Rights, deportation, and detention in the age of immigration control /

What is immigration control and what explains its practice and impact? Before Wong's examination of rights, deportation, and detention, these questions had not been addressed systematically or in relation to one another. Wong (Univ. of California, San Diego) argues that immigration control is not triggered simply by state sovereignty concerns but that differing policies regarding the types of rights granted to immigrants, how aggressively deportation is pursued, and how extensively immigrants are detained reflect a mix of political, economic, and societal factors. This guides his analysis of deportation and detention practices across 25 Western immigrant-receiving democracies from 2000-2009. Wong's statistical analysis uncovers that right-wing party strength is a strong predictor, making deportation more prevalent and detention less widely used, perhaps because quicker deportations leave fewer remaining migrants to detain. In terms of impact, deportation has little impact on immigrant inflows, with the exception of reducing the number of asylum claims with low chances of approval. The book's broad theoretical reach, extensive quantitative analysis, qualitative examples, and overall accessibility make it an important empirical and conceptual advancement in migration studies. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above. --Alexander A. Caviedes, State University of New York at Fredonia