Books & ideas

Democracy With or Without Borders

Camille Pascal — 2020-01-02T08:00:00Z

Can a state exclude people in the name of the common good? What gives legitimacy to definitions of borders and belonging? In this work of political theory, B. Boudou argues for a pragmatic, democratic and shifting approach to borders: only shared interests can define a community.

By Soil and Blood

Jean-François Mignot — 2019-10-24T07:00:00Z

Which countries make it easiest for the children of immigrants to obtain citizenship, and which countries make it the most difficult? This essay gives an overview of birthright citizenship, which may be acquired by soil or by blood and may also include particular conditions or discriminations.

Making Refuge in a Neoliberal Country

Yasmine Bouagga — 2019-04-04T06:00:00Z

How do refugees experience everyday life in the United States? Anthropologist Catherine Besteman investigates the trajectories of Somalian refugees in Lewinston, Maine, from their application for resettlement to their struggles in a world that disrupts their social organization and their way of living.

The Great Wall of Britain

Aurélien Allard — 2017-07-20T07:00:00Z

David Miller takes a clear stance on immigration: states have the right to close their borders, but also, to a certain extent, the duty to welcome refugees. His arguments, however, are not entirely convincing.

The “Refugee Crises” of the 16th and 17th Century

Isabelle Poutrin — 2016-08-29T07:00:00Z

In the early modern period, Spain and Portugal carried out dramatic mass expulsions that affected more than half a million people of Jewish or Muslim faith. Revisiting the fate of these populations helps to put into perspective the refugee crisis that the world is currently facing.

Pan-ethnicity and Latino Communities in the U.S.

Marie L. Mallet — 2014-10-20T08:00:00Z

Addressing the fragility of Latino pan-ethnicity in the U.S., Marie L. Mallet presents an overview of the social interactions between Latino communities in Los Angeles, Boston and Miami, showing how these differential interactions impact on the identity formation and subsequent assimilation of Latino immigrants.

Labor Migration and Social Rights

Nicolas Delalande & Ivan Jablonka — 2012-10-13T09:06:47Z

Whilst Europe takes a hard line on the question of immigration, in China millions of internal migrant workers are demanding recognition of their social rights. As was the case in Europe at the end of the nineteenth century, the social state is developing not against, but through migration.

When Immigration Is a Crime

Luca d'Ambrosio — 2011-10-24T13:05:11Z

Over the past few years, European Union law and national laws, particularly in France and Italy, have established repressive and utilitarian immigration policies that have equated European cooperation with legal regression. What is left of the right to migrate once held sacred by theologians and jurists alike?

From a Civic Point of View

David Owen — 2008-12-26T09:49:40Z

What is citizenship? Not only a status, it derives above all from acts and practices. The collective volume Acts of citizenship advocates for a new approach of civic action, by focusing for instance on case studies about the political struggles of illegal immigrants.

Immigration, knowledge and power

Nicolas Delalande & Ivan Jablonka — 2008-05-27T11:03:38Z

At a time when immigration and national identity have been publicly bundled together as partaking of the same conundrum, historian Gérard Noiriel revisits for laviedesidees.fr the scientific and political issues at stake behind both concepts. Interview.