Neumann examines both the government policy and the public attitude towards refugees and asylum seekers since Federation. He places the Australian story in the context of global refugee movements, and international responses to those movements. He examines
many case studies, including Australia's reluctance in the 1930s to accept Jewish refugees fleeing Germany and Austria, and the Vietnamese 'baby-lifts' of the 1970s. By contrasting the ways in which politicians have approached asylum-seeker debates in the past, Neumann aims to inspire more creative thinking in current refugee and asylum-seeker policy.
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