The Immigration Department

Australia is unusual in having a distinct Immigration Department, which is normally represented in the Cabinet. In Britain, immigration is only one function of the Home Office, which is centrally concerned with policing and law and order. Similarly in the United States, the Immigration and Naturalization Service is part of the attorney general's department. In Canada, immigration was previously the concern of the Department of Labour, while multiculturalism has been administered through a quite distinct agency. In many European states immigration is controlled by agencies also responsible for police, crime and public order.

The existence of a specialist department for all but eighteen months (1975–76) since 1945 emphasises the bureaucratic planning role of the state in building and selecting population. Distinct immigration statistics are developed by the department as an adjunct to its own planning. The Australian Bureau of Statistics duplicates this function to some extent. This has meant that Australia has some of the most detailed and meticulous migration statistics in the world. Its research capacity has also been considerable, especially between 1979 and 1986 through the Australian Institute of Multicultural Affairs and from 1989 to 1996 when the Bureau of Immigration, Multicultural and Population Research was producing a flow of information and analysis. This kept Australia in the forefront of immigration studies, given the lack of interest by most academic social scientists. While this research capacity has been substantially reduced, much analysis of immigration issues is still produced within the bureaucracy rather than by academics.