Refugees and State Crime. This item is unavailable.Refugees and State Crime

First published in 2005. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

A central argument of the book is that concerns for humanitarianism that were evident at the time of the signing of the Convention relating to the Status of Refugees in the aftermath of World War II have been replaced with concerns for the integrity of national sovereignty. Pickering compellingly argues that the asylum seeker has been criminalised – portrayed as a threat to national security and embodying deviance. The book is well-researched, drawing on a number of disciplines as well as on an extensive range of primary and secondary sources … [I]rrespective of which side of the policy debate the reader empathises with, this book is a valuable and well-researched contribution to the debate about Australia’s treatment of a vulnerable group of people. Reform, Issue 87, Summer 2005/06 This ground-breaking book is a powerful and timely critique of the law and order politics which have come to define western approaches to refugees. In an elegant and scholarly account, Pickering locates refugee policy within a state crime framework and forces the re-examination of fundamental questions about the nature of sovereignty, political legitimacy and criminal justice. Forced migration is an appalling fact for millions of the world's population, a fact which states in the developed world have strenuously attempted to redefine for domestic and global political purposes. The importance of Refugees and State Crime lies in its authoritative and compelling portrayal of refugees as political victims of western state crime. Professor Penny Green, University of Westminster