Immigration Book Round-Up, March 2024 Edition

Looking for a good book about immigration? 📚 Thanks to many reader contributions, we’ve got you covered with 20 book recommendations below. Plus: find out who won the book raffle! 🎉

Our shared global story of human migration is still being written. I believe it is essential that we remain open to new voices, new ideas, and new perspectives so that we don’t become stuck in the past, soloed off from one another, or stagnant in our thinking about migration.

That’s why every year I gather together the latest and best books about immigration sourced from readers and my recent reading habits and make these books available to you in one convenient place.

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Welcome or welcome back. My name is Austin Kocher. I’m a professor who writes about the fascinating yet controversial world of immigration. You can learn more about this newsletter on the ‘about’ page. Please consider subscribing.

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The call for book recommendations went out earlier this month—with a twist: I decided to raffle off my extra new copy of Welcome the Wretched to all of the contributors (something I hope to do more of in the future). Scroll to the bottom to see who won the raffle!

In total, I received about 20 book recommendations and added a few myself for good measure. A huge THANK YOU to the many readers who contributed books I hadn’t heard of before. After you peruse the list of books below, let us know if we missed any books that should have been added and if any of the books caught your eye.

The books are grouped loosely by genre and topic below for ease of navigation. I try to provide links to the publisher’s website and the author’s website for each book, but if I can’t find them, I find the next best thing, typically a link to Amazon and the author’s social media presence. I also decided to be a little looser than I promised about the publication dates by including books older than mid-2023 if I hadn’t heard of them before.

Let’s dive into it. —>

Non-Fiction – General

Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here: The United States, Central America, and the Making of a Crisis (2024) by Jonathan Blitzer, contributed by Karen Hester and Susan Lyman.

Who Gets Believed?: When the Truth Isn't Enough (2023) by Dina Nayeri, contributed by Meghan Zavala.

The Naked Don't Fear the Water (2023) by Matthieu Akins, contributed by Emelia.

Non-Fiction — Borders

The Case for Open Borders (2024) by John Washington, contributed by me.

A Map of Future Ruins: On Borders and Belonging (2024) by Lauren Markham, recommended to me by John Washington.

The Marauders: Standing up to Vigilantes in the American Borderlands (2022) by Patrick Strickland, contributed by Laurie Cantillo.

Academic Books

How Migration Really Works: The Facts About the Most Divisive Issue in Politics (2023) by Hein de Haas, contributed by Josh T. Smith

Human Capital: A History of Putting Refugees to Work (2023) by Laura Robson, contributed by Betsy Fisher. [Editorial note. I read this book over the holiday break in December and I can honestly say that Robson’s book is easily one of the top five immigration books I’ve read in the past year. It’s outstandingly researched, well-written, and mind-blowing in many parts about how refugees have been exploited by various labor schemes.]

Refuge: How the State Shapes Human Potential (2022) by Heba Gowayed, contributed by Betsy Fisher.

Memoir

Asylum: Memoir and Manifesto (2023)by Edafe Okporo, contributed by Karen Hester. I also discussed Okporo’s excellent book in February on this blog.

The Undocumented Americans (2021) by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio, contributed by Eliza Leal. [Editorial note: this book is slightly older than the other books on this list, but it has already become an instant classic.]

A Man of Two Faces: a Memoir, a History, a Memorial (2023) by Viet Thanh Nguyen, contributed by Emelia.

Everything Sad is Untrue (2020) by Daniel Nayeri, contributed by Emelia.

Fiction - Adult

Hangman (2023) by Maya Binyam, contributed by Hon. Dana Leigh Marks.

Roman Stories (2023) by Jhumpa Lahiri, contributed by Emelia.

Fiction - Young Adult

Tethered to Other Stars (2023) by Elisa Stone Leahy, contributed by Emelia. [Editorial note: I know Elisa quite well, having worked with her on the sanctuary church case of Edith Espinal, about whom I published an article and Elisa produced a film called Shelter for Edith.]

Mexikid: a Graphic Memoir (2023) by Pedro Martin, contributed by Emelia.

How-To Guides for Immigrants

Unshackled (2023) and Admitted (2020) by Soundarya Balasubramani, contributed by Padmanabhan N Swami.

Forthcoming

Crossing the Line: Finding America in the Borderlands (June 2024) by Sarah Towle, contributed by me since I blurbed the book.

Did you find your next book?

I hope you find this ongoing project of connecting you to new authors and new books helpful. Let me know in the comments if any of the books above stand out to you—and especially let me know if you actually purchased a book based on this post.

Would you like a book featured? If you have a new book out, or if you would like me to review a book you like, send a physical copy (no e-books or PDFs please) and I’ll feature it here. If I already have the book, I’ll raffle off your copy for free. Contact me directly for the mailing address.

Book Raffle Winner!

Congratulations to *Laurie Cantillo* 🥳 for winning the book raffle! Please reach out to me here or at my university email address so I can get your copy of Welcome the Wretched in the mail. Thank you for participating. I hope to raffle off more books and goodies in the future.

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