Stephen Castles and Australian Immigration Policies, Politics and Possibilities

Stephen Castles has been a cutting-edge migration scholar and migration theorist since the 1970s. An Australian by birth, Castles’ retirement from the University of Sydney in 2017 provides a moment to reflect on his legacy in the field of global and Australian immigration scholarship. In this paper, I first present some personal reflections on the profound way that Stephen has shaped my own career as an Australian immigration scholar. The paper then situates Stephen Castles within the field of Australian immigration scholarship and situates his legacy of the giants in this field, including Charles Price, WD Borrie, Graeme Hugo and James Jupp. The paper then shifts to assess Stephen Castles’ contributions to the international migration literature.