ABSTRACT

Biosecurity restrictions regulate the types of materials that international travellers can bring into certain countries. Australia is well known in international travel cultures for stringent customs regulations and checks on all incoming passengers. This blanket approach to biosecurity governance implies that all materials, even banal personal possessions or luggage, pose a potential threat to the nation’s biosecurity. This article explores how individuals prepare for and experience declaring personal belongings while migrating to and entering Australia. Drawing from interviews with recently arrived migrants on temporary visas, analysis of the required customs declaration card and government information, I highlight the inconsistencies of how materials, and the people who carry them, come under close scrutiny at the border. The findings show that the stringent surveillance of biosecurity perpetuates perceived risks and threats, relying on stereotypes of certain migrant and traveller profiles in the way biosecurity is promoted, monitored and enforced. Biosecurity manifests social, spatial, and material concerns in how it is performed and regulated, thereby transforming passive materials in a person’s luggage into active threats to national security, further complicating the rigid governance of international mobility and migration.

摘要

生物安全限制规定了国际旅行者可以带入某些国家的材料类型。澳大利亚在国际旅行文化中以严格的海关规定和对所有入境旅客的检查而闻名。这种全面的生物安全治理方法意味着所有材料，甚至是平庸的个人物品或行李，都会对国家的生物安全构成潜在威胁。本文探讨个人在移民和进入澳大利亚时如何准备和体验申报个人物品。通过对最近抵达的临时签证移民的采访、对所需报关卡和政府信息的分析，我强调了材料和携带这些材料的人如何在边境受到严密审查的不一致之处。研究结果表明，生物安全的严格监督使人们感知到的风险和威胁永久存在，在促进、监测和执行生物安全的方式中，依赖于某些移民和旅行者的刻板印象。生物安全在其执行和监管方式中体现出社会、空间和物质方面的担忧，从而将个人行李中的被动材料转变为对国家安全的主动威胁，进一步使国际流动和移民的严格治理复杂化。