The Contexts of Immigration Law

1
The Contexts of Immigration Law

• central question What is immigration law and
  what are the central issues raised within it?

2
4 areas to cover today

• legal context
• political context
• social context
• how these are brought together in Watt v Liebelt
• links up with the next class
• themes raised by my article and the Galloway
  excerpt (reading for next class)

3
Legal Context of Immigration Law

• international
• domestic/national
• discursive
• aboriginal

4
International

• what rights exist?
• sovereignty
• refugees
• nationality

5
Domestic/National

• constitutional setting federalism and the
  Charter
• administrative law separation of powers and the
  role of judicial review
• citizenship

6
Discursive

• naming migration as legal or illegal
• how many illegal migrants world wide?
• how can illegal migration be defined?
• what happens when nations crack down
• must a state control its borders

7
Aboriginal Law

• First Nations, first borders?
• at the centre of question of membership
• mythology of migration and indigenous peoples

8
Watt v Liebelt

• note the parties
• clash of understandings of sovereignty
• the nation and border control
• how is identity established?
• criminal exclusions
• decisions under the Immigration Act

9
Political Context

• nations and borders
• liberalisms commitments
• the notion of the national interest
• separation of powers and the historic power of
  the executive over immigration
• immigration as a security issue

10
Social Context

• globalization
• identity
• mythology
• community