Divergent Paths of Immigration Politics in the United States and Australia

Gary P. Freeman and Bob Birrell

Population and Development Review, 2001, vol. 27, issue 3, 525-551

Abstract: The United States and Australia converged by the mid‐1980s on receptive and expan sive immigration policies reflecting “client” politics. Australia has since pursued a more restrictive and selective course while the United States has resisted pressures toward such a stance. The authors account for these differences by assessing the theoretical perspectives of interests, rights, and states. Conflicts among groups with direct interests in policy outcomes are the principal source of immigration politics, but a comparison of the roles of rights and state institutions helps explain peculiarities of the two cases. The distinctive Australian policy trajectory is shaped by greater volatility of public opinion about immigration and multiculturalism, and by political institutions that are more responsive to popular sentiment.

Date: 2001
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