Interview: Neil Vallelly talks about Edges of Empire

Neil Vallelly is a lecturer in the sociology, gender studies and criminology programme at Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka, the University of Otago. He is the author of Futilitarianism: Neoliberalism and the Production of Uselessness which has been translated into Italian, and his work has appeared in journals such as Angelaki, Poetics Today, Critical Times, Journal of Gender Studies and Theory & Event. Neil is the editor of the journal Counterfutures: Left Thought & Practice Aotearoa, a member of the executive committee for the Australasian Society for Continental Philosophy, and a recipient of a Rutherford Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship (Royal Society Te Apārangi). Neil talks to NZ Booklovers.

Tell us a little about Edges of Empire.

The book tells the story of how Aotearoa New Zealand’s migration system has evolved over time, from colonisation to today. In particular, the book focuses on the huge changes in immigration policy from the early 1980s onwards, and the narrative is built around interviews with 15 former Ministers of Immigration since the early 1980s.

There are broadly three main takeaways from the book. One is the end of what we call the “imperial migration regime” that was in place from colonisation until the early 1980s. This regime focused on the racial characteristics of migrants and prioritised migration from Britain and Ireland, and then after the Second World War, tentatively opened up to other parts of Northern and Western Europe. The aim was to prioritise White immigrants, which was evidenced by the heavy restrictions on Chinese migration in the late 19^th and early 20^th century. After Britain joined the European Economic Community in 1973, alongside the global economic crisis of the 1970s, the imperial migration regime began to break down, and there was an awareness within New Zealand governmental circles that the country needed to open up to other areas of the world. The Fourth Labour Government initiated an immigration policy review in 1986, which was followed by a new Immigration Act in 1987. The aim of these changes was, as Kerry Burke, the Minister of Immigration at the time, put it “to enrich the multicultural fabric of New Zealand society.” What we’ve seen since the mid-1980s is a radical change in immigration to New Zealand, particularly with a vast rise in immigration from north, south, and southeast Asia, especially after the introduction of an immigration points system in 1991. The aims of immigration, at a governmental level, has moved away from the racial characteristics of immigrants towards the financial and skilled characteristics of migrants.

The second takeaway from the book is a huge shift away from permanent migration towards temporary migration in the 21^st century. In 1998 there were fewer than 50,000 temporary work visas approved, but by 2017, there were over 209,000. In two decades, therefore, we’ve seen a huge change in the forms of immigration to New Zealand, where temporary migration has become the most dominant form of immigration, mostly through work, working holidays, and international student visas. Aotearoa New Zealand has thus transformed from a country that was concerned about permanent migration, particularly through the figure of the settler from Britain and Ireland, towards a country that is focused on recurring forms of temporary migration. This transformation has obviously changed population trends in Aotearoa New Zealand, but many studies and media reports have also shown that this shift towards temporary immigration has led to increased instances of migrant exploitation, especially in the workforce. And we saw with the border closures during the COVID-19 pandemic that many New Zealand employers, who had become reliant on cheap and flexible migrant labour, found themselves without this workforce. Likewise, universities and other tertiary education institutions in the 21^st-century had banked much of their non-governmental funding on international students who pay much higher fees, which again collapsed during the pandemic.

The final takeaway from the book is the absence of Māori consultation on issues related to immigration policy. We certainly don’t argue that Ministers deliberately ignored Māori when it came to immigration policy, but it is noteworthy that from the 1980s, when partnership between the Crown and Māori became a fundamental aspect of policymaking, Māori have been largely excluded from policy conversations on immigration. This absence implies that partnership has limits at a policy level, and that when it comes to who does or does not enter this country, it is up to the Crown alone to make these decisions. Moreover, there are unresolved tensions between the biculturalism that emerges in the 1980s, especially through mechanisms like the Waitangi Tribunal, and the shift towards a multicultural immigration policy.

Other less obvious but still important takeaways from the book include: the background story of emigration to Australia of New Zealand citizens, which has in many ways shaped immigration policy in Aotearoa New Zealand; the embedded nature of immigration policymaking, where many decisions are delegated to bureaucrats at Immigration New Zealand; and technological changes to border security, especially biometric and surveillance technologies, have transformed the way that immigration is managed in New Zealand.  

What inspired you to write this book with co-authors Francis L Collins and Alan Gamlen?

Francis and Alan had the original idea for the book with the aim to interview the Ministers of Immigration. While there are some excellent books that have discussed the history of immigration in Aotearoa New Zealand, Edges of Empire is the first to hear from the horse’s mouth, so to speak, how immigration policy comes to be made. Many of the preconceptions that we had about the story of immigration politics in Aotearoa New Zealand were confounded once we spoke to the Ministers, and thus we’ve constructed a narrative that we believe more accurately reflects the actual history of immigration politics and policy in Aotearoa New Zealand, especially in recent decades.

The inspiration was to try and understand the specific and unique politics of immigration in Aotearoa New Zealand, especially at a time of surging anti-immigrant politics across the globe. Edges of Empire explores why immigration has not become such a hot-button political issue in Aotearoa New Zealand, given the fact that Aotearoa New Zealand has some of the highest levels of immigration (per capita) in the OECD. The aim of the book, therefore, is to show readers how immigration has shaped and continues to shape the country we’ve become today.

What research was involved?

Francis and Alan interviewed the Ministers in 2019 and 2020, initially in-person and then via Zoom because of the pandemic. I came on board and wrote the initial drafts of the book, drawing primarily on the academic literature on immigration in Aotearoa New Zealand. Francis and Alan then came back in and expanded on these sections by incorporating the interviews into the narrative and drawing on primary resources, like parliamentary debates and the like. To finish, we all came together and drafted the final version of the book. It was a truly collaborative process and, as a result, the finished version does not represent three separate voices, but one authorial voice. 

What is something surprising you learnt when researching Edges of Empire?

In the early plans for the book, we thought each chapter would roughly follow the time periods of each government from the early 1980s. But we soon came to realise, especially after the interviews with the Ministers, that there was a lot of continuity across governments when it came to immigration policy. In many cases, a National-led government would implement a policy idea that was started under a Labour-led government and vice versa. This surprise forced us to change the timelines in each chapter away from government terms towards changes in policy orthodoxy, such as the shift towards migration management or security and integration. A surprise for me, but perhaps not for more experienced migration scholars like Francis and Alan, was the extent to which Ministers often had the immigration portfolio thrust onto them once in government. In many cases, Ministers were learning the fundamentals of migration policy on the job, which was often why they relied heavily on experts at Immigration New Zealand.

What do you hope readers will take away from reading?

We hope that readers will come to see how central immigration dynamics have been to shaping Aotearoa New Zealand, and that immigration policy and politics can tell us a lot about the country that we live in today. We also hope that the voices of the Ministers will give readers a better sense of how policy comes to be made and that Ministers are often making these decisions amidst a series of multifaceted pressures.

What did you enjoy the most about writing this Edges of Empire?

The collaborative writing process. I wrote my previous book, Futilitarianism, on my own, and I’m currently in the process of writing another sole-authored book, so it was nice to not feel as lonely on this project! Writing collaboratively comes with challenges, and there were times when we disagreed on things, but the collaborative process really makes you hone your ideas. What we’ve produced is a good synthesis of our various ideas.

What did you do to celebrate finishing this book?

I had a long sleep! 

What is the favourite book you have read so far this year and why?

Fredric Jameson’s The Years of Theory. The book is based on the transcripts from his graduate seminar at Duke University on post-war French philosophy. While Jameson was one the intellectual greats of our era, his writing can often be difficult. The Years of Theory, however, is much more conversational that his other work and is a joy to read. The book provides invaluable introductions to and interpretations of the ideas of intellectuals like Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Frantz Fanon, Jacques Derrida, and Michel Foucault, but it also shows how their ideas were developed in relation to, and often against, one another. As someone who regularly writes and teaches about this tradition of thought, the book has been invaluable.

What’s next on the agenda for you?

I’m currently writing a book on border counter-imaginaries, which I aim to finish in the next couple of years. I also edit the journal Counterfutures, which takes up a lot of time but is very rewarding.

Auckland University Press