Migration and citizenship are areas that are attracting growing attention by policy-makers and increasing legal regulation globally. In most States the border is the point at which citizens and migrants (non-citizens) are distinguished and legal controls of the movement of migrant populations are focused. Control over the entry, stay and rights of non-citizens is a defining feature of State sovereignty and allows a State to determine the boundaries of the membership of its political community.
The course adopts a thematic and theoretical approach to examining the legal regulation internationally and by States of the entry and stay of migrants and the status and rights conferred on citizens and non-citizens. It begins with an analysis of the theoretical approaches to global movements of people, including the relationship between the international legal context, State sovereignty, border control and citizenship and individual rights. It then examines the power of the State to refuse entry to, detain and exclude migrants from its territory and to grant, deny or withdraw citizenship status as embodied in the policies and domestic laws of the State and the international legal context in which the movement of people takes place.
The course examines the legal frameworks adopted by States for managing migrant populations and the recognition of citizenship status from a variety of perspectives: theoretical and practical, historical and contemporary, comparative, constitutional, statutory and regulatory. It examines the key theoretical, socio-political, legal and practical questions underlying migration and citizenship law and policy globally. The focus of the course is on Australian law and policy, but it draws on examples of legal regulation and academic scholarship on migration and citizenship from international law, North America and Europe.
