Evan Smith

I am a Research Fellow in History in the College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences at Flinders University, South Australia. I have previously worked for the Australian Institute of Criminology, the South Australian Office of Crime Statistics and Research and the ATO.

I am working with Associate Professor Andrekos Varnava, Associate Professor Marinella Marmo, Dr Anastasia Dukova (Griffith) and Dr Andonis Piperoglou (ACU) on the ARC Discovery Project 'Managing migrants and border control in Britain and Australia, 1901-1981'. This project aims to historicise the creation and control of ‘suspect’ migrant communities and the restrictions on the further immigration of members of these groups by the British and Australian authorities from 1900-81. The project aims to scrutinise the creation of 'suspect communities' and the policies of surveillance, community control and restricted entry. The expected outcome is to show that such policies and practices did not prevent Britain and Australia from becoming multicultural societies by the 1970s. This will provide a greater understanding of how Britain and Australia’s border control systems have evolved since 1900 and how past historical policies relate to contemporary practices.