Citizenship, migration and refugees

Our vision

To promote a healthy and inclusive understanding of laws and policies that define and bind communities and regulate forced and voluntary movement between states. We conduct doctrinal, socio-legal and criminological research that fosters improvements in law and practice, including work on:

citizenship law in international and domestic contexts
all aspects of Australian migration law and policy
comparative immigration law and policy
international refugee law
human trafficking and people smuggling
vulnerable migrants, including children and people with disabilities
immigration detention
border security and the intersections between criminal justice and migration law
immigration and terrorism.

Our work

Our research has a number of major themes:

Citizenship law in international and domestic contexts

Exploring the relationship between migration law and substantive notions of citizenship (Associate Professor Arcioni, Professor Crock, Professor Irving)
An Australian Research Council (ARC)-funded program examining Australian citizenship deprivation measures in the context of international and comparative law, the latter with a particular focus on Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom (Dr Thwaites).
Writing the Australian country report on citizenship for the European Union Democracy Observatory on Citizenship, currently the world’s leading database on citizenship law (Dr Thwaites).
ARC-funded research on gendered aspects of citizenship laws and the impact on women and girls (Professor Irving)
Exploring problems associated with dual nationality (Associate Professor Arcioni, Professor Crock, Professor Irving, Dr Thwaites, Professor Twomey).

Working towards immigration and refugee law reform in Australia

An ARC-funded research program that involves building a database allowing comparison of migration and citizenship laws and policies across the world and through time (Professor Crock).

Refugee children and youth

ARC-funded research into the protection of refugee children and youth (Professor Crock and Professor Saul)

Migrants, refugees and human rights

Department of Foreign Affairs and donor funded research into the relationship between forced migration and disability rights, seeking mechanisms that can be developed to improve identification of impairments and delivery of services (Professor Crock, Professor McCallum AO and Professor Saul).

Migration, national security and terrorism

Research examining the impact of international and national security law on the human rights of refugees and migrants (Professor Saul)
Research into the treatment of citizens abroad who engage in terrorism (Dr Thwaites)
Research examining the migration policing of undocumented migrants in Australia to develop a conceptual approach to migration decision making that makes otherwise overlooked discretionary power more evident. (Dr Boon-Kuo)