Time and Temporary Migration: The Case of Temporary Graduate Workers and Working Holiday Makers in Australia

AbstractThis article provides an analysis of ‘being temporary’ in the context of two forms of migration that are of increasing significance to Australia: temporary graduate workers (TGWs) and working holiday makers (WHMs). Recent policy changes to these visa categories allow for extended periods of work and residence in Australia, primarily among young people who are seeking an overseas work/life experience or a pathway to more permanent migration. The article brings the various temporal dimensions of these migration processes to the fore, asking how time functions as both a disciplinary practice of the state and as part of the life and labour experiences of migrants. In doing so, it problematises the idea of temporariness as both a normative constraint and a qualitative experience in a national context in which paradigms of permanent settlement and full citizenship continue to dominate discursive constructions of migration. It creates a framework for understanding the key temporal aspects of TGW and WHM migration processes: temporal eligibility and migrant subjectivities; temporal constraints and differential inclusion; and the contingent boundaries around temporariness, extended temporariness and permanence. This has salience for continued understandings of emerging forms of temporary migration in wider contexts.Keywords: Temporary MigrationAustraliaTemporalityWorking HolidayInternational Students Notes[1] All of the states of Tasmania, South Australia and the Northern Territory, including the cities, are classified as ‘regional Australia’ under the WHM policies. In other states, only major urban centres and their surrounding areas are excluded under the classification of ‘regional Australia’, with the exception of the Australian Capital Territory, which is excluded in its entirety.