Immigration Reading List: Books to Broaden Your Perspective on Migration (2024)
Looking for a good book about immigration? 📚 Thanks to many reader contributions, we’ve got you covered with brand new book recommendations. Plus: sign up for the new Immigration Book Club online.
Migration is a central part of the human story. It always has been, and always will be. But today, immigration has become so politicized, that we often forget just how utterly fascinating migration is as a phenomenon.
Books are one of the best ways to keep our curiosity alive and keep us informed in the midst of an onslaught of misinformation. Books give us fresh, thoughtful perspectives, challenge our settled ways thinking, and connect us to the people and stories behind immigration.
That’s why I’ve pulled together this list of recent books about migration. Each one offers valuable insights into the policies, histories, and personal experiences that shape the world of migration.
This list is a team effort. Most of these recommendations came from readers like you, as well as some of my own discoveries in recent months. I’m grateful for the contributions and the shared commitment to amplifying the voices of authors and publishers doing this important work.
I hope this collection inspires you, sparks discussion, or helps you find your next great read. Thanks for being part of this effort to learn and grow together.
Issue Outline
Read Together! Join the Immigration Book Club Online
Feedback Needed for Meet-the-Author Book Event
New Immigration Books Reading List
1. Read Together! Join the Immigration Book Club Online
To save you time and build community around reading these books, I created reading lists – and reading groups – for these books on Goodreads and Storygraph (an off-Amazon alternative that some people may prefer).
If you are on Goodreads, you can join the Immigration Book Club to read and discuss these books together, or simply to find most of the books mentioned in this post available in one place. If you use Storygraph, you’ll find a list of the available books here under the Immigration Book Club tag and you can join the Immigration Book Club reading group. There are no restrictions to joining these groups, but respectful discussion is expected.
Extra community resources like this are made possible in part thanks to the generous support of paid subscribers. If you would like to support this work and keep it freely available to the public, consider becoming a paid subscriber.
2. Feedback Needed for Meet-the-Author Book Event
I’ve been invited to do lots of book events in the past. Now, with the added support of paid subscribers, I would like to do something a little more personal: I would like to host a virtual book event with one of the authors of the books below. But before I do, I want to get your feedback: what do you think?
Please use the comments section to mention the books or authors you would most like to meet in a virtual book talk. Based on your feedback, I will find a good fit and set up a virtual book event soon. If you are one of the authors, let us know that you’re available and interested. I’m excited about building community in this way!
3. New Immigration Books Reading List
The updated list of new immigration books is available below. I’ve provided as many ways to connect with the authors as possible. I’ve also added a wide variety of ways for you to obtain each book, including links to places to purchase each book as well as links to Worldcat, which will help you find each book at your nearest library. As always, the best way to buy books is through your local independent bookstore. Find the store nearest you on Indiebound.org.
Note that some books below are priced as academic books, not consumer books, which means they typically run two- to three-times more expensive than what readers are used to. While I certainly don’t intend to discourage you from supporting these authors and the publishers, you may choose to borrow these books from a nearby library instead.
Due to the large number of books contributed to this issue, I divided the books into the following groups:
3.1 Immigration Enforcement and Control
3.2 Migration and Colonialism
3.3 Humanitarianism and Immigrant Rights
3.4 Undocumented Activism
3.5 Global Migration
3.6 Immigration and Economic Success
3.7 European Migration Policy
3.1 Immigration Enforcement and Control
The Walls Have Eyes: Surviving Migration in the Age of Artificial Intelligence by Petra Molnar
Petra Molnar’s long-awaited book is a chilling exposé of the inhumane and lucrative sharpening of borders around the globe through experimental surveillance technology from one of the foremost experts on migration and technology. From DHS’s experimentation with “robot dogs” (see my post here for context) to smartphone surveillance, techno-centric approaches to border enforcement and migration controls have exploded in recent years—and Petra is the right person to walk us through this new landscape. I’ve been following Petra’s work for years so I’m thrilled to see this book out.
Get it from The New Press, Amazon (physical, Kindle), Apple Books, or a nearby library. Read it with others on Goodreads or Storygraph. Molnar’s companion website includes additional information and videos that readers are likely to find helpful when navigating this complex topic. Learn more about Petra’s work at her website, follower her on social media (Bluesky, Twitter/X), and check her closely related project, Migration & Technology Monitor. Contributed by the author.
Unbuild Walls: Why Immigrant Justice Needs Abolition by Silky Shah
Unbuild Walls dives into US immigration policy and its relationship to mass incarceration, from the last forty years up to the present, showing how the prison-industrial complex and immigration enforcement are intertwined systems of repression. Like Petra, Silky’s work as a writer, speaker, and activist precedes her, making this book a much-anticipated culmination of years of organizing—and likely to have lots of resonance with The Walls Have Eyes. Her book also opens with a forward from one of my graduate advisors, Amna Akbar, an inspirational lawyer and scholar who shaped my own thinking when I was new to this field.
Get it from Haymarket Books, Amazon (physical, digital), Apple Books, or from a nearby library. Follow Silky’s work on social media (Bluesky, Twitter/X) and learn about her work at the Detention Watch Network.
The Migrant’s Jail: An American History of Mass Incarceration by Brianna Nofil
I just start reading Brianna’s book this week and I am already impressed with its nuance and depth. Drawing on immigration records, affidavits, protest letters, and a variety of local sources, she excavates the web of political negotiations, financial deals, and legal precedents that allows the United States to incarcerate migrants with little accountability and devastating consequences. Nofil examines how a century of political, ideological, and economic exchange between the U.S. immigration bureaucracy and the criminal justice system gave rise to the world’s largest system of migrant incarceration.
Get it from Princeton University Press, Amazon (physical, digital), or a nearby library. Brianna Nofil is an Assistant Professor of History at the College of William & Mary (faculty page, personal website). Follow her online (Twitter/X) and read her recent article in the Texas Observer titled “How Texas Jails Built Migrant Incarceration”.
Shackled: 92 Refugees Imprisoned on ICE Air by Rebecca Sharpless
Deportation flights have become the subject of considerable controversy. For example, in December 2017, U.S. immigration authorities shackled and abused 92 African refugees for two days while attempting to deport them by plane to Somalia. When national media broke the story, government officials lied about what happened. Shackled tells the story of this failed deportation, the resulting class action litigation, and two men's search for safety in the United States over the course of three long years.
Get it from UC Press, Amazon (physical, digital), or from a nearby library. Rebecca is a law professor at the University of Miami. Learn more about Rebecca’s work at her personal website and faculty page. Contributed by Liz RM.
For more data about deportation flights, follow the work of Tom Cartwright (Twitter/X) from Witness at the Border, who had been collecting information about deportation flights for several years now using some creative research methods. Here is his latest post online with data updated on November 4.
Immigration Realities: Challenging Common Misperceptions by Ernesto Castañeda and Carina Cione
I had the good fortune of reading a pre-publication version of this before it came out. There are a lot of books and experts that try to set the record straight on misinformation about immigration enforcement, but this book does it best. Ernesto is a tremendous resource and I’m lucky to get to work with him through my fellowship at American University.
Since I provided an official blurb for Ernesto’s book, I’ll just post that review here:
Immigration Realities is the reality check everyone in the country should read right now. Castañeda and Cione cracked the code on how to connect the latest research on immigration with a broad public that is worried about immigration but doesn't know whom to trust for honest information. This book cuts through the deluge of immigration misinformation by patiently taking readers on a journey through some of the biggest questions and providing data-driven answers that are both compassionate and unapologetic. Immigration Realities is your ultimate immigration field guide.
Get it from Columbia University Press, Amazon (physical, digital), or from a nearby library. Ernesto runs the Center for Latin American and Latino Studies at American University, where I am a fellow, and he is the founder of the Immigration Lab. Follow Ernesto on social media (Twitter/X, Bluesky) and you can learn more about his work on his personal website and faculty page.
3.2 Migration and Colonialism
Ghost Citizens by Jamie Chai Yun Liew
Ghost Citizens dives into the lives of stateless people—those living in a country that refuses to recognize them as citizens. Using Malaysia as a case study, Liew unpacks how colonial-era legal systems and racial categorizations still fuel statelessness today. This thought-provoking book challenges conventional ideas of citizenship and offers fresh perspectives from Indigenous and family law on building more inclusive communities.
Get it from Columbia University Press, Amazon (physical, digital), Apple Books, or a nearby library. Jamie Chai Yun Liew is law professor at the University of Ottawa (faculty page, personal website). Follow Jamie on Twitter/X, Bluesky Contributed by Petra Molnar.
Emergency in Transit: Witnessing Migration in the Colonial Present by Eleanor Paynter
Eleanor, a fellow Ohio State University grad, came out with her new book, which focuses on Italy as a crucial port of migrant arrival in the EU. She draws together testimonials from ethnographic research—alongside literature, film, and visual art—to reformulate Europe's so-called "migrant crisis" from a sudden disaster to a site of contested witnessing, where competing narratives threaten, uphold, or reimagine migrant rights. Centering the witnessing of Black Africans in Italy, Emergency in Transit posits a vision of mobility that refutes the notions of crisis so often imposed on those who cross the Mediterranean Sea.
Get it from UC Press, Amazon, or get it from a nearby library. (The book will be released on November 26.) Eleanor Paynter is a professor at the University of Oregon (faculty page, personal website). Follow her work on social media (Twitter/X, Bluesky). Contributed by the author.
New Destinations of Empire: Mobilities, Racial Geographies, and Citizenship in the Transpacific United States by Emily Mitchell-Eaton
As fellow geographers in the Syracuse area, I’ve had the good fortune of knowing Emily for a few years now. She’s a terrific teacher and scholar, and her new book applies a unique geographic perspective on migration, specifically by looking at how the legacy of US imperialism in the Pacific created a peculiar legal anomaly for residents of the Marshall Island.
Get it from UGA Press, Amazon (physical, digital), or a nearby library. Contributed by Aaron Padgett (Bluesky) and the author. Emily Mitchell-Eaton is a professor at Colgate University (faculty page) and you can also follow her work online (Twitter/X, Bluesky).
For more information about the Marshall Islanders, check out this article in a journal I help run called Law & Space, called “Negotiating Their Future: A Marshallese Geography of U.S. Policy” by Brittany Lauren Wheeler and Meagan Harden.
3.3 Humanitarianism and Immigrant Rights
Shelter on the Journey: Humanitarianism, Human Rights, and Migration by Priscilla Solano
The story of migrant shelters through Central America and Mexico is only starting to be written. Solano, who volunteered at migrant shelters in Mexico, chronicles the activity in three of the nearly 100 shelters along a unique humanitarian trail that many Central Americans take to reach the United States. She explores the politics of the shelters, their social world, and the dynamics of charity and solidarity, as well as the need for humanitarian assistance and advocacy for dignified and free transit migration.
Get it from Temple University Press, Amazon (physical, digital), or a nearby library. Priscilla is a lecturer at Malmö University (faculty page). Contributed by Ry Siggelkow (Bluesky).
Sanctuary Everywhere: The Fugitive Sacred in the Sonoran Desert by Barbara Sostaita
The concept of sanctuary can be tricky to nail down in practice. After the 2016 presidential election, churches, universities, cities, and even states began declaring themselves sanctuaries. Through fieldwork in migrant clinics, shelters, and the Sonoran Desert, Sostaita demonstrates that, as a sacred practice, sanctuary cannot be fixed in any one destination or mandate. Understanding sanctuary to be a set of fugitive practices that escapes the everyday, Sostaita shows us how, in the wake of extreme violence and loss, migrants create sanctuaries of their own to care for the living and the dead.
Get it from Duke University Press, Amazon (physical, digital), or a nearby library. Barbara is an assistant professor at the University of Illinois, Chicago (faculty page, personal website). Contributed by Angela Stuesse and Ramon Garibaldo Valdez.
For an example of sanctuary, learn more about the sanctuary church story of Edith Espinal through documentary film and my article based on research surrounding Edith’s community.
Soldiers and Kings: Survival and Hope in the World of Human Smuggling by Jason De León
In an effort to better understand the work of smugglers/coyotes/guides, an essential yet extralegal billion dollar global industry, Jason De León embedded with a group of smugglers moving migrants across Mexico over the course of seven years. This book is a result of that work. De León expertly chronicles the lives of low-level foot soldiers breaking into the smuggling game, and morally conflicted gang leaders who oversee rag-tag crews of guides and informants along the migrant trail.
You may recognize Jason’s name from his earlier work, The Land of Open Graves, which helped earn him a MacArthur Genius Fellowship and which continues to be on my very highly-recommended list of books for anyone interested in understanding life and death along the US-Mexico border.
Get it from Penguin Random House, Amazon (physical, digital), or a nearby library. Contributed by Rebecca Berke Galemba, whose new book also appears in this list. Jason is an anthropology professor at UCLA (faculty page, personal website).
Laboring for Justice: The Fight Against Wage Theft in an American City by Rebecca Galemba
My first experience into the massive problem of wage theft in America was when I was on the leadership team of the Central Ohio Worker Center, and I saw first-hand the amount of money employers illegally withhold from workers. That’s why I’m thrilled to see Galemba’s new book analyze the widespread problem of wage theft and its disproportionate impact on low-wage immigrant workers. She focuses on the plight of day laborers in Denver, Colorado—a quintessential purple state that has swung between some of the harshest and more welcoming policies around immigrant and labor rights. This book identifies wage theft as symptomatic of systemic issues and illustrates how workers can deploy effective strategies to endure and rectify these practices.
Get it from Stanford University Press, Amazon (physical, digital), nearby library. Rebecca Galemba is a professor at the University of Denver (faculty page) and she also online on Twitter/X and Bluesky. Contributed by the author.
Advancing Immigrant Rights in Houston by Els de Graauw and Shannon Gleeson
Houston is one of the most diverse cities in the United States and has long been a prime destination for international migrants, but the city is politically mixed, organizationally underserved, and situated in a relatively anti-immigrant state. Shannon Gleeson and Els de Graauw—both terrific colleagues and scholars—examine the development of an immigrant affairs office, interactions between local law enforcement and federal immigration enforcement, local public-private partnerships, and collaborations between labor, immigrant rights, faith, and business leaders to combat wage theft.
Get it from Temple University Press, Amazon (physical, digital), or a nearby library. Els de Graauw (Twitter/X, Bluesky), is a professor at CUNY Graduate Center (faculty page), Shannon Gleeson is a professor at Cornel University (faculty page). Contributed by Els.
3.4 Undocumented Activism
Learning to Lead: Undocumented Students Mobilizing Education by Jennifer Nájera
Through her fieldwork at the University of California, Riverside, Nájera shows how undocumented students’ experiences in college—both in and out of the classroom—can affect their activism and advocacy work. Students learn from their families, communities, peers, and student and political organizations, learning how to navigate their undocumented status, cultivate their leadership skills, and build solidarity with others.
Get it from Duke University Press, Amazon (physical, digital), Apple Books, or from a nearby library. Jennifer Nájera is an Associate Professor at UC Riverside (faculty page) and you can follow her on Bluesky. Contributed by Angela Stuesse.
Illegalized: Undocumented Youth Movements in the United States by Rafael Martínez
The book follows the documentation trail of undocumented youth activists spanning over two decades of organizing. Each chapter carefully analyzes key organizing strategies used by undocumented youth that expose and critique state control and violence, especially those that erase, contain, and apply “alien” or “illegal” labels to immigrants. Rafael A. Martínez, an undocu-scholar, shows that undocumented youth and their activism represent a disruption to the social imaginary of the U.S. nation-state and its figurative and physical borders.
Get it from University of Arizona Press, Amazon (physical, digital), or a nearby library. Rafael Martínez is an assistant professor at Arizona State University (faculty page). Follow Rafael online (Instagram). Contributed by Angela Stuesse.
DREAMers and the Choreography of Protest by Michael Young
Michael P. Young examines how undocumented youth, known as DREAMers, organized through college campuses, nonprofit collaborations, and radical online networks. He highlights their shift from insider immigration reform politics to bold direct actions like sit-ins, detention center infiltrations, and border crossings, transforming the immigrant rights movement. DREAMers, named after the DREAM Act, are undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children, advocating for legal status and broader immigrant rights.
Get it from Oxford University Press or Amazon, or a nearby library. Dr. Michael P. Young is a professor at the University of Texas at Austin (faculty page). Contributed by David Bennion (Twitter/X). You can also learn more about David’s work here at the Free Migration Project.
3.5 Global Migration
Making Routes: Mobility and the Politics of Migration in the Global South by Elena Habersky
By the end of 2022, the number of forcibly displaced people worldwide had reached a record high of 100 million, the highest figure since the Second World War. Moving away from North–South, East–West binaries and challenging the conception that migratory movements are primarily unidirectional—from South to North—Making Routes explores how state policies, migrants’ trajectories, nationalism, discrimination, art, and knowledge production interact in places as widespread as Egypt, Turkey, Myanmar, Nicaragua, and Haiti. Seventeen academics, activists, and artists from a range of backgrounds and disciplines reveal the diverse narratives, migration patterns, forms of agency, and laws that make up the complex reality of South–South migration.
Get it from The American University in Cairo Press, Amazon (physical, digital), or a nearby library. Gerda Heck is a professor at the American University of Cairo (faculty page), Eda Sevinin is an independent researcher, Elena Habersky (Twitter/X, LinkedIn) is a researcher at the Center for Migration and Refugee Studies at the American University in Cairo, and Carlos Sandoval-García is a professor at the Universidad de Costa Rica, San José (faculty page). Contributed by Elena Habersky (Bluesky), one of the editors.
The Journey of Ama Ketewa by Afia Chrappah
I’m thrilled that Afia wrote this and shared it with me for this post. Afia is a leading voice and recognizable figure in the Columbus community where I used to live. I always knew she would leave a legacy, and creating accessible books like this that tell stories about, and for, immigrant children is inspiring. With the holidays coming up, consider giving this to people in your life, young and old.
Get it from Amazon (physical, digital). Written by Afia Chrappah, illustrated by Jessica Robinson. Afia started a publishing company to publish this book; please check her work out at JourneyofAma.com. Contributed by the author.
3.6 Immigration and Economic Success
Streets of Gold: America's Untold Story of Immigrant Success by Ran Abramitzky and Leah Platt Boustan
A reminder that immigrants have always been a part of America’s economic story, Streets of Gold provides a new take on American history, showing how comparable the “golden era” of immigration is to today and why many current policy proposals are so misguided. Using the tools of modern data analysis and ten years of pioneering research, Abramitzky and Boustan debunk myths fostered by political opportunism and sentimentalized in family histories, drawing counterintuitive conclusions about upward mobility, rapid assimilation, and the economic impacts of immigration on Americans and the American economy at large.
Get it from PublicAffairs, Amazon (physical, digital), Apple Books or from a nearby library. Ran Abramitzky is a professor of economics at Stanford University (faculty page) and Leah Platt Boustan is a professor of economics at Princeton University (faculty page).
ImmiGRIT: How Immigrant Leadership Drives Business Success by Ukeme Awakessien Jeter
I love the enthusiasm of this next book: In ImmiGRIT, Jeter argues that the core traits of immigrants—adaptability, resilience, and resourcefulness—makes them especially great assets for organizations and businesses. Drawing on original research, compelling case studies, and her own inspiring journey as an immigrant, Ukeme provides a blueprint for harnessing "ImmiGRIT" to supercharge any organization's performance.
Get it on Amazon (physical, digital) or from a nearby library. Ukeme Awakessien Jeter, partner at Taft Law Firm in my hometown of Columbus, Ohio. Contributed by Stephanie Harless.
3.7 European Migration Policy
Brexit and Citizens' Rights: History, Policy and Experience edited by Djordje Sredanovic and Bridget Byrne
The book includes several chapters on how Brexit affected the rights of immigrants and citizens in the UK during and after Brexit, combining a historical examination of citizenship and migration between the UK, Europe and the Commonwealth with an analysis of policies and experiences of the different groups impacted by Brexit.
Djordje Sredanovic (Twitter/X, Bluesky) is a Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Chester (faculty page) and Bridget Byrne (Twitter/X) is a Professor of Sociology at the University of Manchester (faculty page). Contributed by the authors.
The Concept of Marriages of Convenience in EU Free Movement Law: EU and UK Perspectives by Aleksandra Ancite-Jepifánova
Over the past two decades, EU Member States, especially the UK, have regularly complained about the perceived abuse of EU law via marriages of convenience, resulting in new EU and UK regulations. In this book, Ancite-Jepifánova evaluates the compatibility of EU-level measures addressing marriages of convenience with EU free movement law (focusing on the Citizenship Directive) and examines how UK laws about these marriages affect the residence rights of EU citizens and their family members, both pre-and post-Brexit.
Get it from Brill, Amazon, or nearby library. Aleksandra Ancite-Jepifánova (Twitter/X) is a professor at the University of London (faculty page). Contributed by the author.
Inside Asylum Appeals: Access, Participation and Procedure in Europe by Nick Gill, Nicole Hoellerer, Jessica Hambly, Daniel Fisher
Applying perspectives from legal geography and socio-legal studies, this book shines a light on what takes place during asylum appeals and puts forward suggestions for improving their fairness and accessibility. Drawing on hundreds of interviews and ethnographic observations of appeal hearings, the authors show that myriad social, political, psychological, linguistic, contextual, and economic factors interfere with the protection that refugee law promises. This is a great comparative book for anyone already familiar with how asylum cases work in the United States.
Download this book for free Open Access here or buy it on Amazon. Nick Gill is actually a fellow geographer and friend at the University of Exeter (faculty page), Nicole Hoellerer is a research associate at the University of Bristol (faculty page), Jessica Hambly is a lecturer at the Australian National University’s College of Law (faculty page), and Dan Fisher (Bluesky) is a research associate at the University of Glasgow (faculty page). Contributed by Dan Fisher.
Did you find your next book?
I hope you find this ongoing project of connecting you to new authors and new books helpful. Let us know in the comments if any of the books above stand out to you—and especially let us know if you actually purchased a book based on this post.
Did I miss any new books? If so, let me know in the comments so I can add it to the next immigration book issue.
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 copy (physical copies preferred) and I’ll consider reviewing it here.
More from the Library
In addition to the new books above, David Bennion also recommended César Cuauhtémoc García Hernández’s book Welcome the Wretched, which I covered in depth earlier this year. A few other books have already been featured in my post from earlier this year in March, including John Washington’s Case for Open Borders (which I did an event for at Red Emma’s here in Baltimore in March). Joshua (no last name, sorry) contributed Jonathan Blitzer’s Everyone Who is Gone is Here (covered previously). Thank you all for your contributions.
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Great list! I just immediately bought: Ghost Citizens and Sanctuary Everywhere.
Also consider adding some fiction in another post. As your resident literary scholar, I have to plug: Signs Preceding the End of the World/Señales que precederán al fin del mundo (Yuri Herrera), Among the Lost/Las tierras arrasadas (Emiliano Monge), Gringo Champion/Campeón Gabacho (Aura Xilonen), and Solito (Javier Zamora, not fiction, but imaginative just the same). Just a few of a remarkable genre of fiction.
Also - what is your "formerly known as Twitter" account? Would love to follow you there!
I’m the author of Learning to Lead, and I’d love to do a virtual book talk!