Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/1959.3/81773

Title

'A modern-day concentration camp': using history to make sense of Australian immigration detention centres

Author(s)

Nethery, Amy

Abstract

In this chapter, I examine the discourse that links detention centres with concentration camps. Specifically, I analyse letters that appeared in the mainstream print media to demonstrate the different ways in which this discursive shortcut facilitated public discussion. I then argue for an understanding of detention centres that positions them firmly within Australia's history. Aboriginal reserves, quarantine stations and enemy-alien internment camps were institutional predecessors. While they were implemented at different times and targeted different categories of people, there were striking similarities between these carceral practices. An analysis of these practices---who was incarcerated, for what purpose and to what effect---reveals a continuity between the different forms of incarceration and facilitates a more informed understanding of the function of immigration detention in contemporary Australia.

Publication type

Book chapter

Research centre

Swinburne University of Technology. Faculty of Life and Social Sciences. Institute for Social Research

Source

Does history matter? Making and debating citizenship, immigration and refugee policy in Australia and New Zealand / Klaus Neumann and Gwenda Tavan (eds.), pp. 65-80

Publication year

2009

FOR Code(s)

210303 Australian History (excl. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander History);  200209 Multicultural, Intercultural and Cross-cultural Studies

Keyword(s)

Australian history;  Concentration camps;  Detention centres;  Immigration detention;  Incarceration;  Internment;  Media coverage;  Migration policy;  Refugees

Publisher

ANU E-Press

ISBN

9781921536946

Publisher URL

http://epress.anu.edu.au/immigration_citation.html

Copyright

Copyright © 2009 ANU E-Press.

Peer reviewed