Humanities Series: Safety, Security and Human Rights of Migrants

Australia has international obligations to ensure that migrants’ human rights are respected and protected, yet many migrants are excluded from legal protections, exploited and abused. Migration status, particularly when linked to temporariness and dependency, operates as a powerful axis of disadvantage, limiting migrants’ agency and access to effective protection.

A Monash University study found that the vulnerabilities of migrants on temporary visas have been exacerbated since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Another recent Monash study has found alarming rates of abuse and exploitation among migrant and refugee women in Australia, with one-third having experienced domestic or family violence.

This panel asks: how Australia can live up to its human rights obligations to towards its migrants; what sort of policy responses are required to improve the experiences of migrant and refugee women; and what is the role of education in fostering inclusion for migrant and refugee communities?

Join our panel of experts from three disciplines as they focus on the human rights of migrants, bringing together the various issues related to migration, security and bordering practices, social inclusion and community cohesion, and abuse and exploitation.

Speakers
Associate Professor Heli Askola, Monash Law
Dr Heli Askola is Associate Professor at the Faculty of Law, Monash University. Her research focuses on the rights of migrants, the global and regional regulation of migration, labour and sexual exploitation and violence against women. Heli is part of the Castan Centre for Human Rights.

Associate Professor Marie Segrave, Monash Arts
Associate Professor Marie Segrave is the Head of the School of Social Sciences in the Faculty of Arts. She undertakes leading, empirical research into family violence with a specific focus on the intersections of family violence and migration law and police, human trafficking and slavery-like offences, migrant labour exploitation, migration regulation and border policing. Marie works closely with two leading research centres: Monash Gender and Family Violence Prevention Centre and the Monash Migration and Inclusion Centre. She has undertaken large scale research in Australia and across government and non-government organisations and has led a major project across ASEAN for United Nations Women and the International Labour Organisation on the interconnections of VAW and human trafficking for women migrant workers.

Professor Jane Wilkinson, Monash Education
Jane Wilkinson is Professor of Educational Leadership in the Faculty of Education, Monash University, Australia. She researches educational leadership for social justice focusing on youth of refugee origin in schools, universities and everyday learning spaces. Jane’s research with/for youth of refugee origin has encompassed a range of areas, examining:

– leadership and teaching practices in regional schools that foster greater school-family engagement for young people of refugee origin

– pathways that enable successful transition and retention of students from refugee backgrounds from secondary school into university

– everyday spaces outside formal educational sites that support and foster formal educational engagement through the building of cultural and social capital for young people and their families employing photo-voice

– ecologies of educational practices that foster educational achievement for young people of refugee background with a particular focus on understanding achievement through the eyes of the learner

An example of Jane’s work in this area is Navigating complex spaces: Refugee background students transitioning into higher education (with Naidoo, Adoniou and Langat, Singapore: Springer, 2018).