SBS News Where Australia’s Immigrants were Born Interactive maps, based on the 2011 census, for all capital cities and for the nation via local government areas, showing top three countries of birth for immigrants to Australia. Browsing and clicking is…

Schultz, Julianne ‘Looking east’, Griffith Review, 43, January 2014 The author, born in New Zealand but now based in Australia, introduces an edition of Griffith Review devoted to New Zealand and titled ‘Pacific highways‘. The dream of a united Australasia…

Pybus, Cassandra ‘China in the Tasmanian imaginary‘, Griffith Review, 39, January 2013 Towards the end of the 19th century, a vibrant Chinese community existed in northeastern Tasmania based on tin mining. The now tiny hamlet of Weldborough was the centre…

Scanlon Foundation Mapping Social Cohesion Surveys [2007-date] Since 2007 the surveys have mapped ‘how Australia in the future can maintain the “immigration with social cohesion” success story of the last 5 decades’. In them, there is discussion of public opinion…

Phillips, Janet ‘Asylum seekers and refugees: what are the facts?‘ Australia. Parliamentary Library Social Policy Section: Background Note (updated 11 February 2013) Looks at differences between asylum seekers and refugees, whether asylum seekers are queue jumpers or illegals, how asylum…

Smith, Peter ‘Stop the boats. Infuriate the ABC‘, Quadrant Online, 13 January 2014 There is some legitimate room for debate about the extent and character of controlled immigration. People and politicians can have different views. But there should be no…

Tuckfield, Hugh ‘Australia’s troubling asylum seeker policy‘, The Diplomat, 18 February 2014 Considers the asylum seeker issue in the context of international refugee flows and international laws and conventions for the treatment of refugees. Australia is a nation fixated on…

Ackland, Richard ‘Welcome back to White Australia‘, Sydney Morning Herald, 28 February 2014 Places 2014 in a historical context and looks at possible policy alternatives for dealing with asylum seeker arrivals. There were more than 800 comments on the article.…

Rawsthorne, Sally ‘Why does the world think Australia is racist?‘ The Guardian Australia, 25 October 2013 Canvasses evidence in Australia and internationally about alleged Australian attitudes, with links to sources and comment from over 800 people. Contrasts the acceptance of…

Jones, Barry ‘Asylum is the greatest moral challenge of our time‘, The Conversation, 29 July 2013 The fact that non-European migration has been so significant since the end of White Australia ought to make us sympathetic to refugees, but I…

Walker, David Anxious Nation: Australia and the Rise and Fall of Asia 1850-1939, University of Queensland Press, St Lucia, Qld, 1999 From the late nineteenth century the Asianisation of Australia has sparked anxious comment. The great catchcries of the day…

Tavan, Gwenda The Long, Slow Death of White Australia, Scribe, Carlton North, Vic., 2005 The history of the racist immigration policy that was Australia’s guiding light for the majority of the 20th century is examined in this work. Beginning with…

Tsiolkas, Christos ‘Why Australia hates asylum seekers‘, The Monthly, September 2013 The article examines what the author describes as ‘a 15-year campaign that has bred fear, misconceptions and fury about asylum seekers’.

Peter Mares Borderline: Australia’s Treatment of Refugees and Asylum Seekers, UNSW Press, Sydney, 2001 Puts turn-of-the-century attitudes and policies towards asylum seekers in the context of Australians’ ‘deep-seated fears of invasion and the historical anxiety about the empty and defenceless…

Laksiri Jayasuriya, David Walker & Janice Gothard, ed. Legacies of White Australia: Race, Culture, and Nation, University of Western Australia Press, Crawley, WA, 2003 The authors assess whether controversies about asylum seekers have refuelled White Australia.

Jane Carey & Claire McLisky, ed. Creating White Australia: New Perspectives on Race, Whiteness and History, Sydney University Press, Sydney, 2009 Articles by Leigh Boucher, Jane Carey, Ann Curthoys and others ‘dealing with the question of whiteness in Australian history…

Leigh Boucher, Jane Carey & Katherine Ellinghaus, ed. Historicising Whiteness: Transnational Perspectives on the Construction of an Identity, RMIT Press, Melbourne, 2007 Around sixty articles originally conference papers on Australian and international cases. Subjects include whiteness before White Australia, race…