THE MIGRANT'S PARADOX reviewed in Sociology Journal

Hall’s is an eloquently written book that powerfully channels anger at Britain’s hostile environment and its degradation of humanity.

Connects global migration with urban marginalization, exploring how “race” maps onto place across the globe, state, and streetHall’s is an eloquently written book that powerfully channels anger at Britain’s hostile environment and its degradation of humanity. Given a tumultuous period over the past six years, it offers a useful, if dismaying, reminder of the political context in Britain – three general elections, the 2008 financial crash and austerity, Brexit, COVID-19.

A particular skill in the book is the clear-sighted way in which Hall draws the postcolonial urban politics of the treatment of migrants, such as where the state systematically destroyed documentation that confirmed arrival status of those from former colonies. As Hall argues convincingly, and extending the field in Sociology and Geography, these are racialised politics that mean for some citizenship is always marginal and called into question.

 

Full review in Sociology Journal.