Violent Borders: Refugees and the Right to Move

Forty thousand people died trying to cross international borders in the past decade,
with the high-profile deaths along the shores of Europe only accounting for half of
the grisly total. Reece Jones argues that these deaths are not exceptional, but rather the result of
state attempts to contain populations and control access to resources and
opportunities. “We may live in an era of globalization,” he writes, “but much of the
world is increasingly focused on limiting the free movement of people.”

In Violent Borders: Refugees and the Right to Move, Jones crosses the migrant
trails of the world, documenting the billions of dollars spent on border security
projects and their dire consequences for countless millions. While the poor are
restricted by the lottery of birth to slum dwellings in the aftershocks of
decolonization, the wealthy travel without constraint, exploiting pools of cheap labor
and lax environmental regulations. With the growth of borders and resource
enclosures, the deaths of migrants in search of a better life are intimately connected
to climate change, environmental degradation, and the growth of global wealth
inequality.

Admission is free.