Introduction

This chapter reviews key discourses present in the colonial and immigration histories of Australia, the UK and the US, the states from which case studies are drawn from in this book. Later chapters examine how debates in contemporary immigration and asylum policy cases discussed in this book have engaged with the histories and discourses that emerged during these periods. Immigration policy has been a central pillar of nation building and debates on identity in each of the states (Vickers and Isaac, 2012). While settler colonial societies must inevitably link colonialism and immigration in telling the stories of their nation-state, in the UK these histories have, to an extent, become detached; colonialism as the story of what happened ‘over there’ is under-acknowledged in the ways in which it has a direct connection to 20th and 21st century immigration in the UK (Bhambra, 2017).

Colonial and immigration histories have not only shaped perceptions of who the alien outsider is, but also the identities of these states and ‘their’ peoples. Racialised hierarchies developed and were maintained alongside a sense of imperilled and fragile privilege. Pride was felt at the perceived superiority of white Europeans (and descendants) and their position as the ‘chosen ones’ guiding others towards civilisation. Yet, there was an enduring narrative that these advantages and privileged status needed to be protected from dangerous others who sought to destroy or usurp. There was also a narrative of danger that asserted that this privilege and status could be jeopardised from within by the actions of white Europeans themselves; their lack of humanitarianism and their uncivil conduct risked tarnishing their moral standing and status.

Compassion is a social emotion concerned with the relationship between self and other. It addresses questions of proximity, distance and relationships of power. In considering contemporary relationships between ‘new strangers’ forged in the context of immigration, it is important to reflect on how these have been shaped by the emotional legacy and patterns imprinted from those earlier encounters (Ahmed, 2014). In understanding the origins and development of the politics of compassion in contemporary immigration policy, and the power, utility and attachment to this discourse, we need to reach back into the foundational stories of the states.