Border Watch

Border Watch challenges the way we understand detention just as this practice is becoming ever more central to the policing of borders and boundaries in many countries. With its focus on the everyday life of guards and officers in a particular detention complex, and its creative mix of ethnography, political theory, cultural geography and moral philosophy, it will inspire a whole new generation of studies of migration/security. -- William Walters, Professor of Political Science and Sociology at Carleton University, Ottawa Canada, and author of Governmentality: Critical Encounters (2012). Immigration detention is a huge but little-known phenomenon of our era. Border Watch is a rich, thoughtful, fair, and ultimately strong examination of immigration detention centres and guards. The devil is in the details: a saying that genuinely describes what Hall discovers. This book succeeds in linking ethnographic description with major public issues of immigration and power. -- Josiah McC. Heyman, Professor of Anthropology and Chair of the Sociology and Anthropology Department, University of Texas at El Paso.