Borders, Migration and Class in an Age of Crisis

This book responds to global tendencies toward increasingly restrictive border controls and populist movements targeting migrants for violence and exclusion. Informed by Marxist theory, it challenges standard narratives about immigration and problematises commonplace distinctions between ‘migrants’ and ‘workers’. Using Britain as a case study, the book examines how these categories have been constructed and mobilised within representations of a ‘migrant crisis’ and a ‘welfare crisis’ to facilitate capitalist exploitation. It uses ideas from grassroots activism to propose alternative understandings of the relationship between borders, migration and class that provide a basis for solidarity.

''Those wishing to shake free from the dominant hostile narrative towards immigration into the UK and elsewhere would do very well to read this – at times brilliantly unique and challenging – account. Vickers champions a bottom-up approach shaped by the perspectives of migrants themselves.'' Gary Craig, Newcastle University, ''Tom Vickers’ book brings class and class formation back in critical migration and border studies. Exploring points of division, connection, and commonality among the working class from the angle of migration, this book is a timely and important theoretical and political intervention.'' Sandro Mezzadra, University of Bologna, ''By revealing the differently situated perspectives of workers and showing capitalism’s relationship to mobility, this book provides activists with a shared foundation, bringing hope for a broad-based collective action that bridges nationalist divides.'' Jessica Potter, Docs Not Cops

Tom Vickers is a Senior Lecturer in Sociology at Nottingham Trent University. His research is intimately connected to his participation in social movements, community organising and community education, as a form of critical public sociology spanning diverse struggles.