How colonialism shapes immigration policy in the US and Australia

When it comes to immigration, Trump's America and Turnbull's Australia are two sides of the same coin.

....... Separating families, deporting parents, caging children: from opposite sides of the globe, the United States and Australia have been trading ideas for punishing people who cross their borders for some years now.

...... Indeed, when it comes to immigration policies it is difficult to say which country is worse - the US or Australia.

....... Both the US and Australia are settler societies which were founded on white supremacy and colonial expansionism. Hence, they are intrinsically concerned with maintaining dominance over Indigenous people and asserting state sovereignty against the incursion of people deemed "other".

..... But apart from rhetoric, Australia and the US are also using colonial-era and colonial-like power relations to coerce poorer nations into serving their racist immigration policy.

..... That approach of exploiting poorer nations to enforce cruel anti-immigration policies has also been adopted - perhaps unsurprisingly - by European countries. The EU has already considered the idea of establishing "processing centres" in North African countries (former European colonies) and has been also investing heavily in militarising borders in Libya and Niger.

ganzer Artikel auf aljazeera.com