LAW 2562 - Migration Law and Policy

North Terrace Campus - Semester 2 - 2015

This course takes a broad socio-political and theoretical view of the regulation of the movement of people around the world, with a particular focus on Australian law and policy on immigration control. The course begins with an examination of theoretical approaches to global movements of people, including the relationship between State sovereignty and citizenship, and individual rights. The course uses this theoretical framework to provide an introduction to the Australian immigration system, its history, and the principal visa categories. Particular attention will be paid to skilled and unskilled working visas, family visas and student visas. The course will focus on the application process, rights of review and appeal, and the jurisprudence of the Federal Court, Migration Review Tribunal and Refugee Review Tribunal. Comparisons will be drawn with overseas migration law and policy.

  • General Course Information
    Course Details
    Course Code LAW 2562
    Course Migration Law and Policy
    Coordinating Unit Adelaide Law School
    Term Semester 2
    Level Undergraduate Law (LLB)
    Location/s North Terrace Campus
    Units 3
    Contact Up to 3 hours a week
    Available for Study Abroad and Exchange Y
    Prerequisites LAW 1501, LAW 1502, LAW 1503, LAW 1504
    Incompatible LAW 3515
    Course Description This course takes a broad socio-political and theoretical view of the regulation of the movement of people around the world, with a particular focus on Australian law and policy on immigration control.
    The course begins with an examination of theoretical approaches to global movements of people, including the relationship between State sovereignty and citizenship, and individual rights.
    The course uses this theoretical framework to provide an introduction to the Australian immigration system, its history, and the principal visa categories. Particular attention will be paid to skilled and unskilled working visas, family visas and student visas.
    The course will focus on the application process, rights of review and appeal, and the jurisprudence of the Federal Court, Migration Review Tribunal and Refugee Review Tribunal.
    Comparisons will be drawn with overseas migration law and policy.
    Course Staff

    Course Coordinator: Professor Alex Reilly

    Associate Professor Alex Reilly

    Telephone: 8313 3596
    email: alexander.reilly@adelaide.edu.au
    Course Timetable

    The full timetable of all activities for this course can be accessed from Course Planner.

    The course consists of a weekly 2 hour lecture from 1.00-3.00pm on Wednesdays from Week 1 to 12, and a fortnightly 2 hour seminar on Thursdays. Depending on your enrolment, seminars will be in weeks 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11 or weeks 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12.

    Students are strongly encouraged to attend all lectures and seminars.

    This lectures and seminars will be used in different ways, depending on the material covered in a particular week. In some weeks, the lecture time will only partly involve the course coordinator presenting a lecture and will also involve large and small group discussion and other activities. In some weeks, there may be no lecture.

    Lectures will only be recorded when there is an unbroken presentation by the course coordinator.



  • Learning Outcomes
    Course Learning Outcomes
    This course provides a broad socio-political and theoretical view of the regulation of people movement around the world, with a particular focus on Australian law and policy on immigration control and refugee admission.  On successful completition of the course students will gain:

    1. an understanding of the phenomenon of migration, and the role that nation-state borders and the concept of citizenship play in controlling the movement of people.
    2.  knowledge and understanding in relation to a series of issues in Australian immigration law and policy. This course specifically seeks to develop students’ abilities to prepare, research, structure and write an effective essay in answer to a complex issue in migration law and policy. It will encourage the use of high level critical and analytical skills.
    3.  an ability to use a range of relevant online materials, in particular, students will navigate the Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) website to find appropriate visas and sub-classes of visa, and to identify specific visa criteria; a range of library data bases to source legal and socio-legal materials for a research essay that forms the core component of the assessment of the course.

    University Graduate Attributes

    This course will provide students with an opportunity to develop the Graduate Attribute(s) specified below:

    University Graduate Attribute Course Learning Outcome(s)
    Knowledge and understanding of the content and techniques of a chosen discipline at advanced levels that are internationally recognised. 1, 2
    The ability to locate, analyse, evaluate and synthesise information from a wide variety of sources in a planned and timely manner. 3
    An ability to apply effective, creative and innovative solutions, both independently and cooperatively, to current and future problems. 2
    Skills of a high order in interpersonal understanding, teamwork and communication. 2
    A proficiency in the appropriate use of contemporary technologies. 3
    A commitment to continuous learning and the capacity to maintain intellectual curiosity throughout life. 1, 2, 3
    A commitment to the highest standards of professional endeavour and the ability to take a leadership role in the community. 1, 2, 3
    An awareness of ethical, social and cultural issues within a global context and their importance in the exercise of professional skills and responsibilities. 1, 2
  • Learning Resources
    Required Resources
    Students are required to have a copy of the Course Map which contains all information required for the course.
    The Course Map is available as a free resource from the Image and Copy Centre and is also available for download on the Course information link on the Refugee Law and Policy MyUni website.

    The Course Map will include a reading guide for each week. The reading material will be available on MyUni, on the internet or via the library eReserve system.

    Recommended Resources
    The following books are available on Library Reserve:

    Mary Crock and Laurie Berg, Immigration, Refugees and Forced Migraation: Law, Policy and Practice in Australia (2011)

    Vrachnas et al, Migration and Refugee Law (3rd ed, 2012)

    Opeskin, Perruchoud and Redpath-Cross (eds), Foundations of International Migration Law (2012)

    Castles and Miller, The Age of Migration: International Population Movements in the Modern World (4th ed, 2009)




    Online Learning
    MyUni will be used to post announcements, post additional class materials (including slides if used, and if available, audio recordings of lectures) and announce assignment tasks. It will also contain electronic copies of the Course Profile, Learning Guides, and Course Materials.

    Students are expected to check MyUni regularly to keep up to date with these materials and additional learning resources throughout the course. An announcement will be made when additional material is posted.



  • Learning & Teaching Activities
    Learning & Teaching Modes
    The course consists of a weekly 2 hour lecture from 1.00-3.00pm on Wednesdays from Week 1 to 12, and a fortnightly 2 hour seminar on Thursdays.
    Depending on your enrolment, seminars will be in weeks 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11 or weeks 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12.

    Lectures and seminars will not be recorded, as they will both be interactive, and are unsuitable for recording.

    Seminars for the course are compulsory. If you are not able to attend a seminar, you are required to attend a make-up seminar, or complete a 500 word paper on a topic set by the Course coordinator in lieu of attendance.

    In addition, students will be expected to make an individual appointment with the course coordinator to discuss their major research essay some time in the first 8 weeks of the course.
    Workload

    The information below is provided as a guide to assist students in engaging appropriately with the course requirements.

    The University expects full-time students (ie those taking 12 units per semester) to devote a total of 48 hours per week to their studies.  Students in this course are expected to attend the lectures and seminars. In addition, students should allocate time to private study in the course across the 12 week semester and the period before the exam – this includes reading the material, preparing for class, working in small study groups, and undertaking the assessment tasks.



    Learning Activities Summary
    The full list of learning activities will be availalbe distributed to you prior to the commencement of the course, and will be available on the MyUni website.

    The course consists of 12 lecture topics detailed below. Each seminar covers two of the topics. Lectures and seminars will be a mix of law and policy analysis, quizzes, analysis of readings, consideration of hypothetical problems and student presentations.

    Week 1, Wed 29 July: Australia’s migration history and current issues
     
    Week 2, Wed 5 Aug: Understanding Migration
     
    Week 3, Wed 12 Aug: Citizenship
     
    Week 4, Wed 19 Aug: Conferring citizenship
     
    Week 5: Wed 26 Aug: Border Control and Visas  
     
    Week 6, Wed 2 Sept: Illegal Migration and Immigration Detention
     
    Week 7, Wed 9 Sept: Economic Migration - permanent
     
    Week 8, Wed 16 Sept: Economic Migration - temporary
     
    Mid-Semester Break: 21 September – 5 October

    Week 9, Wed 7 Oct: Family Migration – Spouses, Parents
    and children

    Week 10, Wed 14 Oct: International Student and Working Holiday
    visas
     
    Week 11, Wed 21 Oct: Humanitarian Program
     
    Week 12, Wed 28 Oct: Asylum Seeker Policy
     




    Specific Course Requirements
    There are no specific course requirements.
  • Assessment

    The University's policy on Assessment for Coursework Programs is based on the following four principles:

    1. Assessment must encourage and reinforce learning.
    2. Assessment must enable robust and fair judgements about student performance.
    3. Assessment practices must be fair and equitable to students and give them the opportunity to demonstrate what they have learned.
    4. Assessment must maintain academic standards.

    Assessment Summary
    Assessment Item Percentage of final mark Due Date Length
    Seminar Presentation 10 Seminars 3-12 5-10 mins + 500 words
    Essay Plan 20 Wed, 2 September, 2.00pm 1000 words
    Research Essay 70 Wed, 4 November, 2.00pm 2500 words
    Assessment Detail
    1.    Seminar Presentations (10%)

    Students will be allocated a reading in the first seminar and will be asked to identify a sentence or paragraph in the reading that is of interest to them and to explain the significance of the sentence or paragraph in the context of the reading in a 500 word paper submitted to Turnitin prior to the seminar. Students will also have the opportunity to present the reading to the class for 5 to 10 minutes, concluding with a question for class discussion.

    Students will be assessed globally on the quality of the two page discussion and their presentation to the class.

    In particular, students will be assessed in relation to:

    a.    The organisation of their presentations;

    b.   Their level of understanding of the topic as demonstrated through the quality of their observations and comments;

    c.    Their understanding of how the presentation topic fits into the seminar topic as a whole;

    d.   Their ability to engage the class in discussion with a well targeted question at the end of their presentation.


    2.    Essay Plan (20%) Due 2 September 2015 at 2.00pm.

    Students are required to choose an essay topic based on the topics covered in the course. Essay topics must be approved by the Course Coordinator by email. The essay plan is to be a maximum of 1000 words in length.

    The essay plan must consist of the following elements:

    1.    A specific research question

    2.    An explanation of why the student chose the particular field of inquiry.

    3.    A statement concisely explaining the method and scope of the inquiry.

    4.    A preliminary list of research resources, including an annotation of 3 of the most relevant sources.

    The Essay plan will be marked for a total of 20% of the student’s grade. Essay plans will also be separately considered for
    approval as the basis for the major essay component of the assessment.

    If a proposed plan is not approved at first instance, students must make an appointment to see the Course Coordinator who
    will assist students in formulating an appropriate essay topic.

    It is the responsibility of students to allow time to formulate a topic, submit it for approval and revise it subject to the course coordinator’s comment, and then to write the 1000 word essay plan before the due date of Wednesday, 14 October.
     

    3. Research Essay (70%, 2500 words) Due 4 November at 2.00pm.

    The research essay is the major piece of assessment in the course.

    The essays must are to be a maximum of 2,500 words long. Given the 70% weighting of the assessment, this is a comparatively short word length. It is important to note, however, that the breadth of research and depth of analysis required in the essay is no less than if the essay were twice the length. For example, students will be expected to draw on at least twenty primary and secondary sources which reveal different opinions and approaches to the essay question. Students need to demonstrate a deep knowledge of these sources and an ability to employ them judiciosusly to answering the question.

    An important skill to be developed in the essay is the skill of synthesising a diverse range of sources, both primary and secondary. The essay should contain minimal description, and opinions expressed in the essays should be supported, as a rule, but two or more sources. Rather than setting out the case for a proposition and the case against the proposition, relevant data and opinion should be engaged to analyse the for and against cases thematically.

    Essays should include a title page and a bibliography which are not included in the word count. Words are calculated including all footnotes or other references, and all headings within the text. Quotations and all referencing information are included in the word count. Because research topics will usually have been discussed with individual students before approval, in practice this will not be an anonymous assessment. Please use the AGLC 3rd
    edition for style and referencing.

    Marks will be awarded for the following:

    1. Quality of presentation of the essay, including spelling, grammar, punctuation.

    2. Written communication skills, including logical and coherent structure.

    3. Accurate and appropriate referencing of sources used in the essay, using the AGLC.

    4. Depth of understanding of the immigration law and policy issues discussed in the paper.

    5. Quality and depth of research.
        
    6. Quality of analysis, including:
     
    - An appropriate introduction and conclusion to frame the discussion, placing the thesis within the context of migration law and policy more generally, explaining clearly the argument to be advanced and the assumptions being made.

    - The ability to fairly reconstruct a position and argument in regard to a particular issue.

    - The ability to express thoughts and reason and argue about the material in the student’s own words.

    - Appropriate balancing of points of view.
      
    - Effective use of the research resources to make out the core points in the essay.

     

    Submission
    All three written assessments, the Seminar Presentation summary, Essay Plan, and the Research Essay must be submitted electronically to Turnitin. In addition, the Research Essay must be submitted to the law school office in hard copy.


    Extensions

    Extensions beyond the due date will only be granted in the case of serious and unforeseen incapacity. Extensions will be granted only for unexpected illness, hardship or on compassionate grounds in accordance with University Policy. Work commitments, travel, holidays or sporting engagements are NOT unexpected circumstances. If you require an extension, you will need to use the on-line application form available on the law school website (http://www.law.adelaide.edu.au/student/forms/) as soon as you are aware of the need for an extension, and before the due date of the assignment.

    The course coordinator or an extensions officer will reply by email, determining whether an extension is warranted, what evidence is required to verify the student’s incapacity, and the length of the extension. Evidence of the incapacity must be submitted with the assignment, and must be consistent with details in the email requesting the extension. If the details of the request for an extension, and the medical or other evidence verifying the extension are not consistent in all respects, the extension is nullified, and the assignment may be penalised. 

    Penalties

    Late Submission penalties:
    5% of the total mark possible will be deducted for every 24 hours or part thereof that submission is late, including each day on a weekend. For example, an essay that is submitted after the due date and time but within the first 24 hour period, and that has been graded at 63%, will have 5% deducted, for a final grade of 58%. An assignment that is more than 24 hours late will lose 10%, etc.
      
    Word Length penalties:
    Assignments which exceed the allocated length (word length) will be subject to a penalty of 5% of total marks possible per 100 words or part thereof (ie with a word limit of 1,000, an essay graded 63% will have 5% deducted if it is 1,001 words long, for a final grade of 58%, 10% if it is 1,101 words long, etc). Words are calculated including all footnotes and headings within the text but excluding cover page information. Quotations and all referencing information are included in the word count.

    Course Grading

    Grades for your performance in this course will be awarded in accordance with the following scheme:

    M10 (Coursework Mark Scheme)
    Grade Mark Description
    FNS   Fail No Submission
    F 1-49 Fail
    P 50-64 Pass
    C 65-74 Credit
    D 75-84 Distinction
    HD 85-100 High Distinction
    CN   Continuing
    NFE   No Formal Examination
    RP   Result Pending

    Further details of the grades/results can be obtained from Examinations.

    Grade Descriptors are available which provide a general guide to the standard of work that is expected at each grade level. More information at Assessment for Coursework Programs.

    Final results for this course will be made available through Access Adelaide.

  • Student Feedback

    The University places a high priority on approaches to learning and teaching that enhance the student experience. Feedback is sought from students in a variety of ways including on-going engagement with staff, the use of online discussion boards and the use of Student Experience of Learning and Teaching (SELT) surveys as well as GOS surveys and Program reviews.

    SELTs are an important source of information to inform individual teaching practice, decisions about teaching duties, and course and program curriculum design. They enable the University to assess how effectively its learning environments and teaching practices facilitate student engagement and learning outcomes. Under the current SELT Policy (http://www.adelaide.edu.au/policies/101/) course SELTs are mandated and must be conducted at the conclusion of each term/semester/trimester for every course offering. Feedback on issues raised through course SELT surveys is made available to enrolled students through various resources (e.g. MyUni). In addition aggregated course SELT data is available.

  • Student Support
  • Policies & Guidelines
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