Governing by Looking Back: A Socio-Legal Account of Cambodian boat people

This project aims to establish a socio-legal account of the arrival of Cambodian boat people in Australia from 1989 to the present. The project expects to shed new light on these events by using an innovative blend of research methods. Interweaving archival and oral history sources, it seeks both to describe institutional responses to these events and show how participants experienced and remember them. Expected outcomes include enhanced knowledge of the effects of asylum-related policy and the generation of international and domestic policy guidance for ensuring that such policy is historically-informed. Significant societal benefits will flow by generating new historical knowledge and understanding, and better-informed policy.