2024 Laki Jayasuriya Oration: From Chengdu to Wellington to Delhi: Australian immigration policy through the stories of migrant families

Emeritus Professor Laksiri (Laki) Jayasuriya (1931-2018) was an intellectual, policy and campaigning pioneer. As the first Asian professor at The University of Western Australia, he founded the UWA Department of Social Work and Social Policy, and made significant contributions to the development of social policy. Upon his appointment by the Whitlam Government to the Immigration Advisory Council in 1973, he was amongst the key architects of Australia’s Multicultural policy. A staunch supporter of positive engagement with Asia and the Indian Ocean region, Laki challenged historic assumptions about the country’s European identity.

The Oration has been established as an annual UWA Public Policy Institute event to reflect and expand on the work of the late Professor Jayasuriya, and in particular to highlight contemporary issues of racism, migration, social and cultural diversity and political reform.

The UWA Public Policy Institute invites you to attend the 2024 Laki Jayasuriya Oration, to be delivered by Associate Professor Anna Boucher (University of Sydney); ‘From Chengdu to Wellington to Delhi: Australian immigration policy through the stories of migrant families’.

Immigration debates often focus on numbers – the size of net overseas migration, intake levels and backlog sizes. At this same time, consideration of Australian immigration demands us to evaluate its effects on millions of individuals and their personal, individual stories. Immigration is both large scale and at the same time incredibly personal and granular, making it a contested and emotional policy domain. In this keynote, Professor Boucher will sketch out major immigration policy trends through the stories of her and her students' migration pathways. Collectively as people of migrant backgrounds they have written this Oration together. The stories include: 1) Seeking refugee status in times of global tension; 2) the gender caring challenges for international students who are mothers; 3) navigating COVID-19 while a temporary migrant; 4) naturalizing from New Zealand to Australian citizenship although a long-term resident of Australia; and, 5) skill accreditation and deskilling for new migrants to Australia, leading to a gap between sending and receiving country. Each migrant family story opens a lens for exploration of pressing themes in Australian immigration policy and multiculturalism. Storytelling generates insights from which Boucher and her students explore the broader policy, legal and regulatory contexts relevant to each of these issues.

Keynote Speaker | Associate Professor Anna Boucher

Anna is Chair of the Discipline of Government of International Relations and an Associate Professor in Public Policy and Comparative Politics at the University of Sydney. As well as being an academic, she is an admitted solicitor. She currently undertakes part-time legal consultancy for the boutique law firm Violet Co & Legal specialising in employment and anti-discrimination law. A frequent public speaker, she sits of the Executive Committee of The Australian Institute of Employment Rights, the Immigration Minister of Australia’s Migration Advisory Council on Skilled Migration Expert Sub-Committee and the Advisory Panel of the NSW Anti-Slavery Commissioner.