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Tiered Community Membership in Australia: The Impact of Constitutional Concepts and Contemporary Developments on Refugee Access to Citizenship
Author(s) -
Pillai Sangeetha
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
australian journal of politics and history
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.123
H-Index - 23
eISSN - 1467-8497
pISSN - 0004-9522
DOI - 10.1111/ajph.12617
Subject(s) - refugee , commonwealth , citizenship , legislation , political science , inclusion (mineral) , government (linguistics) , perspective (graphical) , subject (documents) , inclusion–exclusion principle , law , public administration , politics , sociology , social science , linguistics , philosophy , artificial intelligence , library science , computer science
This article explores various ways in which Commonwealth legislation and government policy have shifted in recent years to increase both the legal barriers to inclusion for migrants seeking to become part of the Australian community, and the circumstances in which those already legally recognised as members of the community can become susceptible to exclusion. It examines the ways in which these shifts have produced new “tiers of membership” within the Australian community, and discusses the implications of this, both from a constitutional perspective and on affected individuals. The article illustrates that these shifts have affected some groups of migrants more than others. Relevantly, given the subject of this special issue, they have had a disproportionately detrimental effect on refugees who arrive in Australia by boat seeking asylum.