‘No way. You will not make [insert country here] home’: Anti-asylum discursive transfer from Australia to Europe

Abstract

This article analyses the ways Australia’s overseas ‘public information campaign’ on asylum based around the phrase ‘No way. You will not make Australia home’ has been adopted by far-right movements in Europe. Considering examples of anti-asylum online video campaigns and activism in a range of European countries, we note semiotic and discursive similarities with the Australian campaign. We discuss the implications of such discursive transfer from official Australian government policy to far-right campaigns promoting a blatantly racist agenda in Europe. We also consider the broader question of the fundamental challenge to international law inherent in the promulgation of information that denies the right to seek asylum in Refugee Convention signatory states.