Research Seminar with Heli Askola

Join CERC Migration and Bridging Divides for a seminar from Heli Askola, Associate Professor Faculty of Law, Monash University. This Research Seminar is chaired by Masoud Kianpour, Senior Research Fellow, CERC Migration, with discussant Triadafilos (Phil) Triadafilopoulos, University of Toronto Scarborough. 

Citizenship and Integration

Citizenship, integration and naturalisation in Australia Citizenship acquisition is often considered an important indicator of immigrants' integration in destination countries. Countries of immigration, including Australia and Canada, keenly monitor rates of naturalisation and seek to understand the complex individual and collective drivers behind immigrants’ choices regarding citizenship acquisition. These efforts, and the attempts to increase naturalisation rates, are often based on concepts that are used without examining their unstated assumptions. These concepts include ‘integration’ and indeed ‘citizenship’ (and its counterpart, ‘non-citizenship'). This seminar examines the official narrative of citizenship acquisition from an Australian perspective, with particular reference to the largest and most distinctive migrant communities in Australia. It asks what is silenced in the official story of an ‘inclusive immigration nation’ and asks what these silences reveal about the hidden expectations and understandings of citizenship. 

About

Heli Askola studies the various legal, social and political practices through which states and international organisations, particularly the European Union, seek to manage increasing and diversifying migration flows and migrant inclusion and what these efforts mean for migrant-receiving states, their citizens and immigrants.