Study design

In order to answer the principal research questions and develop a better understanding of the nature and extent of asylum seeker agency, the study was designed to ensure three aspects were incorporated: the views of asylum seekers in the study population; the detailed demographic characteristics of all asylum seekers in the study population; and the migratory behaviours of all asylum seekers in the study population. Given that the underlying paradigm of this research was deliberately ‘migrant-centric’ rather than policy-focussed, seeking the views of people in the study population was considered essential in answering the research question and developing a much more nuanced understanding of asylum seeker agency. The views of people who had travelled as irregular maritime asylum seekers were sought via a sample survey conducted in mid- 2013 (n=1,008). Views and opinions, however, do not necessarily neatly reflect human behaviour and so relying solely on the analysis of asylum seekers’ views was considered important but inadequate. Central to the study design is, therefore, detailed information

on who the study population comprises and the migration patterns and processes they undertook to reach Australia. This information was available in the form of administrative data.

It was also important that the scope of the study population be substantial enough in size and length to support a detailed examination of asylum seeker agency, including the various dimensions outlined in Chapter 2 and summarised in Table 2.1, namely the demographic, social, temporal and spatial dimensions. In this study, the population comprises all irregular maritime asylum seekers who arrived in Australia between 1 July 2008 and 30 June 2013, which totalled 38,847 people. This study population is a substantial proportion (83%) of an entire irregular maritime migration ‘wave’ to Australia that commenced in July 2008 and ended in December 2013. A total of 7,783 asylum seekers arrived between 1 July and 31 December 2013, and so are out of scope of this study. The main reason for the five-year scope is data availability approved by the Australian Government, which extends over the five-year study period but not beyond. Despite this limitation, detailed examinations of a high proportion of those in the irregular maritime asylum seeker flow offer a unique opportunity to provide an accurate and robust analysis of the scale and composition of the population over a reasonable period in order to answer the principal research question. Discussion on the administrative data and their analyses is provided below.

The research findings presented in this thesis, therefore, are based on analysis of data in the form of two large datasets: results of a 2013 sample survey of former irregular maritime asylum seekers (n=1,008), herein referred to as the ‘irregular maritime asylum seeker survey dataset’; and administrative data of all irregular maritime asylum seekers to have arrived during the study period (n=38,847), herein referred to as the ‘irregular maritime asylum seeker administrative dataset’. While the analysis is technically of secondary data, it is important to note that I was responsible for the 2013 survey design, data collection and analysis as director of the Australian irregular migration research program in the Department of Immigration and Border protection (McAuliffe 2013a, 2013b), and that this survey was undertaken during my candidature.2

Migrant-centric research

This study places asylum seekers at the centre of the research and examines agency from their collective perspectives, rather than from a policy perspective, through normative

frameworks or through the prism of international relations and geopolitical constructs. Also, and importantly, the act of seeking asylum—of exercising and realising some level of agency—through migration is necessarily separate and distinct from whether or not a person (or group of persons) is determined to be in need of international protection. This research focuses, therefore, on the extent of realising agency through examination of migration patterns and processes but not on the outcome of asylum seekers’ protection applications or the normative frameworks within which this occurs, nor on immigration detention, integration, settlement or social cohesion aspects. These areas of academic research and enquiry continue to be critical and there is a considerable focus on these topics in the literature, including as they relate to Australia (Crock & Ghezelbash 2010; Hodge 2014; Koser 2015; McAdam 2014; McNevin 2011; Markus 2013; Palmer 2008; Pennington-Hill 2015; Pickering and Weber 2014). These topics are not, however, a focus of this study.

In order to answer the main research question about the extent and nature of asylum seeker agency, without it becoming conflated with the extent of the asylum seekers’ ‘refugee- ness’, a deep examination of Hazaras was considered essential because it offers the chance to de-link asylum seeker migration patterns and processes from international protection (i.e. refugee and/or complementary protection status). The intertwining of the concepts of ‘forced’ migration and ‘refugee-ness’ are, to a significant degree, able to be unravelled when the migration patterns and processes of an ethnic group—such as Hazaras—with an extraordinarily high recognition rate under the Refugee Convention is examined. Focusing on Hazaras allows for the careful setting aside of questions of Hazaras’ claims to international protection in analytical terms, and provides the space for deeper analysis of their migration patterns and processes, of their own views and of their demography as a means to determine the nature and extent of their agency. In addition, the Hazara sub-population has been chosen because it is an ethnic minority in several origin countries (Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran), and is an enduring long-term maritime asylum seeker group, having arrived in all five years of the study (which also enables trend analysis to be undertaken). Further, Hazaras also arrived in the 1999 to 2001 irregular maritime asylum seeker flow to Australia, have sizeable diaspora communities in Australia and elsewhere, are recognised as having strong claims for international protection and (as mentioned) have very high finally determined refugee recognition rates in Australia (Fazal 2001; Maley 2001; DIBP 2013; DSS 2015).

Critically, and central to this study, is the need to apply an inter-disciplinary approach to the overall design, methodology and analysis. While the study is primarily one of applied demography involving the analysis of secondary data, it necessarily draws on a range of other disciplines. An inter-disciplinary approach has been adopted in order to answer the research questions, which are not only highly specific but are highly topical, and make the most useful and relevant contribution possible. To be able to answer the questions successfully the approach had to be squarely based in the academic literature on forced and irregular migration, particularly of Hazaras. This considerable and rich body of literature traverses many disciplines but particularly geography, sociology and anthropology. By undertaking a quantitative study employing analytical techniques from an applied demography perspective built on a disciplinary bedrock of research from other disciplines, a better account of the nature and extent of asylum seeker agency is able to be presented. A nuanced analysis of unique data situated within this small but significant body of literature is intended to be one of the study’s major contributions.