Immigration Reading List Summer 2023 (Reader Contributions)

Looking for a good book about immigration? Readers contributed over two dozen books they love and endorse to create an eclectic literature list to expand your understanding of immigration.

You are what you read.

At least that has been true for me.

I vividly remember the day I picked up Clockwork Orange at the airport on my first trip to Germany and was immediately entranced by Anthony Burgess’s magically violent contortion of the English language.

Or the day I bought Rebecca Solnit’s The Faraway Nearby at The Book Loft in Columbus, Ohio, and sat down at a coffee shop next door and read it cover to cover in a single sitting.

(Perhaps you’ve had a similar experience?)

My love for reading came with me into graduate school and into an academic career—propelled me, I suppose you could say—which means that, for me, discovering and sharing new books about immigration, regardless of genre or perspective, remains one of my sincerest passions.

I have written before about immigration-related books I recommend. I love writing those types of posts. (Here’s one, by the way: 7 Books that Will Help You Understand Immigration.)

But this time around, I wanted this to be more of a conversation, more like a discussion among friends about books you’ve read and loved, and—hey, why not?—even books that you yourselves have written!

You all really showed up, too. I counted nearly 30 books that you mentioned in the comments of the call for recommendations last week. Some books I’ve read, some I’ve heard of, and some were brand new to me. Hopefully some of these will be new to you, too, and inspire you to put down your phone (or whatever screen you have open at the moment) and pick up a good book.

Focus on quality over quantity of information. Take a 200-page walk with a new idea or a new perspective. The books below are great candidates for your limited attention.

As you look over the list, I would love to hear from you: what (if anything) looks interesting? If you’ve already read one of these books, which one was it and what did you think? If you’ve written one of the books mentioned, tell us what inspired you to write it! Welcome to our little impromptu book club. 📚

Three quick things before we get into the list of books.

1. In case you missed it, last Friday’s post included key immigration news and policy changes from the last week. Link below:

The Friday Immigration News Wrap-Up

2. The Border Chronicle—another great Substack newsletter I read—and I apparently share a brain, because they also just posted “The Border Chronicle’s Second Annual Summer Reading List for Border Nerdz”, so please check that out, too.

3. Before you leave, would you mind leaving a like (❤️) below? It goes a long way to helping get this in front of new readers, and I’d appreciate it enormously.

General Non-Fiction

Solito: A Memoir by Javier Zamora. Book website. Author website. Contributed by Ron Abramson, recommended by Jo Maldonado.

Storming the Wall: Climate change, Migration, and Homeland Security by Todd Miller. Book website. Author website. Contributed by Lynn Holland.

The Devil’s Highway: A True Story by Luis Alberto Urrea. Book website. Author’s website. Contributed by Lynn Holland.

Love Across Borders: Passports, Papers and Romance in a Divided World by Anna Lekas Miller. Book website (Amazon). Author website. Contributed by the author.

My Fourth Time We Drowned by Sally Hayden. Book website. Author website. Contributed by Anna Lekas Miller.

The Naked Don’t Fear the Water by Matthieu Aikins. Book website. Author website. Contributed by Emelia, endorsed by Anna Lekas Miller.

Illegal: How America's Lawless Immigration Regime Threatens Us All by Elizabeth Cohen. Book website. Contributed by Devashish Mitra.

Creating Humane Borders: A Migration Ethic by Robin Hoover Book website. Contributed by author.

Immigration Reform: The Corpse That Will Not Die by Charles Kamasaki. Book website. Author website. Contributed by author.

The Ungrateful Refugee: What Immigrants Never Tell You by Dina Nayeri. Book website. Author website. Contributed by Kerri Shaw.

Academic Books

The Trafficking of Children: International Law, Modern Slavery, and the Anti-Trafficking Machine by Elizabeth Faulkner. Book website. Author website. Contributed by author.

Transactional Social Protection: Social Welfare Across National Borders by Peggy Levitt, Erica Dobbs, Ken Chih-Yan Sun, and Ruxandra Paul. Book website. Contributed by authors.

Displacement, Human Rights and Sexual and Reproductive Health by Natalia Cintra, David Owen, and Pía Riggirozzi. Book website. Contributed by authors.

Engage & Evade: How Latino Immigrant Families Manage Surveillance in Everyday Life by Asad Asad. Book website. Author’s website. Contributed by the author.

Walking Together: Central Americans and Transit Migration Through Mexico by Alejandra Díaz de León. Book website. Author website. Contributed by the author.

The Shifting Border: Legal Cartographies of Migration and Mobility by Ayelet Shachar. Book website. Author website. Contributed by Andrés Besserer.

How the Irish Became White by Noel Ignatiev. Book website. Author website. Contributed by William Flores Kiskowski.

The Land of Open Graves: Living and Dying on the Migrant Trail by Jason De León. Book website. Author website. Contributed by Andrés Besserer.

Placeless People: Writings, Rights, and Refugees by Lindsey Stonebridge. Book website. Author website. Contributed by James B.

Mexican New York: Transnational Lives of New Immigrants by Robert Smith. Book website. Author website. Contributed by Andrés Besserer.

Memoir & Fiction

The Undocumented Americans by Karla Cornejo (memoir). Book website. Contributed by Anna Lekas Miller.

Beautiful Country by Qian Julie Wang (memoir). Book website. Author website. Contributed by Anna Lekas Miller.

Border Songs by Jim Lynch (fiction). Book website. Author website. Contributed by Susan West.

Forthcoming Books

The Color of Asylum: The Racial Politics of Safe Haven in Brazil by Katherine Jensen. Book website. Author website. Contributed by the author. Out in September 2023.

Borders, Human Itineraries, and All Our Relation by Dele Adeyemo, Natalie Diaz, Nadia Yala Kisukidi, and Ronaldo Walcott. Book website. Contributed by Rine Vieth. Out in October 2023.

Hosting States and Unsettled Guests: Eritrean Refugees in a Time of Migration Deterrence by Jennifer Riggan and Amanda Poole. Book website. Contributed by authors. Out in early 2024.

Did we miss anything? If we missed any books you think should be included, please add them below and I’ll issue a supplemental post with any additions.

Photo by Robert Anasch on Unsplash

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