Greeting the Stranger: Examining the (un)familiar in Australia’s detention history

Abstract

Despite the contemporary explosiveness of asylum seekers and their treatment in Australia, the complex vicissitudes of its history have been glossed over. Focusing specifically on the evolution of detention legislation, this thesis places Australia’s treatment of ‘boat people’ within the framework of the 1980s migration debates, preoccupations with illegal immigration and the development of Australia’s ‘proud humanitarian record.’ It criticises historians’ exemplification of the 1992 mandatory detention legislation as a ‘watershed’ moment, and shows that this legislation only solidified a policy with a deeper and more complex history.