“Stopping the boats” vs Immigration

Writing in The Conversation”, Alan Gamlen, Director of the Migration Hub in the School of Regulation and Global Governance at ANU, reviews the last 25 years of migration policies in the wake of the Tampa incident. He explains how various governments have used “stopping the boats” as the basis for their immigration policies and how the current mess in immigration has resulted from an emphasis on punishing asylum seekers while ignoring the effects of temporary migration.

He concludes ” (the) government can be extraordinarily tough towards a small, visible group at the border while allowing a vastly larger migration system to grow without an overall numerical plan or ceiling. That is not evidence of migration control. It is a political performance. After 25 years, Australia … should stop confusing the two.”

Read the full article here