ABSTRACT

This chapter is concerned with how law and technical expertise bolster the legitimacy of viewing illegality as having a national register, though the focus is primarily on how nationality and illegality is rendered in law. It first focuses on the legal regulation of visa integrity, and then situates the Administrative Appeals Tribunal findings in the broader visa integrity assemblage in which risk-profiling technologies play a vital part. The profile of Filipina women is discussed and a case illustrates how nationality and gender provided a framework to distinguish the genuineness of refugee applications. The chapter argues that stereotypes associated with 'nationality' have been utilised as a way to particularise and stabilise the broad subjective discretion empowered by the general conduct provision in the character test. The law of character demonstrates that profiling, regarded as a procedural mechanism, animates discretion in court rooms over substantive visa determination just as much in the streets and in raids.