human Rights and the EU Court of the Justice. In fact, in many cases, these jurisdictions highlighted the undoubted relevance of the statutory reserve principle, the principle of necessity or the principle of proportionality, as legal basis for the adoption of measures that include personal data processing.

Within a changing global consciousness for international guardianship of the targets of terrorism, this article explores the broad narratives, strengths, and limitations of adopting community policing for the control of herdsmen terrorism in West Africa. It follows the search by social engineering and criminal justice practitioners for a relational and experiential agent for social change against destructive terrorist tendencies and its eroding influence on the sensibilities of human civilization. The article frames an approach for creating a social policing environment in rural and poor communities along pastoral transhumance routes in West and Central Africa. The mass murder of indigenous communities by the migratory and transborder terror groups in this region is a crime against humanity. The adoption of the concept of “connected communities” is suggested to create a multilayered and all-involving intelligence community policing shield in individual communities under siege of the pastoralists.

<p><em>The international migration has intensified during the last two decades. The number of the irregular migrants entered the European Union reached unprecedented level between 2014 and 2018. From 2015 to nowadays the European Union experienced a massive number of casualties caused by terrorist attacks.</em><em> </em><em>These facts are reinforced by the data of the European criminal statistics as well. Having regard to that the terrorist attacks constitute one of the most serious violations of the human rights and fundamental freedoms on which the EU is founded, it is very important to deal with the relationship between the mentioned two phenomena. Although, </em><em>there is no evidence to declare that all of migrants are terrorist, however—it can be underlined-, the terrorists make use of migratory flows to enter into EU. It shall be emphasized that the phenomenon of the irregular migration is favorable to the terrorist organizations. The paper deals with the question of whether</em><em> </em><em>is there a connection</em><em> </em><em>between the irregular migration and the terrorism in the European Union, using European statistics of the European Law Enforcement Agency (EUROPOL) and the FRONTEX. Dealing with legal documents and analyzing them is not aim of this paper. </em></p>

Abstract The principle of solidarity is embedded in the foundations of the European Union (eu) legal system and is integral to the very ethos that has made the Union possible. However, as Member States struggle with contemporary challenges such as high migration flows, terrorism and economic turmoil they have predominantly adopted individualist and protectionist strategies which undermine the character of the Union. Those strategies include, for instance, building walls and securitising internal borders. This contribution argues that solidarity is inextricably linked with responsibility. Solidarity gives rise to responsibility and is a desired consequence of responsibility. Thus, this work suggests that strengthening the binomial of solidarity/responsibility is the solution that will create effective practices in meeting the humanitarian needs of refugees and sharing burdens between Member States. The contribution analyses the eu’s commitment to solidarity/responsibility and calls for Member States to demonstrate their commitment. Three types of Member State solidarity/responsibility are identified: 1) towards refugees and migrants, 2) towards fellow countries and 3) towards the eu itself. The latter finds its legal foundation in the principle of ‘sincere cooperation’ as enshrined in Article 4 (3) teu and constitutes a means of protecting collective interest and precluding unilateral Member State actions that might jeopardize the entire eu project.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to draw attention to the effect of the growing informal financial sector (IFS) on the effectiveness of anti-criminal finance laws. Specifically, the growth of the IFS has been brought on by the unprecedented rise in refugee and migrant movement around the world. This paper will focus on how refugee smuggling in the Eastern Mediterranean and Western Balkan region – and the consequent rise of the IFS – has affected the suitability of apply anti-money laundering and financial action task force frameworks in these countries. Design/methodology/approach It assesses the effectiveness of national and international legal documents on anti-criminal finance. It also uses data sets and analyses secondary and primary sources to estimate the size and importance of the IFS. Findings The exponential and rapid growth of the IFS has undermined efforts to prevent the financing of trafficking, terrorism, corruption and money-laundering. The present legal devices to address criminal finance has been wholly inadequate and counter-productive. Research limitations/implications There are limited reliable or accurate data available on the IFS, how much money goes through it or how important it is to criminal activities such as money laundering or terrorist finance. Without field-research, this study remains exploratory. Practical implications The growth of the IFS and migratory movement is a complex dilemma that must be accounted for when seeking to truly improve anti-criminal finance laws, especially in developing and transition countries. Originality/value This paper demonstrates the importance of considering the IFS and migratory and refugee movements in creating legal instruments to combat financial crime. It also suggests a direction for future research.

Abstract The rise of fundamentalism and terrorism, and the violent acts committed against women, during the Algerian conflict of the 1990s (the ‘Black Decade’, also referred to as the Algerian ‘Dark Decade’) undoubtedly had a catalytic effect on the mass feminization of Algerian migration. However, they arguably served to amplify an existing migratory movement of women. This article argues that, during times of war or internal conflict, violence and a climate of fear may be the main reason why women flee, but it is not the only one. Women’s forced migration is complex and is often related to specific, gender-based oppression, which is exacerbated by conflict. This research, conducted amongst highly skilled women who left Algeria during and after the Black Decade, reveals that their decisions to leave were also greatly influenced by their position as women: the violence specifically targeted at educated or high-profile women, women’s legal situation and the oppression they experienced in family and society. Yet, despite the UNHCR’s gender guidelines, the complex experiences of women fleeing gender-based violence often remain unacknowledged by national asylum regimes.

The European Union is facing unprecedented challenges, both global and internal: regional conflicts, terrorism, growing migratory pressures, protectionism, social and economic inequalities. A safe and secure EU where all citizens feel sure and can move freely, external borders are secured, where international norms are respected, Europe determined to fight terrorism. The European international system is not rigid; it is characterized by constant changeability of the configuration of forces, spheres of influence. The states of the European Union system may be divided into static, transformative and turbulent. For example, Brexit, together with the cooperation and peaceful co-existence, proceed from the current state of the international system, as far as structural limitations imposed on the actions of states by the hierarchy of a system are more stable than the level of their influence. The disparity between the status of a state in the system and its potential abilities are the most credible explanations of conflict behaviour thereof. Conflict and cooperation are the most important manifestations of the subject of international relations and logically proceed from structural peculiarities of a current international system. Generally speaking, the existence of the system of international relations is defined by conditions of coexistence of contemporary Poles of international power, the superpower status of which is fixed with respect to peripheral social subject by relevant factorial, spectral, departmental, geo-civilizational, and institutional elements. The expansion in the range of issues, which did not require the unanimous approval of the EU member-states, but solely by voting on the principle of the qualified majority, was to promote the enforced cooperation between the EU member-states. These vectors were chosen due to the changes in the international arena which occurred during the period researched, reflected rather in these areas than in the economic policy since the state received the freedom of action in the search of a new balance of power. What is more, the EU institutions that govern the common foreign and security policy and the European defence remained weak even after the Maastricht treaty has been reviewed and the Amsterdam treaty has been signed. The monetary union is an identity instrument of the EU. The multi-ethnics identity is the feature of the migration processes in European Union.

English abstract: This article examines how migration control in Malaysia has been transformed in response to non-traditional security threats. Since the 2010s, the state has expanded the territorial reach of its immigration enforcement through trilateral border patrol initiatives and multilateral defense establishments. Malaysia’s extraterritorial policy is mostly implemented through the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) frameworks. Common geopolitical security concerns, particularly the transnational crime and terrorism confronted by Malaysia and its bordering countries, have led to extraterritorial control measures to secure its external borders. Key elements include the growing involvement of the army, the institutionalization of border externalization, and the strengthening of the ASEAN’s regional immigration cooperation. By analyzing the ASEAN’s intergovernmental collaboration, this article demonstrates that Malaysia’s extraterritorial migration practices are militarized, externalized, and regionalized.Spanish abstract: Este artículo examina la transformación del control migratorio en Malasia en respuesta a las amenazas de seguridad no tradicionales. Desde 2010, el estado aumentó el alcance territorial de su control migratorio a través de patrullas fronterizas trilaterales y establecimiento de defensa multilateral. La política extraterritorial de Malasia tiene como marco principal la Asociación de Naciones del Sureste Asiático (ASEAN en inglés). Las preocupaciones de seguridad geopolítica comunes, particularmente los delitos y el terrorismo transnacional, provocaron medidas de control extraterritorial para asegurar sus fronteras externas. Los elementos clave son la creciente implicación del ejército, la institucionalización de la externalización de fronteras y el fortalecimiento de la cooperación regional en inmigración de ASEAN. Este artículo demuestra que las prácticas migratorias extraterritoriales de Malasia están militarizadas, externalizadas y regionalizadas.French abstract: L’article analyse les changements apportés aux services de con trôle de la migration en Malaisie. Depuis 2010, l’État a étendu son champ d’action et mis en place des initiatives de patrouilles frontalières trilatérales, de défense multilatérale et une police extraterritoriale déployée sous l’impulsion de l’Association des nations de l’Asie du Sud-Est (ANASE). Les problèmes de sécurité géopolitique, comme la criminalité transnationale et le terrorisme qui sévissent en Malaisie et dans les pays voisins, ont donné lieu à des mesures extraterritoriales pour sécuriser les frontières extérieures. Parmi elles, figurent l’implication de l’armée, l’externalisation institutionnalisée du contrôle aux frontières et le renforcement de la coopération de l’ANASE en matière d’immigration. Par l’analyse de cette coopération intergouvernementale, cet article démontre que la politique migratoire malaisienne est régie par la militarisation, l’externalisation et la régionalisation.

Edna O’Brien’s last published novels, "The Little Red Chairs" (2015) and "Girl" (2019), have been unanimously praised by criticism. "The Little Red Chairs" has been acclaimed as her masterpiece by Philip Roth in the book jacket cover, and as her most ambitious novel by Éilís Ní Dhuibhne at the moment of its publication (2015), which is a lot to say about an author who has been a referent in Irish literature since the 1960s. Girl has been also praised by influential figures such as Christina Patterson (2019) and Anne Enright (2019), among many other reviewers."The Little Red Chairs" has been inspired by the historical episode of the Balkans War and the siege of Sarajevo. Divided in three parts, the novel takes its readers from the west of Ireland to the Balkans through London and The Hague Tribunal in a series of movements that serve the author to deploy the wide canvas of migratory exchanges in our current society which involve political exiles, refugees, expatriates and economic emigrants. "Girl", has been described by O’Brien herself as “the hardest and the most painful” novel that she has ever written. On this occasion, the narrative is based on the kidnapping of more than two hundred schoolgirls by the Boko Haram Jihadist sect, after the author’s journey to Nigeria, where she interviewed many of the people involved in the tragic episode. My study of these two novels focuses on Edna O’Brien’s ethical compromise, giving voice to the most traumatic episodes and traumatizedvictims of our contemporary society, as well as on her brilliant use of the genre of the novel for recording the chaos, complexity, dislocation and fragmentation caused by radicalisms, political violence and terrorism.

La radicalización ideológico-política y el terrorismo generan una serie de consecuencias desastrosas para el correcto funcionamiento de una sociedad. Actualmente, situaciones de convulsión social consecuencia de la crisis económica y migratoria, así como el terrorismo de corte ideológico-religioso, están ocasionando un aumento de la polarización y la radicalización ideológico-política. El planteamiento de intervenciones preventivas eficaces para atajar estos procesos requiere de un estudio sistemático y multidisciplinar en el que la psicología social debe ostentar un papel central. El objetivo del presente trabajo es hacer una propuesta comprensiva de corte conceptual que permita ordenar los procesos psicosociales que subyacen a la radicalización violenta de grupos con ideologías políticas extremistas. Concretamente, se pretende poner de manifiesto la idoneidad de analizar un conjunto de variables psicosociales que desempeñan un papel esencial en el equilibrio personal del individuo, en relación con el reclutamiento de terroristas, así como con el mantenimiento funcional de grupos radicalizados. Asimismo, y en respuesta a la necesidad de considerar nuevas perspectivas de investigación en el estudio del fenómeno terrorista, se examina el papel de la victimización y victimización competitiva, encontrándose suficientes argumentos teóricos como para recomendar la incorporación de dichos constructos en futuras investigaciones.

Cet article analyse la croissance des demandes d’asile déposées sur le territoire ou à la frontière des démocraties occidentales et la « crise migratoire » qui s’en est suivie en 2015/16. Si la multiplication des foyers de violence à proximité de l’Europe a joué un rôle central, l’analyse doit être complétée par une prise en compte de trois évolutions géographiques de longue durée : le raccourcissement des distances, la crise des politiques de rétention et l’asymétrie géographique des droits. Elles permettent d’interpréter la réaction de fermeture des frontières comme une tentative de (re-)mise à distance des réfugiés dans un contexte de globalisation. Cette analyse complète par une approche géohistorique la littérature récente sur la « crise migratoire » centrée sur le rôle des partis populistes, la peur du terrorisme et les dis fonctionnements des mécanismes de solidarité.

The Sikhs in Afghanistan are the descendants of one of the non-Muslim communities that have lived in Afghanistan for centuries. Threatened by political insecurity, terrorist attacks and economic problems that have marked the country for several decades, they began in the 1980s a migratory process that has not stopped since then and has considerably reduced their number today. In this article, I will first present the social and historical origins of the Sikh community in Afghanistan, as well as some aspects that can help us to differentiate them from the international Sikh community. We will then see how the Afghan legislation and different versions of the constitution have addressed non-Muslims in general and the Sikh community in particular since the 1920s. Today, Afghan electoral law saves seats for non-Muslim communities’ representatives (Sikhs and Hindus) in parliament. To conclude, we will see how the diaspora of Afghan Sikhs is organized, by exploring the countries where they have been present for four decades and where we can find members of the second or the third generation, as well as countries like France where their presence is much more recent and is still in the integration phase within the host society.

The late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries have been dominated by multifarious crises that have given way to individual and collective wounds resulting from environmental disasters, exile and migratory movements, war, terrorism, radicalism and other disturbing historical episodes. Our main contention is that trauma and/or excessive exposure to vulnerable situations can be relieved thanks to diverse narrative practices. Accordingly, we explore the field of Trauma Studies since its emergence to its current evolution towards the vulnerability paradigm, examining the different meanings of vulnerability not only from the perspective of the life sciences but also from the social sciences and its application to the humanities. Then, we move on to the notion of resilience and how it can help us articulate and/or move beyond trauma and vulnerability. In keeping with this, considering the ethical and political relationality between the self and other, we highlight one’s tendency to be affected by the other’s wounds and vulnerability as well as the inevitability of interdependency and interconnectedness between people and non-human entities. Thus, we explore the role of literature in giving voice to the voiceless and to unheard experiences of suffering as well as in representing the demise of the sovereign self and the rise of human and non-human interconnectedness after being exposed to traumatic or disastrous events, as represented in contemporary literatures in English.


 
 
 This paper investigates linkages between two apparently disparate government initiatives. Together they function symbolically to maintain Australia’s moral order by excluding filth, keeping personal and national boundaries tight and borders secure. The Commonwealth government recently set aside over five million dollars to improve continence in the Australian population (incontinence is the inability to control movements of the bowel or bladder, producing leakage of filth in the form of urine and faeces). The Strategy funded research into prevalence rates, treatment strategies, doctor education, a public toilet mapping exercise, and public awareness through a telephone helpline and patient information pamphlets. Almost simultaneously with the continence initiative, concerns over the influx of asylum seekers to Australia lead the federal government to focus more resources on strengthening Australia’s border protection. This paper explores the two phenomena of personal and national boundary maintenance as aspects of classification dilemmas based in conceptions of filth, pollution and cleaning rituals. Continence and Boundary Maintenance Elias has pointed out that the development of rules of decorum around bodily control was the very essence of ‘the civilizing process’ in Western cultures. Currently, we see bodily control as a prerequisite for becoming an adult, and the loss of control is a sign of a loss of responsible adulthood, a ‘spoiled identity’ (Goffman; Murcott; Hepworth). However, Foucault pointed out that the body, through the imposition of the State and the medical profession, has become a target for self-work, resulting not in self-empowerment but in subjection. Through the ‘new micro-physics of power’ (Foucault 139), the bladder and pelvic floor have become sites in need of control. Analysis of discourses around incontinence, both in the public and private spheres, indicate a concern with issues of control and agency, particularly the moral imperative to be in control of one’s body and the feelings of incompetence produced by the loss of control. Incompetence, self blame and guilt are evident in sufferers’ talk about their condition (Tilbury et al.; Murcott). The negativity surrounding incontinence is connected with the construction of urine and faeces as filth – but is this construction of dirtiness ‘natural? Mary Douglas argued that cultural classification creates the order of social life and has an inherently moral dimension. A consequence is that things which cross categorical boundaries are impure and therefore dangerous, because they threaten the rules of classification. Douglas suggested that there is nothing inherent in ‘unclean’ things which make them dirty. Soil in the garden is ‘clean’ whereas on the carpet it is ‘dirty’, spaghetti on a plate is clean, but on your trousers it is dirty. Douglas concluded that dirtiness is not about the stuff itself, but about it being in the wrong location. We are left with the very old definition of dirt as matter out of place. This is a very suggestive approach. It implies two conditions: a set of ordered relations and a contravention of that order. … Dirt is the by-product of a systematic ordering and classification of matter, in so far as ordering involves rejecting inappropriate elements (Douglas 48). Like the fear of deviance generally, fear of pollution by ‘dirty’ things is strongly emotive because of its threat to the larger moral order. In the same way that moral panics, scapegoating, and witch hunts occur where there is a threat to the collectivity’s boundaries, clean-ups are in order where there is a perceived social crisis which threatens social classification and order. They serve as purges, drawing attention to the violated moral order, and to the State’s ability to secure it. Cleaning rituals function symbolically to reaffirm the social order. Thus, an insistence on continence is symbolic of something deeper than a fear of infection from leaking urine and faeces. Douglas suggests that issues of dirt and cleanliness in relation to the human body are actually about wider social concerns. The body is a tabula rasa on which the concerns of society are writ small. The biological body is a symbol of the social body. Elias argued bodily control and social control are linked – for example we are careful to control publicly bodily functions such as farting, belching and yawning. Now if bodies serve as symbols of society, then concern over group boundaries will be expressed symbolically as concerns over bodily boundaries. Bodily orifices, those entrances and exits which define the boundaries of the body most obviously, become sites of some significance, and those dirty things which traverse these openings/closings challenge and destabilize the system of categorization which society holds sacrosanct. But why, one might ask, the recent concern over bodily boundaries? Continents and Border Protection On the ABC’s 7.30 Report (20 June 2002) anchor Kerry O’Brien introduced a story about ‘the migrant problem’ in the Netherlands with a comment about the Dutch desire to control the ‘flooding’ in of refugees through their ‘weakening borders’ and noted the growing public concern to ‘seal their leaking border’. While such imagery obviously references the story of ‘the little Dutch boy and the dike’, it was directly relevant to Australian audiences because Australia was in the midst of its own ‘refugee crisis’ (see Saxton; Manne; Pickering; Gelber). The ‘Tampa crisis’, in September 2001, saw a Norwegian freighter, the Tampa, rescue 433 asylum seekers from their sinking boat which was headed for Australia. Australia denied the Tampa permission to enter its waters and ports, so it was left out to sea for days, while the Australian government negotiated a face saving solution to the problem. This was the ‘Pacific solution’ – whereby asylum seekers are moved to nearby Pacific nations to be ‘processed’ off shore, in exchange for monetary incentive to these struggling economies. Asylum seekers were demonized by the press and by politicians for threatening to throw themselves and their children overboard. Prime Minister John Howard suggested some were likely to be terrorists, and the then Minister of Immigration Philip Ruddock asked the rhetorical question: ‘Are these the sort of people we want as Australians?’ Discursive analyses of media coverage (news reports, opinion columns and letters to the editor) of the arrival of asylum seekers indicate that they were represented as illegal, illegitimate and threatening (Saxton), and constructed as deviant in a variety of ways, including being diseased (Pickering). The language used to describe the ‘threat’ is revealing: terms such as ‘swamped’, ‘awash’, ‘latest waves’, ‘more waves’, ‘tides’, ‘floods’ and ‘migratory flood’ (Pickering 172). Most importantly, a ‘national rights’ discourse emerged, asserting Australia’s authority over its physical and cultural space, and its right to ‘protect its territory and character’ (Saxton 111) from potentially polluting pariahs, the excrement of other nations, refugees. The net result of these activities was the putting in place of a series of emergency measures to ensure Australia’s borders were ‘protected’, including moving the legal definition of borders, rigorous enforcement of imprisonment in detention centres, providing a two thousand dollar incentive to return to their countries of origin, and increased sea and air surveillance. Recent moves by the government to make seeking asylum more difficult have continued this trend. Continents and Continence Now what do incontinence and the Tampa crisis have in common? Obviously both are attempts to contain filth, ensuring boundary maintenance of the individual and the national body. The desire of the Australian government to clarify Australia’s boundaries by reducing them to its mainland is indicative of a concern with keeping national boundaries precise and clear. The threat of breaches from outside spurs this attempt to ensure closure, but it is simultaneously evidence of the fear of violation. Australia’s attempts at boundary maintenance are forms of ‘pollution rituals’ designed to maintain the definition of Australia as the domain of white Anglo-Saxon Christians (Hage; Saxton; Pickering). Being racially, ethnically and religiously different, asylum seekers challenge cherished notions of what ‘we’ Australians are – they are matter-out-of-place, challenging the integrity of the nation. As Pickering notes: ‘Asylum seekers transgress many boundaries: physical, geographic, language, legal, national, social and political. In so doing they routinely disrupt established, although precarious, orders’ (Pickering 170). The ‘breach’ panic, and consequent attempts to fortify ‘fortress Australia’, function symbolically to reaffirm the social order and maintain the classification of in-group and out-group. Conclusion The parallels drawn between these two initiatives are not meant to assert a causal relationship, but rather a form of ‘elective affinity’ (Weber). Thus, my argument is rather more than a recognition of the ways in which body metaphors are used as ‘convenient way[s] for talking or thinking about the moral and political problems of society’ (Turner 1), but less than a suggestion that one is in a direct causal relationship to the other. If pollution behaviour is that which condemns objects or ideas which might confuse cherished classifications, then government attempts to keep national boundaries contained and bodies secure are both examples of pollution behaviours. The National Continence Management Strategy and the concerns about Australia’s border protection are both symbolic manifestations of the same concern over unsealed boundaries and boundary crossings. Both result from a barely contained hysteria manifest in a fear of things coming in, and things going out, and a frustrated recognition of the impossibility of keeping entries and exits secure. The National Continence Management strategy mirrors the macro concerns over boundary maintenance and security. The tightening up of movements of matter across bodies, and movements of people across nations, are signs of attempts to control identity. But from whence has this concern arisen? One possibility is the general destabilising of national identities resulting from the broad postmodern recognition of hybridity and fluidity in the construction and maintenance of identity. A specific example of this is the fact that while Australia has long been proud of its identity as a white nation of the Antipodes, at the same time it is developing an identity as multicultural. The traditional values of white society are being challenged and the resulting destabilization is threatening (Hage; Ang; Phillips). Postmodern constructions of identity as contextual, fuzzy, and open ended, destabilize identity as singular and unproblematic. Hall and du Gay, Bhabha, and others have noted the discomfort attendant on a version of identity which is hybrid and liminal, which challenges the notion that categories are clear cut and people are either ‘in’ or ‘out’. This discomfort results in the need to shore up individual and national identities through efforts to define and maintain boundaries and to contain them – in essence to re-establish and defend ‘fortress Australia’ by containing matter in its proper place, and excluding filth. References Bhabha, Homi, ed. Nation and Narration. London: Routledge, 1990. Douglas, Mary. Purity and Danger: An Analysis of Concepts of Pollution and Taboo. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1966. Elias, Norbert. The Civilizing Process. Trans. E. Jephcott. Oxford: Blackwell, 1994. Foucault, Michel. Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. Trans A. Sheridan. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1979. Gelber, Katherine. “A Fair Queue? Australian Public Discourse on Refugees and Immigration.” Journal of Australian Studies 1 March 2003: 23-30. Goffman, Erving. Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1963. Hage, Ghassan. White Nation: Fantasies of White Supremacy in a Multicultural Society. Annendale NSW: Pluto Press, 1998. Hall, Stuart, and Paul du Gay, eds. Questions of Cultural Identity. London: Sage, 1996. Hepworth, Mike. Stories of Ageing. Buckingham: Open University Press, 2000. Manne, Robert, with David Corlett. “Sending them Home: Refugees and the New Politics of Indifference.” Quarterly Essay 13. Melbourne: Black, 2004. Murcott, Anne. “Purity and Pollution: Body Management and the Social Place of Infancy.” In Sue Scott and David Morgan, eds. Body Matters. London: The Falmer Press, 1993. Pickering, Sharon. “Common Sense and Original Deviancy: News Discourses and Asylum Seekers in Australia.” Journal of Refugee Studies 14.2 (2001):169-86. Saxton, Alison. “‘I Certainly Don’t Want People like That Here’: The Discursive Construction of Asylum Seekers.” Media International Australia Incorporating Culture and Policy 109 (Nov. 2003): 109-20. Tilbury, Farida, Pradeep Jayasuriya, Jan Taylor, and Liz Williams. Continence Care in the Community. Report to Department of Health and Aged Care, 2001. Turner, Bryan. “Social Fluids: Metaphors and Meanings in Society.” Body and Society 9.1 (2003): 1-10. Turner, Bryan, with Colin Samson. Medical Power and Social Knowledge. London: Sage, 1996. 
 
 
 
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 MLA Style
 Tilbury, Farida. "Filth, Incontinence and Border Protection." M/C Journal 9.5 (2006). echo date('d M. Y'); ?> <http://journal.media-culture.org.au/0610/06-tilbury.php>. APA Style
 Tilbury, F. (Nov. 2006) "Filth, Incontinence and Border Protection," M/C Journal, 9(5). Retrieved echo date('d M. Y'); ?> from <http://journal.media-culture.org.au/0610/06-tilbury.php>.