The Refugee Crisis & The Responsibility Of Intellectuals

According to the UN, 65.3 million forcibly displaced people languish in camps and slums or making desperate journeys toward safety. The global community has not only failed to help many of these people; in many cases it has actively obstructed them from finding security and a new home for themselves and their families. Moral responsibilities to refugees are not exhausted by policies and actions. They also extend to how to think about the refugee crisis. Pundits, politicians, and political philosophers have failed to live up to these responsibilities by perpetuating populist myths, the causes of refugees’ flight, and the policies that prevent them from resuming their lives

Interrogating the Migration Industry

Review of Ruben Andersson,Illegality, Inc. (Oakland, CA: University of California Press, 2014)and Amy Nethery and Stephanie J. Silverman(eds.), Immigration Detention: The Migration of a Policy and its Human Impact.(London and New York: Routledge, 2015

Book review: Politics against domination by Ian Shapiro

In Politics against Domination, Ian Shapiro proposes non-domination as the guiding value for justice, argues that it is best supported by democracy and speculates about measures to realise it across borders. Shapiro evidences his insight and wisdom as a renowned political theorist in this account, but the work may not fully convince those who view non-domination as one, albeit important, value among others, writes Alex Sager

Book review: when the state meets the street: public service and moral agency by Bernardo Zacka

In When the State Meets the Street: Public Service and Moral Agency, Bernardo Zacka draws on eight months of fieldwork working as a receptionist in an anti-poverty agency to challenge dominant understandings of the role that bureaucrats and bureaucracy play in the functioning of the state. Alex Sager praises this as a subtle and thoughtful discussion that opens up a new methodological approach for political theory

The end of progress: decolonizing the normative foundations of critical theory by Amy Allen

In The End of Progress: Decolonizing the Normative Foundations of Critical Theory, Amy Allen challenges the continued reliance on ideas of progress and development found in the work of those such as Jürgen Habermas, Axel Honneth and Rainer Forst, instead seeking to propose a decolonised critical theory. While the book is rigorously argued and compellingly written, Alex Sager questions whether it manages to escape the trappings of the Eurocentrism that it otherwise aims to contest

Book review: strangers in our midst: the political philosophy of immigration by David Miller

In Strangers in Our Midst: The Political Philosophy of Immigration, David Miller defends the ability of states to control their borders and exercise the right to exclude immigrants on the basis of community goals and preferences. Alex Sager argues that the book’s central argument regarding this ‘weak cosmopolitan’ position is largely founded on myth, omission and the misrepresentation of empirical evidence; thus, while it may support the convictions of many, it also serves to reinforce misapprehension about this timely yet controversial topic

Book review: against the grain: a deep history of the earliest states by James C. Scott

In Against the Grain: A Deep History of the Earliest States, James C. Scott contributes to his longstanding intellectual project of re-evaluating the role of the state in political thought by looking at the development of the early agrarian states to challenge narratives of progress founded on state formation. While acknowledging that a number of objections can be raised against the historical claims of the book, Alex Sager praises it for encouraging vital critical interrogation of the supposed inevitability and neutrality of state institutions today

Book review: violent borders: refugees and the right to move by Reece Jones

In Violent Borders: Refugees and the Right to Move, Reece Jones argues that the deaths of people attempting to cross international borders are indicative of the violence integral to border regimes that not only have devastating consequences for human lives, but also the wider environment. This is an ambitious book that reveals much about the harm caused by borders, yet Alex Sager questions whether this singular view neglects their complexity, including consideration of which borders could potentially help to engender a more just world

Book review: theory of the border by Thomas Nail

In Theory of the Border, Thomas Nail looks at the constitutive role played by different types of border regimes – fences, walls, cells and checkpoints – in constructing societies across history as part of his broader ‘kinopolitics’ centred on movement, with focus on the Mexico-US border. While this wide-ranging book offers less a theory of the border than a taxonomy based on historical, largely European border regimes, Alex Sager nonetheless welcomes it as an ambitious, rich and suggestive work that has much to offer political theories of migration

Focusing on migration’s ‘good’ or ‘bad’ influences on your country alone can be a harmful oversimplification.

Debates about immigration played a large part in both the 2016 election in the US and the UK’s referendum on membership of the European Union. During these debates, many politicians and commentators expressed the view that immigration should benefit those who are already part of the national community. Alex Sager writes that this argument stems from the idea of ‘methodological nationalism’, a view which focuses on the nation to the exclusion of transnational and subnational processes. He warns that methodological nationalism can shape how politicians and researchers think about integration, development, and the economy, and allows them to draw artificial boundaries which do not stand up to reality