The Institute for Migration and Ethnic Studies, together with the ACMRL, hosted a research seminar with Professor Fitzgerald on his book 'Refuge Beyond Reach: How rich democracies reject asylum seekers'.
In this event, Professor David Fitzgerald discussed some of the central themes of his recently published book, Refuge beyond Reach.
Prof Fitzgerald traces how rich democracies have deliberately and systematically closed most legal routes to safety. Drawing on official government documents, information from WikiLeaks and interviews with asylum seekers, he finds that for ninety-nine per cent of refugees, the only way to find safety in one of the wealthy democracies of the Global North is to reach its territory and then claim asylum. In addition, FitzGerald shows how the US, Canada, Europe and Australia comply with the letter of the law while violating its spirit through a series of deterrence methods - first designed to keep out Jews fleeing the Nazis - that have now evolved into a pervasive global system of 'remote control'. While some of the most draconian remote control practices continue in secret, FitzGerald identifies some pressure points and finds that a diffuse humanitarian obligation to help those in need is harder for governments to evade than the law alone.