This guide provides current statistics on immigration detainees in Australia (onshore) since 1989/90. It updates the appendices of a more detailed Parliamentary Library research paper , Immigration detention in Australia (2013). The research paper includes an overview of the historical and political context surrounding mandatory immigration detention (introduced by the Keating Government in 1992) and...

With around 470 staff, the JBS Meatworks is Bordertown’s biggest employer. Almost two-thirds of its workforce are migrants. But unlike the Filipinos who come as skilled employees on temporary 457 visas, many of the newer members of the company’s labour force are asylum seekers and refugees who mostly arrived in Australia by boat. Plant manager...

Temporary migrants play an important role in Australia’s workforce and student population. Little is known, however, about the migration mechanisms temporary migrants use and the associated risks these may involve. This paper examines the role of migration brokers in alleged and finalised cases of migrant exploitation ranging from low pay and hazardous working conditions to...

This briefing explores climate-induced migration and displacement, which is seen to be falling between the policy gaps. Existing international frameworks and national policies are yet to make the crucial link between climate change impact on the frequency and intensity of extreme climate events, environmental degradation and human mobility.

Towards the end of ABC TV’s special “Sovereign Borders“ edition of Q&A came an intriguing but frustrating back-and-forth about the number of migrants Australia welcomes each year. The key protagonists were Shen Narayanasamy, GetUp!’s human rights campaign director, and retired general Jim Molan, co-author of the Coalition’s refugee and asylum policy and Tony Abbott’s former...