Abstract
- With the political potency of migrant and refugee demonization, governments have brokered trade deals to extend the geographies of asylum into new sites far beyond their borders. This article draws on unprecedented fieldwork conducted in the Republic of Nauru to explore the Australian government’s practice of outsourcing asylum to Pacific island nations. I look at the overlaps between Nauru’s enterprises around phosphate and now refugees in order to understand the deep environmental and human consequences of mineral and migrant re- source sectors. The article shifts the analysis away from a socio-legal or humanitarian frame towards a political economic approach centered on resource extraction, bringing to the fore questions about patterns of accumu- lation and imperial dependency that induce some countries to take on outsourced asylum operations over others. Ultimately, I argue that refugees are an industry that has had a hugely negative impact on local and refugee populations in Nauru. I also show how Australian-led activist campaigns exasperate these frictions by reinforcing colonial characterizations of savage Nauruans versus vulnerable refugees.