501s The Reluctant Returnees by Angus Gillies

‘501’ has become a loaded shorthand in New Zealand. It’s a term often used in news headlines, political debate and public discussion before the people behind it are considered at all. 

In 501s: The Reluctant Returnees, journalist Angus Gillies looks beyond the label, sharing the stories of New Zealanders deported from Australia under Section 501 of the Migration Act. He explores the lives of people who, in many cases, did not want to come back to New Zealand. Many had lived in Australia for years, some since they were young children. They had families, children, jobs, histories and identities there. For them, Australia wasn’t simply a place they had moved to, it was home. Their return to New Zealand wasn’t a homecoming either, but a forced upheaval. Angus interviews a number of deportees, showing how Australia’s hard-line immigration policy helped embed Aussie-style organised crime in New Zealand, contributing to the country’s methamphetamine problem. But this isn’t just a book about crime. It also considers how New Zealand could better reintegrate 501s and addresses the wider harm caused by methamphetamine.

Angus is careful not to present the 501s as one easily defined group. Some have serious criminal histories but others appear to have been caught in the wide sweep of association, circumstance, addiction, poverty or poor decisions made long ago. What connects them is their dislocation: sent back to a country that may be legally theirs, but no longer feels like home.

What makes the book so fascinating is its refusal to simplify the issue. It doesn’t excuse or ignore the impact of crime. However, we’re encouraged to look beyond the label and consider the systems that shape these stories; family breakdown, institutional failure, migration policy, justice, rehabilitation and the minimal support offered to people expected to rebuild their lives from almost nothing.

Having read Jared Savage’s books on gangs in New Zealand, I found 501s especially interesting. Jared’s work provides valuable insight into organised crime here, while Angus offers a different but closely connected perspective: what happens when people are forcibly returned to New Zealand, and how those returnees struggle to fit into society.

The question running through the book is an uncomfortable one: could New Zealand have done better? The answer, implied through the voices of the returnees, is yes. Reintegration is not achieved by arrival alone. Housing, employment, mental health support, community connection and basic dignity all matter. Without them, deportation risks becoming the beginning of another cycle of instability.

As well as examining the impact returnees have had on New Zealand’s gang landscape, 501s also shares positive stories. These moments give the book balance, reminding readers that people are more than the worst thing they have done.

501s is a thought-provoking read for anyone interested in crime, justice, gangs, migration policy and contemporary New Zealand society. Its real value lies in the empathy it demands. It asks not only who the 501s are, but who we become when we decide they are someone else’s problem.

Reviewer: Andrea Molloy

Upstart Press