Past–Present Differential Inclusion: Australia’s Targeted Deportation of Pacific Islanders, 1901 to 2021

Abstract

In Australia, past and present, Pacific Islanders have been labelled as undesirable others, included to temporarily fill labour shortages as required, controlled while resident in the country and removed when no longer deemed necessary. Pacific Islanders’ experiences in Australia reveal the inception, continuity and durability of differential inclusion produced by border control mechanisms. This paper traces Australia’s history of deporting Pacific Islanders over more than a century: from indentured labour and blackbirding, colonial occupation of Pacific Islands and the White Australia Policy, to more recent patterns of selective inclusion, such as the labour mobility schemes, to the disproportionate effects on Pacific Islanders of modifications to the criteria for deportability introduced in 2014 with the amendments to Section 501 of the Migration Act 1958 (Cth). By tracing the past–present circular border policies, this paper argues that the high number of Pasifika New Zealanders deported from Australia represents a continuation of a regime of differential inclusion.

Historicising Australian Deportation of 'Suspect' and 'Undesirable' Migrant Communities

“…This has left a legacy that has had a deep influence on Australian border policies and practices (Finnane and Kaladelfos 2019;Jupp 2002;Piccini and Smith 2019). Indeed, the deportation of Pacific Islanders to New Zealand has been increasing since 2014 (Weber and Powell 2020), reflecting the cyclical nature of the policy (McNeill and Marmo 2023).…”

“…Nevertheless, of relevance to this article, alongside the deportation of convicted criminals, many migrants, such as Pacific Islanders, were removed from the country because of their alleged violation of such laws, not for any deviant or criminal conduct but for becoming undesirables (McNeill and Marmo 2023). Becoming unwell was also captured by this regime of deportation: several scholars have shown that Australia deported many people suffering from mental illness and tuberculosis throughout the first half of the twentieth century (Kain 2019;Martyr 2011;Smith 2018).…”