Illegality, Inc.: Clandestine Migration and the Business of Bordering Europe: 28 (California Series in Public Anthropology) - Hardcover

"A wonderfully readable, extremely well searched, and immensely helpful contribution to migration scholarship. It is the rare author who can combine the writer's fluid prose with the scholar's deep analysis, but Andersson, a post-doctoral fellow at the London School of Economics, does just that." -- Cesar Cuauhtemoc Garcia Hernandez crImmigration "[An] impressive work of outstanding scholarship ... highly recommended ... a brilliant ethnography." -- Paul Mutsaers Border Criminologies "Ruben Andersson embarks on a needed and timely pursuit... a novel and powerful argument about Europe's southern external border." -- Elena Popa Council for European Studies "[The book's] contribution lies in its relentless investigation into the workings of what the author refers to as the 'illegal migration industry' ... its rich empirical data and the thoroughness with which the author tackles the 'illegality industry' provide for a strong contribution to a wider body of literature that is concerned with narratives that lie behind popular images of the migrant." -- Lucy Hovil Migration Studies "A rich tapestry of oral testimony that not only makes the reading experience more enjoyable and human, but underpins an emotional and compelling argument... I would highly recommend this debut book." -- Jamie Hitchen Africa at LSE "A rich and lucid narrative ... accessible, creative, and highly informative." -- Thomas Kemp Social and Legal Studies "It's the inside story of the sort of thing you read about in the newspapers all the time... It validated for me this [kind of] ethnographic research, going there, being there, burrowing in." -- Adam Kuper, Professor of Anthropology at LSE 2015 BBC/British Sociological Association ethnography award jury "I was blown away by this book, it was stunning...once you have read it, you will not see migration the same way ever again." -- Beverley Skeggs, Professor of Sociology at Goldsmiths, London 2015 BBC/British Sociological Association ethnography award jury "Best book of the year? With all the usual reservations about the virtues of each and all of everything I've dipped into in 2014, I'm going to go for Ruben Andersson's Illegality, Inc. ... he brings out the ways in which awareness of borders and the relationship which the various actors have with them brings out a set of predicable roles - the border cop, the humanitarian naval guard, the calculating NGO activist, the aggrieved, indignant migrant, the camp welfare officer, right the way through to the anti-globaliser 'no borders' protester." -- Don Flynn Migrants' Rights Network "Timely and beautifully written... Indeed, Illegality Inc. is a fascinating book, a must read not only for those interested in migration studies, but for anyone who dearly cares about the sanity of a European project - and about the way the world is governed." Allegra Lab

In this groundbreaking ethnography, Ruben Andersson, a gifted journalist and anthropologist, travels with a group of African migrants from Senegal and Mali to the Spanish North African enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla. Through the voices of his informants themselves, Anderson explores, viscerally and emphatically, how migration meets and interacts with its target--the clandestine migrant. This vivid, rich work examines the subterranean migration flow from Africa to Europe, and shifts the focus from the concept of "illegal immigrants" to an exploration of suffering and resilience. This fascinating and accessible book is a must-read for anyone interested in the politics of international migration and the changing texture of global culture.