Securing Borders: Detention and Deportation in Canada (Law and Society) - Tapa dura

Anna Pratt, a sociologist who teaches criminology, examines an important aspect of Canada's refugee policy - detention and deportation - from the perspective of human rights and social justice. She sees larger a pattern in connections between the federal government's immigration and refugee policies, public concerns about crime and welfare fraud, media reporting on immigrant communities such as Toronto's Somalis, and the trend towards neo-liberalism. -- Greg Marquis, University of New Brunswick * Law and Politics Review, Vol. 16, No.3 * This book goes a long way to render visible the material conditions and tangible practices of the detention and deportation of undeserving and undesirable non-citizens, who are essentially being criminalized for the mere act of migration. -- Harsha Walia * The Rain Review of Books, Issue 4:1, Winter 2006 * Pratt's book provides a complete and lucid analysis of the darker side of immigration policies in Canada. It maintains balance between a theoretical framework, historical backgrounders and practical illustrations, as well as between law and social science insights which will make reading accessible to a larger audience...It is, arguably the most complete and up-to-date Canadian book on detention and deportation. -- Sophie Dorais, McGill University * Canadian Journal of Law and Society, vol. 21, no. 1, 2006 * Ultimately, Pratt writes convincingly of how (specific groups of) humans have become the object of management. This book also urges for research on a number of immigration management-related issues (e.g. discretion on the part of immigration officials). What I also consider a strength of the book is that it brings abundant light onto these minority ethnic groups in Canada that are relatively neglected by research ... it will be invaluable for the researcher of immigration and ethnicity as well as to public official working with migrants and NGO workers. -- Georgios A. Antonopoulos, University of Durham * British Journal of Criminology Advance Access *

This work is a rich interdisciplinary study which promises to be of interest to scholars in a range of disciplines including criminology, socio-legal studies, law, history, sociology, political science, international relations, and public administration. It will also be of interest to non-governmental advocates as well as to government representatives who work in the areas of immigration, refugee determination, and related fields.