This paper examines the current state of border hardening against refugees in the European Union and Australia through the lens of state crime. Border hardening strategies are described for both of these areas and a theoretical basis of state crime victimology is used to examine the refugees who encounter this border hardening. The present study analyzes two data sets on border deaths, one for the European Union and one for Australia, to examine the demographics of the refugees who perish while attempting to transgress the border. Results indicated that there remains a significant amount of missing data, suggesting that official methods of record-keeping are necessary to determine the most basic demographics, such as gender and age, so analyses can be run to determine significance in this area. One clear finding was that migrants most frequently die from drowning (EU: 83.6%; AU: 93%) compared to any other cause. Also, there is indication that those from disadvantaged areas of origin (such as the Middle East and Africa) are more likely to die in the borderlands than others in the dataset. Practical implications of the findings are discussed along with suggestions for future research.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:pdx.edu/oai:pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu:open_access_etds-1771 |
| Date | 01 January 2012 |
| Creators | Cochrane, Brandy Marie |
| Publisher | PDXScholar |
| Source Sets | Portland State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | Dissertations and Theses |
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