ABSTRACT

Australia is largely considered an immigrant-receiving country, however, it is estimated that over one million Australians are living overseas at any given time. Despite this, diaspora relations have never been particularly robust, the consequences of which have become particularly visible during the Covid-19 pandemic. Australia used a strict closed-border approach in handling the pandemic and, although effective at reducing the spread of the virus, it will be argued that this isolationist approach was at the detriment of diaspora relations. This paper uses the findings from in-depth interviews with Australians living overseas to demonstrate that the country’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic created an intergroup divide between Australia and its expatriates. Social identity theory and the theory of intergroup threat will be used to support the findings that Australian expatriates became the ‘outgroup’, perceived as a realistic threat by the resident national ‘ingroup’. Public fear of the virus and Australia’s strict isolationist stance created a divide between those within the border, and those trying to get in. This paper provides the first-hand experiences and sentiments of Australian expatriates, while further research exploring the perspective of resident nationals is recommended to facilitate a more robust understanding of the topic.

摘要

澳大利亚在很大程度上被认为是一个移民接收国，然而，据估计，在任何特定时间都有超过一百万澳大利亚人居住在海外。尽管如此，侨民关系从未特别牢固，其后果在 Covid-19 大流行期间变得尤为明显。澳大利亚在应对这一流行病时采用了严格的封闭边界方法，尽管在减少病毒传播方面有效，但有人认为这种孤立主义方法损害了侨民关系。本文使用对居住在海外的澳大利亚人的深入访谈的结果来证明，该国对 Covid-19 大流行的反应在澳大利亚与其外籍人士之间造成了群体间的分歧。社会认同理论和群体间威胁理论将用于支持澳大利亚外籍人士成为“外群体”的研究结果，被居民国民“内群体”视为现实威胁。公众对病毒的恐惧和澳大利亚严格的孤立主义立场造成了边境内的人和试图进入的人之间的鸿沟。本文提供了澳大利亚侨民的第一手经验和感受，而进一步研究探索居民国民的观点是建议以促进对该主题的更深入的理解。