My stepfather lived in Latin America, and when he died, I spent time with migrants as a way of feeling closer to him. I was overwhelmed by the warmth and welcome offered to me. As I met more migrants who had uprooted their lives with hope and determination, I became disillusioned with typical narratives on the left and the right that portray migrants as helpless victims or dangerous invaders. I love books that tell more complex stories about the broad range of migrant experiences, and I am particularly drawn to books that capture the hope that many migrants feel and that they bring to their new homes.
I love the multigenerational stories that this book tells, tracing the children and grandchildren of the protagonists across generations.
I appreciate how the author does not flinch from describing challenges while also attending to the hope and persistence of the migrant women from Nicaragua. I also love how the story moves toward the possibilities that are open for future generations.
Andrea, Silvia, Ana, and Pamela were impoverished youth when the Sandinista revolution took hold in Nicaragua in 1979. Against the backdrop of a war and economic crisis, the revolution gave them hope of a better future - if not for themselves, then for their children. But, when it became clear that their hopes were in vain, they chose to emigrate. Children of the Revolution tells these four women's stories up to their adulthood in Italy. Laura J. Enriquez's compassionate account highlights the particularities of each woman's narrative, and shows how their lives were shaped by social factors such as their…
We regularly hear in the media about migrants who risk their lives going north across the Mediterranean. I love how this book tells detailed stories about what happens to many of those migrants once they land in Sicily.
They face social and legal challenges, for sure, but the book shows how many Sicilians embrace migrants and try to help them find their way. I found the stories of solidarity between citizens and migrants moving and hopeful.
With thousands of migrants attempting the perilous maritime journey from North Africa to Europe each year, transnational migration is a defining feature of social life in the Mediterranean today. On the island of Sicily, where many migrants first arrive and ultimately remain, the contours of migrant reception and integration are frequently animated by broader concerns for human rights and social justice. Island of Hope sheds light on the emergence of social solidarity initiatives and networks forged between citizens and noncitizens who work together to improve local livelihoods and mobilize for radical political change. Basing her argument on years of ethnographic…
Benghazi: A New History is a look back at the enigmatic 2012 attack on the US mission in Benghazi, Libya, its long-tail causes, and devastating (and largely unexamined) consequences for US domestic politics and foreign policy. It contains information not found elsewhere, and is backed up by 40 pages of…
I love how this book engages with the complexities of migration, describing a situation in which ethnically Turkish migrants from Bulgaria immigrate to Turkey. This complicates the typical story about migrants as outsiders who must adjust to hosts who are fundamentally different.
I found the stories compelling, as they trace the advantages and disadvantages that this hybrid status brings, and as they describe the heterogeneous experiences that different types of migrants confront.
There are more than 700,000 Bulgaristanli migrants residing in Turkey. Immigrants from Bulgaria who are ethnically Turkish, they assume certain privileges because of these ethnic ties, yet access to citizenship remains dependent on the whims of those in power. Through vivid accounts of encounters with the police and state bureaucracy, of nostalgic memories of home and aspirations for a more secure life in Turkey, Precarious Hope explores the tensions between ethnic privilege and economic vulnerability and rethinks the limits of migrant belonging among those for whom it is intimated and promised-but never guaranteed.
I love how this book explores the role of faith in supporting migrants as they confront the challenges of crossing the border and beginning a life without legal status in America. While describing many of the challenges that migrants face in an unflinching way, the book nonetheless maintains focus on their faith in a larger purpose and their hope for a promising future for their families.
Their capacity for and approaches to remaining hopeful inspire me as I face similar doubts despite a much more stable life situation.
Since the arrival of the Puritans, various religious groups, including Quakers, Jews, Catholics, and Protestant sects, have migrated to the United States. The role of religion in motivating their migration and shaping their settlement experiences has been well documented. What has not been recorded is the contemporary story of how migrants from Mexico and Central America rely on religion-their clergy, faith, cultural expressions, and everyday religious practices-to endure the undocumented journey.
At a time when anti-immigrant feeling is rising among the American public and when immigration is often cast in economic or deviant terms, Migration Miracle humanizes the controversy by…
Two women, a century apart, seek to rebuild their lives after leaving their homelands. Arriving in tropical Singapore, they find romance, but also find they haven’t left behind the dangers that caused them to flee.
Haunted by the specter of terrorism after 9/11, Aislinn Givens leaves her New York career…
I love how this book documents the many ways in which borders are not nearly as solid as we typically imagine. We tend to think about how migrants move across borders, and they do, but the book traces how people, ideas, and things have moved back and forth between Greece and north Macedonia over the past century.
I was drawn in by the compelling stories of how less dramatic movements of this kind have transformed individuals and societies on both sides of the border.
This innovative book documents border porosities that have developed and persisted between Greece and North Macedonia over different temporalities and at different localities. By drawing on geology's approaches to studying porosity, Dimova argues that similar to rocks and minerals that only appear solid and impermeable, seemingly impenetrable borders are inevitably traversed by different forms of passage.
The rich ethnographic case studies, from the history of railroads in the southern Balkans, border town beauty tourism, child refugees during the Greek Civil War, mining and environmental activism, and the urban renovation project in Skopje, show that the political borders between states do…
This book illustrates the complexities that migrants and hosts experience, providing the kind of nuanced picture we need to respond intelligently to the politically motivated stories (from both left and right) that oversimplify migration across the contemporary world.
The book documents interethnic relations among Black, White, and Mexican communities in one town that recently became home to thousands of Mexican migrants, tracing divergent stories about migration and how these stories help shape migrants’ experiences. It explores how the descendants of earlier migrants interacted with Mexican newcomers, describing how experiences of and stories about migration unfolded across institutional spaces—residential neighborhoods, politics, businesses, public spaces, churches, schools, and community organizations. Instead of decline and oppression, we find many stories of hope and productive struggle.
An enthralling portrait of the Bloomsbury Group’s key figures told through a rich collection of intimate photographs. Photography framed the world of the Bloomsbury Group. The thousands of photographs surviving in albums kept by Virginia Woolf, Vanessa Bell, Dora Carrington, and Lytton Strachey, among others, today offer us a private…
It didn’t begin with Donald Trump. When the Republican Party lost five straight presidential elections during the 1930s and 1940s, three things happened: (1) Republicans came to believe that presidential elections are rigged; (2) Conspiracy theories arose and were believed; and (3) The presidency was elevated to cult-like status.
