Solidarity, Selectivity, Security: The management of New Zealand migrants in Australia

Abstract

From 2014, New Zealand born migrants to Australia been detained in the Australian Immigration dentition centre of Christmas Island. The two countries have historically had friendly relations and under the 1973 trans-Tasman Travel Arrangement citizens of either country have had free movement to live and work in the other country. This thesis explores the discursive framings under which New Zealand born migrants in Australia have been managed in the period from from 1901 to 2016. This is performed by textual analysis of qualitative material. Data collected was documentary data. This data was sourced from news media, governmental polices and the documents surrounding them. The analysis draws on contemporary theories of policy formation, and focuses specifically on the key concepts of Citizenship, Regulation and Detention. The research identifies three key phases of management, Solidarity, Selectivity and Security, each of which is underpinned by specific discursive formations. These formations were the ANZAC spirit, the kiwi dole bludger and the back door migrant or criminal. The research focuses attention on the latest ‘Security’ phase of management and the discursive formation associated with it, which were precipitated by the Tampa affair, 911 and the Bali bombing. New Zealanders have become entangled in specific ways in a new security regime that has partially dislodged the earlier discursive and governmental formations that have treated New Zealanders as very different to other non-citizens. Beyond the privilege of entry, the new ‘Security’ migration regime in Australia now subjects New Zealanders to the same management as others.