Analysis of Karl Marxs Conflict Theory of Australian Refugee Policy - Coursework Example

Analysis of Karl Marx’s Conflict theory of Australian Refugee Policy. A study has been done here of Karl Marx’s Conflict theory with relate to Refugee Policy of Australia. The Refugee Policy is one topic which has recently risen quite eyebrows in the Australian Political Scenario. This essay portrays the way conflict theory has come into effect with relate to refugee policy. The assessment has been made as to the disparity observed in the living atmosphere of refugees and the rich class. Refugee comprise of a considerable portion of the country’s population. A study on their plight has revealed much comparison to the conflict theory described by Karl Marx. Halsey(1986) in his book stated that “When sociologist speak of a structure of inequality they refer to the ways in which power and advantage form a stratified system of relations”. Karl Marx the Revolutionist: Karl Marx was one of the greatest social thinkers the history has ever seen. Karl Heinrich Marx was born into a comfortable middle-class home in Trier on the river Moselle in Germany on May 5, 1818. He received a classical education, but even in the early days he was very much pre- occupied with philosophical thinking .He had a unique view about society and was an ardent reader of books. Marx entered Bonn University to study law. At university his orientation was more towards socializing and depicted all signs of social activist. He was a student of philosophy and worked as an editor of a radical newspaper in early days. But his radical approach did not win a favorable hand in this profession. He had to face poverty and this to a great extend made him think well over about the system prevailing in the society. During his stay in Paris he got chance to mingle with the working class and he was shocked by their living standard. After facing innumerable adverse conditions, finally he succeeded in releasing his book Das Kapital in 1867.Despite being ignored by scholars in his own lifetime, his social, economic and political ideas achieved rapid acceptance in the socialist movement after his death. Marxism has been the political concept of most countries until recently. The ideas of Marxism have been widely adopted in many political scenarios throughout the world. Conflict Theory by Marx Conflict theory is most commonly associated with Karl Marx. In this theory the emphasis is on the quality of living standard of people and the reason caused it. He proclaimed that the history always have deprived the working class of their fundamental rights. According to him laymen always suffered among the hands of the owners. Their life was always controlled and run by rich industrialist and politicians. In a way the oppressor and the oppressed always stood in opposite position. The ruling class always commanded the poor and their life was only similar to that of puppets. Marx (1984) stated that “The worker becomes all the poorer the more wealth he produces, the more his production increases in power and range. The worker becomes an ever cheaper commodity the more commodities he creates”. His social theory of conflict has shaken the public and created a whirlwind of revolution in nineties. Karl Marx explained his theory with the use of two sects in society. The former is capitalist or wealthy class and latter the working or labor class. The Capitalist class owns and controls the means of production, while they also see the distribution of the goods or services. According to his theory the wealthy classes were the rulers and labor class will remain as the ruled. This so called capitalism created a huge response in different countries. The dominant group with their power directed the poor class with atrocity. The labor class with no means to resist had to live on their terms. Karl Marx suggested that Struggle rather than peaceful growth was the engine of progress. He commented that strife was the father of all things. From the book of Coser(1977) the important statement of Marx can be found which says “Every social order is marked by continuous change in the material forces of production that is the forces of nature that can be harnessed by the appropriate technologies and skills”.His theory suggests that the conflict generated among the sects would inevitably produce internal tensions which would lead to the destruction of the society. According to him class is “A class is defined by the ownership of property. Such ownership vests a person with the power to exclude others from the property and to use it for personal purposes” (Rummel 1977). It can be seen from his doctrine that more importance was given to human rights. He suggested that the history was always the deprivation of the working class of their fundamental rights. Laymen always suffered among the hands of the owners. Their life was always controlled and run by rich industrialist and politicians. The crime and violence seen in the present world is mainly because of the conflict raised between these two sects. Every individual has his needs and when he is not given the adequate facilities and services according to his work he sort to illegitimate ways to fulfill them. The poor is always categorized and treated with an evil face. The middle class level always take the side of rich and always look down upon poor class. The thefts and petty crimes committed by low class people are resulted in harsh punishments where as elite performing fraudulent acts are taken very lightly. The material comfort of the rich class is so high that they mostly indulge in extravagant lifestyle whereas the poor class strives to make their ends meet. The fact forgotten is that the elite class lives the luxurious life with the commodities and services produced by working class. The prolonged slavery system has made the underdeveloped countries even more poorer .Their natural resources of their countries are being exploited to such an extend that they live on minimal standard. For example, one reason for seeing more crimes in African community is due to the fact that they have been exploited by the ruling class for prolonged duration. Conflict Theory and Australian refugee policy Australia is a country with multifaceted social and cultural background. Migration program has been active in this country e since Second World War. Migration stimulated a rapid growth in country’s population and also resulted in creating diverse cultural background. The main group of people arrived were from war torn countries who were so called ‘refugees’. Ever since multicultarism has been an attractive aspect of this country. A large number of people who were displaced from their homelands had this opportunity as a boon. At the same time, in Australia, there was a desperate shortage of labour .Growth of population was essential for the countrys future. So refugees supplied good labor force for the country along with a solid population with complex ethnicity. The cream of the society comprised of British and Irish descendants .Ever since we can see the discrimination being built upon in the society.The refugees were always kept in a bad condition as they were considered working class .They were deprived of all the services and facilites which were enjoyed by ruling class.It could even be termed as some sort of slavery in earlier days. Refugees are mainly the people coming from underdeveloped countries which have less means to survive.They come to developed countries mainly in search for favorable environment to live on. Kenneth Roth(2001), Executive Director of Human Rights Watch stated that “Over the past few years the Australian government has promoted a climate of xenophobia and hostility towards refugees, asylum seekers and migrants. The next Government has got to do a better job of protecting refugees.” In recent years, tensions have emerged in Australian social scenario over the policy of compulsorily detaining asylum seekers, and their denial of appeals. Refugees are dealt with a very pathetic and cruel means this created a negative and revengeful psychological condition among the refugees. Such a situation has developed very big concern among the media and political circle as damage is being done to reputation of the country globally. Refugee council of Australia (2010) stated that “The reintroduction of the worst of the previous Government’s refugee policies would occur in full knowledge of the impacts of long-term detention, of families in crisis being indefinitely separated and of people living in constant fear of being return to persecution”. Many refugees from Middle East and other South-East Asian countries are living in constant fear of arrest and deportation and regularly come across bouts of harassment and explanation. A strong criticism has been raised from public regarding the government plans to accommodate refugees and asylum seekers in inappropriate conditions. Such policies can result in great pain to the refugees. They are allowed into the country for fulfilling the requirement of manpower and upliftment of the society. Once the objectives are attained they are thrown out and treated with inequality. Karl Marx was very right in predicting such a terrible social environment where there would exist a great distance between the rulers and the ruled.A recent news regarding the suicidal killing of certain emigrants shows a very threatening environment of Australian society. Berelson(1974) in his book wrote that “In general employers of labor in minerals iron and steel, and construction and transportation still wish to see the immigrant program being carried on”. We can very well see how Karl Marx’s theory has come to be true with regard to the sufferings shown towards the lower class and underprivileged. Here we can see that the conflict theory’s attributes comes very well into picture. As suggested by Marx the refugees who are underprivileged and less fortunate are kept in darkness. “Eight weeks ago Canberra imposed a temporary ban on asylum claims by afghan and srilankans who had all risked by attempting the highly dangerous passage to Australia by boat” (Luke 2010).With such news coming up we can only hope that the global community would be a better place in future to live and the gap between the social groups grows narrow. Marx always was right in every single thought quoted down throughout his theory. References Berelson, Bernard, 1974. Population Policy to 1960. 1st ed. U.S.A: Mc Graw Hill Inc. Coser, Lewis A., 1971. Masters of Sociological Thought. 1st ed. U.S.A: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. Karl marx. (1844). Estranged labour. Available: http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1844/manuscripts/labour.htm. Last accessed 04.June.2010. Kenneth Roth. (2001). Next Government Must Improve Refugee Protection. Available: http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2001/11/07/next-government-must-improve-refugee-protection. Last accessed 04.June .2010. Luke Hunt. (2010). Australian refugee ban curb human smuggling. Available: http://www1.voanews.com/english/news/asia/Australian-Refugee-Ban-Curbs-Human-Smuggling-95040234.html. Last accessed 04.June .2010. RCOA. (2010). Coalition Policy proposal are a return to punishing the vulnerable. Available: http://www.refugeecouncil.org.au/. Last accessed 04.June.2010. R.J.Rummel. (1977). Understanding Conflict And War. Available: http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/CIP.CHAP5.HTM. Last accessed 04.June.2010. Halsey, A.H., 1986. Change in British Society. 1st ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press. . Read More