Exploring the Politics of Fear and its Intersection with Anti-Asian Violence and Discrimination in the Context of the COVID-19 Pandemic

This thesis examines the linkage between the politics of fear and anti-Asian sentiment and violence following the onset of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Canada and Australia. While anti-Asian sentiment is not new, society does not always address it or educate people on the Asian experience. Throughout the history in which Asians arrived in both Canada and Australia, what started with Chinese exclusion in the late 1800s, led to further discrimination in society leading up to the COVID-19 pandemic. The early foundations of mistrust and disgust towards Asians in Canada and Australia made the onset of the COVID- 19 pandemic worse for Asians residing in these countries because of the scary uptick in anti-Asian violence and racism during the pandemic