Border and Rule: Global Migration, Capitalism, and the Rise of Racist Nationalism

(Hardback)

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The global migration crisis is one of the most critical political and moral issues of our time, and is in turn intimately connected to the climate change emergency, ongoing war and armed conflict, capitalist globalization, and the rise of the xenophobic far-right across the world. It is in this context that activist and writer Harsha Walia offers a much needed global account of what is, decidedly, a global crisis. While the acuity of the present crisis means that there is no shortage of books about migration, the vast majority restrict themselves to a specific national context or facet of border control. In contrast, Walia is explicit and convincing about the need to situate the migration crisis within the global dynamics of capitalism, white supremacy, and imperialism. Her important and rigorous treatment of these issues, framed by the endorsements of well-respected public intellectuals Robin D. G. Kelley and Nick Estes, is sure to find an audience with activists, scholars, students, and interested general readers alike.

Reviews

Harsha Walia doesnt peddle easy solutions or liberal bromides. She has a knack for going to the root of our planetary crises and explaining how we arrived here, and what to do about it. Those of us who have been reading and following her for years expect nothing less. She is not only one of North Americas most brilliant thinkers, she is also an organizer who has devoted her life to fighting racial capitalism, colonialism, militarism, xenophobia, patriarchy, and defending the rights of migrants, Indigenous people, women, and the unhoused. This book is a shock to the system.Robin D. G. Kelley, from the Foreword

In Walias expert hands, the planets sprawling borderlands are exposed as capitalisms gaping wounds, filled with escalating terror and torment as whiteness ferociously seeks to defend its imagined boundaries. This is a book of unsparing truth and dazzling ambition, providing readers with desperately needed intellectual ammunition to confront the inherent violence of borders. An enormous contribution to our movements. Naomi Klein, author ofThis Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate

I was haunted and agitated by this book which is part expose and part clarion call for radical action. Harsha Walia offers an unsparing analysis of the violences of forced migration, borders, imperialism and capitalism. The case studies presented in this book weave a quilt that provides us with needed knowledge to confront current problems that demand an organized collective response. The ideas in this book will linger long after youve put it down. Mariame Kaba, founder and director of Project NIA

This indispensable, deeply researched, and beautifully written book is the first and most in-depth global analysis of borders and immigration, wars and displacement, imperialism and western white nationalism. Always with her ear to the ground and paying close attention to the people whose lives are wrecked or lost, Walia demands action and offers real solutions. Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, author ofAn Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States.

Harsha Walias deeply thoughtful and well-written book makes creative connections that other writers have preferred to ignore. It offers a lucid, insightful survey of the most difficult political issues that we face. Paul Gilroy, author ofThe Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double Consciousness

In this exceptional book, Harsha Walia takes us on a stunning and terrifying tour of the Great Wall of Capitalism, the border killing zone where viral fascism feeds on the bodies of the poor and persecuted. Hell is already here. Mike Davis,co-author ofSet the Night on Fire: L.A. in the Sixties

Border and Ruleprovides a kaleidoscopic expos, painstaking analysis, and damning indictment of the border regimes that are generating and fueling anti-migrant brutality and state violence on an international scale. Harsha Walia is relentless in drilling into, detailing, and cataloguing the array of processes, players, policies, and ideologies that uphold systems of border imperialismwhile simultaneously mapping-out for us an understanding of how we can disrupt and dismantle them. Justin Akers Chacn,co-author ofNo One Is Illegal: Fighting Racism and State Violence on the U.S.-Mexico Border

Building on the thesis of her seminal bookUndoing Border Imperialism, Harsha Walia's incisive voice inBorder and Rule-- equally rigorously theoretical and lovingly community-minded -- refuses to allow our struggles and organizing to exist in vacuums. From anti-black police murders and carcerality to the fortressing of borders across indigenous lands to the fabricated migrant crises to the exploitations of their labor, and to the racial nationalisms and legal structures that drive these violences, Walia's latest book provides an international cartography of the crisis of global neoliberalism. It is a stunning and horrific elucidation of Ayesha Siddiqi's line that 'Every border implies the violence of its maintenance.' But the narrative Walia deftly weaves is the polar opposite of alarmist political nihilism: it is a clarion call for our solidarities to always transcend the physical and ideological boundaries drawn by empire. This is not simply a book about violence, it is also a book about the potential for care and for freedom. Zo Samudzi, co-author ofAs Black As Resistance: Finding the Conditions for Liberation

Timely and topical,Border and Rulewill be of interest to scholars, activists, and general readers. Walia connects variants of ethnonationalism across borders and illustrates how a world order predicated on aggression and displacement harms the most vulnerable among us, a category that includes a significant portion of the global population. Her analysis presents clear and compelling evidence that our current trajectory is unsustainable and offers cogent solutions trained on justice for the victims of endless war and colonial accumulation.Steven Salaita, author ofInter/Nationalism: Decolonizing Native America and Palestine

Harsha Walia'sBorder and Ruleforwards a clear and incisive analysis of the multiple crises facing migrants today amidst the rise of racist nationalisms globally. Her work highlighs the entanglements between global capitalism, imperialism, and past and present dynamics of Indigenous genocide and anti-Black governance that are at the heart of the border regime.Border and Ruleis a must-read, sure to become a classic, for those of us concerned with building a world premised on freedom of movement, against and beyond the logics of the nation-state. Robyn Maynard,author ofPolicing Black Lives: State violence in Canada from slavery to the present

Read Harsha Walia and your understanding of the world will shift. This book is a comprehensive demolition of the borders that divide us and a deft takedown of the myth of the nation. Through a range of case-studies, Walia reveals overarching patterns of exclusion and exploitation, criss-crossing the globe to make a brave, deeply learned, and utterly convincing call for radical solidarity. With cries of "build a wall" ringing out and ethno-nationalism gaining steam, Walias critical intervention couldnt be better timed. Astra Taylor, author ofDemocracy May Not Exist, but We'll Miss It When It's Gone

Confused about how we got to this point Harsha Walia explains clearly and concisely the multiple forces causing global poverty and displacement--and the resistance and organizing around the world. Walia provides a historical analysis of policies that have cut down peoples well-being and driven poverty, violence, terror and mass migration, and highlights the myriad forms of resistance and organizing that are all-too-often invisiblized. An excellent explanation of borders, migration and the exploitative systems that produce both. Victoria Law, author ofResistance Behind Bars: The Struggles of Incarcerated Women

Harsha Walia's decades of visionary leadership in border abolition and migrant justice work, along with her relentless intellectual rigor, is apparent in this immensely important book, arriving right when we need it most. As governments lock down borders, mobilizations against policing reach new peaks, economic crisis worsens, and climate change accelerates, we desperately need this book if we hope to build a nuanced analysis of what we are facing and what kinds of transformation are necessary. Walia deftly exposes the inadequacy of liberal responses to the current crises, paving the way for a deeper understanding of the conditions we are facing and meaningful avenues for resistance. Walia's deeply researched, crystal clear text creates a robust toolbox for comprehending the current crises and assessing resistance strategies. This book is invaluable right now, a must-read for anyone working to dismantle prisons and borders, end poverty and war. Dean Spade, author ofMutual Aid: Building Solidarity During this Crisis (and the Next)

As communities and social movements scramble to respond to the threat of a globalised far-right against the apocalyptic backdrop of a global pandemic and impending ecological disaster, Harsha Walia'sBorder and Rulereminds us of how we got here. With clinical precision, Walia unravels the genealogies and histories of border militarization, incarceration and imperialism, laying bare the webs of domination and exploitation that threaten the poor and vulnerable everywhere, from those incarcerated in Australias offshore immigration camps to the victims of drone warfare in Yemen. As we struggle with the cruel symptoms of a global disease - incarceration, exploitation, occupation, colonialism, environmental collapse - Walia picks this web apart, exposing the ways in which these crises interlock and overlap. It is a stark but necessary blueprint to understand. This book is also full of hope. It bears witness to the struggles of those who have survived and continue to resist in spite of merciless repression - the Indigenous, the enslaved, the exploited, the dispossessed and the undocumented. It is an urgent and revolutionary call to action that invites us to revisit the problem so that we may dream and fight harder for the world we want. Aamer Rahman, comedian

We know that borders are violence. We know that violence numbs our collective imagination. We know that imagination is a muscle that must be exercised daily to prevent atrophy. This book is the workout.Border and Ruleworks us. With rigor, precision, and care, Harsha Walia pushes us beyond false solutions, rainbow imperialisms, and exclusionary projections. What a privilege to think with her, to build movement muscle for a world free of borders. Shailja Patel, author ofMigritude

Every once in a while there comes a book that makes you never see the world the same way again. Harsha WaliasBorder and Ruleis such a book. Incisive and rigorously researched, Walia lays bare the border apparatus like no other: its bloody history based on colonial dispossession, Indigenous genocides, anti-Black enslavement, and its contemporary function of maintainingwith militarized enforcement of divisionsa racialized global system of subjugation and exploitation rife with criminal inequalities and ecological catastrophes.Border and Ruleis the most important reframing of borders and their enforcement apparatus that I have ever read. It demonstrates that the border is not a passive wall but an expansive omnipresent regime, and that there is no "border crisis" but a displacement crisis. I will be turning to its pages again and again, not only for its analysis but also for its inspiration. Indeed, Walia strips borders of their pretense and justifications in such a powerful way, that after finishing the book it feels like we can tear down the walls, and all they represent, with our bare hands. Todd Miller, author ofEmpire of Borders: The Expansion of the U.S. Border Around the World

Walias intervention is to demonstrate, systematically and across geographies, that there is no acceptable legitimation for border rule, unless your interest is in upholding global capital as the sovereign force determining life and livability on the planet. To show how border regimes function is to reveal that there is no good argument for them.Natasha Lennard,Bookforum

Author Bio

Harsha Walia is the award-winning author of Undoing Border Imperialism (2013). Trained in the law, she is a community organizer and campaigner in migrant justice, anti-capitalist, feminist, and anti-imperialist movements, including No One Is Illegal and Womens Memorial March Committee.