Abstract
In recent years, migration has emerged as a rich site for criminological enquiry. Criminologists and legal scholars, particularly those concerned with the effects of globalization, have focused on borders to revisit classic questions about state power and social control. This critical turn has propelled work on the criminalization of immigration, or as Juliet Stumpf (2007) calls it, ‘crimmigration’. Together, scholars such as Katja Aas (2007), Mary Bosworth (2009), Alessandro De Giorgi (2010) and Salvatore Palidda (2005) have redirected criminological attention to the collusion of migration and crime control.
Building from that line of thought, this edited collection brings migration scholars together with researchers and activists from across Europe and the United States. Borne of a workshop held at Genoa University, Racial Criminalization of Migrants in the 21st Century aims to situate migration control within a global context. The book is divided into three parts: an overview; national case studies; and an examination of particular practices. It proceeds from a more theoretical perspective to geographically specific accounts of the treatment of foreign nationals. This progression works well, and showcases the scope of writing in the burgeoning subfield of border control studies.
The breadth of this book is its greatest strength. The edited collection can be an unwieldy form, but here, diversity proves illuminating. This volume weaves between statistics, critical theory and discourse analysis, with each chapter offering a different perspective on the criminalization of migrants. The book contains regional case studies from Italy, Germany, the United States, France and Spain; in this sense, it is one of few attempts at a comparative critique of border control. The collection also mixes writing styles, from Federico Rahola’s metaphorical reading of border camps (p. 94–106), to Hans-Joerg Albrecht’s straightforward review of victimization surveys (p. 177–195).
In the end, the volume depicts a broad range of criminological perspectives on migration control. The book includes many powerful arguments, some of which will seem fresher than others to readers familiar with these issues. Marcello Maneri’s account of media constructions of migrant criminality does not break especially new ground, but it does prove his point about the problematic—and in some cases purposeful—creation of ‘the immigration problem’ (p. 78). The same holds for José Ángel Brandariz García and Cristina Fernández Bessa’s work on the ‘construction of migrants as a risk category’ within the Spanish penal system (pp. 197–212).
Other chapters, most notably those from Alessandro De Giorgi and Federico Rahola, contain new insights. Combining linear regression with Marxist theory, De Giorgi argues that ‘the US penal experiment’ has decoupled trends in crime from the practice of imprisonment (p. 140). This argument is not entirely surprising given that Frank Zimring (2006) has noted ‘the great American crime decline’ and Wacquant (2010) has steadily documented the concurrent phenomenon of ‘hyperincarceration’ in the United States. When situated amid work on migration control, though, De Giorgi’s claims suggest a conceptual link between US imprisonment rates and the rapid expansion of immigration detention. This claim holds the potential to motivate further theoretical work on the connection between the prison and the detention centre.
Federico Rahola’s account of ‘the detention machine’ presents a related set of concerns. Rahola begins from a question: ‘what are we talking about when we talk about borders?’ (p. 95). This kind of blunt, self-reflective query often prompts incisive writing, and Rahola’s chapter is no exception. He argues that the border is ‘an inert device’ that does not exist until it is ‘crossed, violated, profaned’ (p. 98). That ‘violation’ requires a material space—a place where, once crossed, the border becomes clear. For Rahola, this place is the detention camp, or, rather, the entire ‘EU detention apparatus’, which, he claims, exists to delineate and legitimate the European Union (p. 99). In short, Rahola contends that the notion of territory springs from the prohibition of mobility. Alessandro Del Lago mounts a similar argument. He asserts that suspicion ‘enshrouds migrants’ because they ‘embody’ the message that people can ‘live in a different space to the territorial or cultural space destiny has assigned to them’ (p. 59). These chapters from Rahola, Del Lago and De Giorgi represent the best of criminological theory on the relationship between migration control and waning sovereignty.
To the extent that this book captures a particular theoretical moment, however, it also reveals the problems with existing accounts of migration control. Most obviously, the book lacks any work on the actual experience of criminalization. It does not attempt to explore how ‘the racial criminalization of migrants in the 21st century’ has been experienced by those who have been criminalized, demonized and detained. Given the book’s concern with practices that marginalize and ignore whole classes of people, the absence of migrants’ own perspectives on border control is glaring.
This collection also illustrates how criminologists are wedded, in some cases to their detriment, to a neo-Marxist approach. In his introduction, Salvatore Palidda states that the book’s goal is to examine how the criminalization of migrants gets ‘written into a neoliberal/neoconservative political framework based on the asymmetry of power and wealth’ (p. 2). The class critique is clear, and it continues throughout the book, often to powerful effect. But the volume’s latent emphasis on class also leaves questions unanswered, particularly those that have to do with the legacy of colonialism and the relevance of race and gender. How does the treatment of migrants recast colonial relations? How does race work here, especially when thinking about the experiences of Eastern European migrants? Although mentioned and, in some cases, analysed, these questions are under-explored.
Edited collections like this one illustrate the gaps in any body of scholarship. In doing so, they also prompt new critical writing. The shortcomings of this otherwise strong volume arise from its emphasis on the reproduction of structural inequality, rather than, for instance, on migrants’ lived experiences or the meaning of race. These topics could push criminological theory in even more interesting and creative directions. Building from this compelling book, scholars can refine and expand the account of late modern migration control.