Abstract:
Immigration has been a significant and controversial part of Australian history since 1947, but
the nature and composition of Australian immigration and the policies and philosophies of
immigrant settlement bave changed considerably over that time, particularly in the last few decades
of globalisation. The aim of this paper is to assess the changing political economy of Australian
immigration in two senses. First, the paper presents an overview of the major changes to the
dynamics of the Australian immigration experience that have accompanied globalisation. Second,
the paper investigates how the political economy of Australian immigration developed in the 1970s
differs from a political economy of contemporary Australian immigration. The paper argues that
the traditional political economy emphasis on immigration as providing a reserve army of unskilled
migrant labour must be replaced by a version of political economy that not only includes labour
across all pennanent and temporary categories but that also has a stronger focus on immigrant
settlement and migrant lives, including debates about national identity. In order to do this, the
paper argues, it is important for traditional political economy to draw on new sensibilities and
insights about the contemporary immigration experience that emerge front interdisciplinary
insigbts drawn from disciplines outside the traditional political economy foundations.
