Introduction The history of Australia over the last 200 years is one of immigration, the story of millions of people leaving their homes to build a new life in another part of the world. Through waves of immigration over 200 years, Australia has evolved into a successful, modern multicultural democracy.

Asylum seeker and refugee policy has attracted a great deal of attention in Australia for many years. In particular, concerns over the unauthorised arrival of asylum seekers by boat have occupied successive governments and parliaments since the 1970s. With increasing levels of global forced displacement, public and political debate on these issues appears likely to...

Now that the acute phase of boat arrivals appears over, this paper urges all parties to use this opportunity to construct an overarching national asylum and refugee policy for the long term.

How do Australian institutions and political leaders draw on history to tell us who we are? How do they make sense of Australia’s past as a country of immigration and a nation that has accommodated hundreds of thousands of refugees? In federal parliament, Teresa Gambaro recently said:

This report includes profiles of local projects, as well as a call for government action to address structural and systemic issues regarding housing availability and affordability.