The Flickering Flame of Refugee and Asylum Seeker Support: Burned Down, but Not Out

Abstract

Asylum seeker and refugee supporters work to provide services, legal advice, home visits; engage in advocacy; and protest the harsh immigration context that is associated with the Australian government. The passion supporters feel for the ‘cause’ burns bright, yet years and sometimes decades of support can take a personal toll. This article draws on ethnographic data collected between July 2019 and October 2020 in Adelaide, South Australia, with asylum seeker and refugee supporters. We argue that despite displaying many of the features classically associated with notions of burnout, supporters are more likely to ‘burn down’, rather than out. This is because the passion associated with the commitment to asylum seeker and refugee causes is hard to extinguish. We suggest that supporters suffer from ‘passion fatigue,’ yet through the mitigating practices of retreat and debriefing they can protect themselves from the worst forms of burnout and permanent disengagement.