Border Nation: A Story of Migration

Outspoken

by Leah Cowan

Borders are not just meaningless geographical lines. They have an impact on all of our lives, whether it’s the fallout from Brexit or the inhumanity of a detention center. In Border Nation, Leah Cowan shows how borders are violent, oppressive, and must be resisted. Looking back, we learn of the elitist, colonial and patriarchal origins of borders, explore the vital history of anti-racist, anti-border organizing and hear stories from people who have crossed partitions. Debunking myths around migration, Leah Cowan unpacks the 'hostile environment' and reveals how healthcare crises, terrorism, unemployment and housing shortages are often manipulated by politicians and the media to vilify migrants. As borders grow, migrants are policed and immigration controls are tightened, this book transforms our understanding of borders, migration and our fight for belonging.

Genres: Nonfiction, Politics, Race, Feminism, Activism, Social Justice, Sociology

1 pages, Audio CD

Published May 13, 2025

Reviews

[Sadhbh O'Sullivan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Essential and succinct reading. The sections on border profiteering and the commonly asked questions were particularly good.

[lucy · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars!

I read this book with my boyfriend. We enjoyed it and agreed with so much of what she said, but thought the referencing was quite bad. Here is our summary of the book by chapter.

CHAPTER 1: IN THE SHADOW OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
Colonialism and imperialism are inseparable from the current border situation. The "white man's burden", a term now comically used for the supposedly 'noble' cause of colonialism, has been repurposed with 'humanitarian aid' - when in reality the UK just continues to exert its power over less powerful nations through said aid. Britain is wealthy because of its colonial past, and yet when those whose labour Britain have exploited want to come to the 'motherland' they are asked to prove their worth. Additionally, we shouldn't forget that history is written by white-men (mostly) and we cannot forget those who were oppressed and revolted, although they are often marginalised in history's retellings. A really interesting fact mentioned was that 'physical borders' have increased 700% since the end of WWII; from 7 at the end of the war, to 700 today (i.e. US-Mexico wall)

CHAPTER 2: WHITEWASHING AND THE MYTH OF THE MIGRANT 'OUTSIDER'
Britain's colonies' education systems were manipulated by the Empire to make the people believe that European languages and cultures were superior (see Macaulayism). This ideology led to whitewashing and the marginalisation and eradication of minority cultures/languages. There is also mention of the havoc the Brits have caused in certain colonies; such as chaos provoked by the partition of India. Britain only wants these colonial residents to migrate to the 'mother land' when it is convenient for Britain itself, and this in particular relates to the rise of racism after the 'Windrush' generation. Despite black bodies having been present in Britain for a very long time, in the 1980's the British Nationality Act, which essentially promoted the equation of whiteness with Britishness, also promoted racist myths - such as that of Enoch Powell who stated that, in Britain, "the white man would soon be under the 'whip' of the black man" (paraphrasing).

CHAPTER 3: WHY SHOULD MIGRANTS CONTRIBUTE
Paradoxically from what immigration law may suggest (that is, proving one's worth in order to move to Britain), much of the UK's wealth (as the 9th wealthiest country in the world) has been acquired through the subjugation of other countries. Therefore, in this chapter the author makes a point of critiquing the idea of meritocracy as a capitalist myth and highlights that might of the wealthiest people in Britain today (i.e. bankers) are so rich because of their profits on the slave trade. Finally, the author highlights the disgraceful pride Britons have of the empire - taken from the results of a YouGov survey.

CHAPTER 4: BUILDING BORDERS THROUGH HEADLINES AND COLUMN INCHES
Media allows atrocities associated with crossing borders illegally to be considered 'one-off' mistakes, and dissociates them, in this way, from larger systemic problems. Media portrayal of migrants leads to the proliferation of racist ideas and hacks away at working-class solidarity by criminalising the 'robbing' 'welfare-claiming' migrant. POC who commit crimes are labelled as one-dimensional caricatures, made to represent the group they come from, whilst white criminals are seen with nuance, focusing on their specific background and the circumstances that led them down the wrong path. A connection is made between the Brexit vote and fear mongering around border security and migration.


CHAPTER 5: EVERYDAY BORDERS AND 'DE FACTO' BORDER GUARDS
Focus on the Immigration Acts of 2014/2016 and how they have produced more precarious immigration situations. Touched on some themes similar to those explored in Emily Kenway's The Truth about Modern Slavery and the creation of the myth of traffickers as one-off villains, distracting from British immigration policy. The irony of politicians being 'tough on borders' as it promotes illegal pathways. Furthermore, making legal status more difficult to acquire allows people to be exploited in the workplace. Making everyone become a border guard by putting in place renting checks and additional fees for access to healthcare.


CHAPTER 6: THE VIOLENCE OF DETENTION AND DEPORTATION
The UK has some of the worst policies in Europe when it comes to detention. It is the only country in the continent allowing people to be detained indefinitely. In the 21st century, despite the number of detention centres and detainees increasing, the actual ratio of people being deported has almost halved. The conditions within these centres are difficult to report on, since access is scarcely permitted - even to important journalists and diplomats. In this way, a lot of things are able to be covered up and the public are largely unaware of the horrendous conditions. Within centres, access to healthcare, mental health care (hmm... indefinite detention might affect people), and an adequate diet are not provided, and the rate of self-harm and suicide is very high. Many people die in these centres due to the awful conditions and state neglect.

CHAPTER 7: BIG BUSINESS AND THE PROFIT MOTIVE FOR BORDERS
The best chapter in the book! A lot of the detention centres (IRCs) are owned by a handful of powerful transnational companies (such as G4S and Mities) who are also involved in the areas of war and prison. A distinction was made between 'removal' and 'deportation', the latter being removal following having committed a crime and served a sentence, and the former being removal due to the inability to prove any right to remain. Deportations, of all kinds (removals included), are often done on commercial flights amongst people travelling for business and leisure and are extremely violent for the deportees (tying them up, hiding them, using muzzles, etc). These deportations are also outsourced to private companies, and when they do not go ahead (be it for legal reasons or change of status) the bill is still charged to the government. In other words, the UK is wasting money on deportations that never come to fruition. Furthermore, the UK has interests in building prisons in foreign countries in order to be able to transfer prisoners held in UK facilities to their home nations. Maintaining prisoners or immigration detainees is expensive. Detention is often extremely violent, in objective, subjective and systemic terms - even going so far as to lead to death in some cases.


CHAPTER 8: BORDERLANDS OF RESISTANCE
This chapter highlighted some of the ways in which the general public can resist the border nation actively, giving some examples of successful protests and how they are carried out by regular people in the day-to-day. The state will never recognise its own power and will never dismantle itself. Solidarity is essential. Solidarity, for the author, means letting those who go through these events have a voice. Those who suffer at the borders hands are those who are the most active in resisting them. Decolonisation was mentioned and also eurocentrism.

CONCLUSION
The author addresses, with short responses, some of the more common questions against the removal of borders. She recalls some of the arguments explored in the book, principally how a lot of societies 'problems' are the result of global capitalism. Some of her responses left room for expansion, but given the size of the publication it is understandable that she does not enter deeply into every subject. She questions held beliefs becoming ever-growingly common in our capitalist society; like the rejection of social housing and universal health care. She is questioning the current system and trying to aid readers from focusing too heavily on just the issue of borders; showing that the collective issues are interlaced.

[brisingr]

Living across and beyond borders is infinitely more powerful, more human, more open, more creative and more compassionate than the narrow restrictions and limitations that immigration policy will allow.

No human being is an illegal being and borders are an extremely new concept in human history, rooted in a history of colonization and racism. This is a wonderful, easy to understand explanation in exactly how UK came to be the one country in the whole continent with the harshest immigration laws, and exactly the systems that allows them to remain in place. A good introduction for anyone interested in the topic.
And given the world, and the likely future that awaits humanity once climate collapse happens, I think everyone should be deeply involved in how borders are drawn and maintained.

[Alena · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's obviously an argument I entirely support, but I'm not sure who's the audience for a few of these shorter books by Pluto. They just leave me wanting more - more theory, more research, more international perspectives.
Again, this is an excellently written book, I just don't know what the strategy is with these. If you already buy into the argument against borders, it is not challenging you. And if you don't, I'm not sure how you'll end up reading it in the first place

[Rose Stanley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not sure this told me much that I didn't already know, but good to have all the info in one place, and it's clear Cowan has done her homework. One to reread on a regular basis.

[Michael Lennon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredibly well written and researched; it is a talent to get this much content into 150 pages

[jasmine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Heavily about the UK. Too brief, need more context.

[Bonnie Steinberg · Rating 3 out of 5]

i think this book was not quite what i expected it to be (or at least what i wanted it to be). coming from a position where i already agree with her on the fundamental premise— i thought this had a lot of good information that i didn’t already know about britains border regime and history of immigration enforcement. however i think it lacked cohesion/a clear throughline, and i think what i felt was missing (or at least wanted) was a tie in with a bit more theory. i think this read like a series of punchy guardian articles on the violence of britains immigration policy and actions rather than using britain as a case study to make a broader argument for border abolition.

[Gita Swasti · Rating 4 out of 5]

Borders enable states to manage the flow of people, and consequently surveil, dissuade and shut out people who are perceived by states as lesspermanently desirable or useful for wealth accumulation: neurodiverse people, queer and trans people, disabled people, survivors of violence, torture and abuse, people with different antibody statuses, people of colour, criminalised people and working class people.

Border atau yang kita kenal sebagai batas negara merupakan produk sejarah. Perannya dikatakan sebagai penanda geografis di mana satu negara telah berakhir dan yang lainnya dimulai.

Sementara itu, wacana di bidang migrasi paksa telah berkembang secara eksponensial, dan terlebih lagi ketika lapisan interseksionalnya menambah beban krisis migrasi paksa di seluruh dunia. Mungkin salah satu perdebatan yang paling berkelanjutan di sepanjang garis ini adalah hubungan antara migrasi paksa dan kejahatan – sering berkembang menjadi perdebatan seputar masalah keamanan nasional dan retorika anti-imigran. Meskipun temuan tentang persimpangan antara migrasi paksa dan kejahatan telah mendiskreditkan banyak hal negatif di sekitar komunitas imigran, persepsi populer, kebijakan anti-imigran, dan stereotip terus mencemari bidang studi ini beserta kebijakan yang dihasilkannya.

Buku ini mengungkap bagaimana masa lalu Inggris yang suram bertemu dengan rezim dari perbatasan. Melalui sejarah Inggris secara umum, kita dapat lebih memahami konteks saat ini undang-undang imigrasi, agenda politik dan struktur ketidaksetaraan yang mendukung sampai perbatasan.

Penelitian tentang ekonomi politik persimpangan migrasi-kejahatan diperlukan saat ini lebih dari sebelumnya. Kini, pemahaman tentang persimpangan berkembang pesat sehubungan dengan realitas politik, ekonomi, sosial dan budaya yang sedang berlangsung. Salah satu realitas yang bisa kita amati adalah gender.

Wah, jadi panjang kalau sudah membicarakan gender. Saya tutup di sini saja ulasan bukunya. Terima kasih sudah membaca tulisan saya hingga akhir.

[Liv · Rating 4 out of 5]

Border Nation is an excellent and accessible non-fiction piece that examines the colonial legacy, imperialism, violence of borders, racism, xenophobia and the human rights abuses within detention centres as some of the central discussion points. Predominantly focused on the UK, Cowan talks about how the institutional erection of borders has vilified migrants. How governments and capitalist corporations have preyed on people's fears to reinforce the need of borders in order to accumulate wealth.

Connected by her own grandparents experience of coming over from Jamaica, Cowen is acutely aware of the importance of hearing from the voices of those suffering discrimination, of being detained, of being a migrant to understand the true events and suffering they face.

The sections that were quite horrifying were those on the detention centres and the human rights abuses in those. The private companies that operate the prisons/detention centres paying detainees £1 an hour for cleaning/cooking duties, preventing people from accessing proper healthcare to save money and risking lives, the sexual assaults/abuse and more that takes place by the guards. The high rates of depression and suicide attempts amongst those detained. There's a lot of heavy and horrifying issues that Cowan touches on and ones that are so important and need to be brought into the spotlight as both the UK government and the private companies running the prisons attempt to hush up their crimes.

I think this is more accessible examination of migrants than Maya Goodfellow's Hostile Environment as it was less policy and history heavy. However the two don't have the exact same focus and reading both offers further insights and analysis on a complicated area of politics. I'd also highly recommend picking up other Pluto Press titles from the Outspoken series such as Lost in Work and Tangled in Terror that have overlapping themes.

[Cordelia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading for a book club

Two sittings

Well researched

Too short/ didn’t answer exploratory questions enough or in the right way

Told me lots of things but didn’t get it right at forcing me to imagine

[Don · Rating 3 out of 5]

Something that might yet become an immigration rights movement with sufficient popular support to challenge the hostile environment consensus has begun to emerge in recent years. Motivated by the sense of the injustices inflicted on migrant and refugee people, its supporters have opened up a dozen battle fronts in their struggles with the home office.

Leah Cowan covers most of these areas of contention in her jeremiad against governments which have abrogated to themselves a vast range of powers allowing for the constant surveillance of migrant communities, challenges people who ‘look’ as though they might be immigrants on high streets, workplaces and transport hubs, to arrest and detain them and eventually deprive them of the lives they have built up in one country by deporting them to lands which they might have left as children many years before.

At 150 pages length, it is a good book to give to someone who has been disturbed by news media accounts of cruel treatment meted out to refugees or elderly Caribbean people of the Windrush generation. If their interest if sufficiently aroused you might follow up with Colin Yeo’s more analytical Welcome to Britain.

However the book is somewhat more problematic if read as an attempt to think through the strategic problems of building a migrant rights movement which might at some point in the not-to-distant future actually win the battles it is committed to fighting. In my view seeking to build an argument that makes the issue of borders so central to progress – to the point of saying that their abolition is almost a precondition for real advance – is a mistake.

It is one that logically follows from insisting that borders have no other function than dividing the wealthy from the poor and making sure that the former continues to rule over the latter. Whilst this might be one of the consequences of imperialistic, bordered nations it fails to address what is also obviously true: that it is behind the shelter of borders that democracy and regimes of welfare and redistribution have been established to date. The demand to abolish border is unrealistic: we should be looking instead for the integration of migrant struggle into the surge of social and political currents which are increasingly showing a capacity to fight across a spectrum of issues of injustice and inequality.

[Farrah WJ · Rating 5 out of 5]

`Border Nation’ by Leah Cowan lays out the "radical” idea of a world with no borders. Cowan unveils the violent nature of borders with a particular focus on the UK.

What you can expect:
- An understanding of reasons for migration including colonialist and capitalist exploits
- Straight facts about shady UK immigration practices past and present
- An explanation of how borders perpetuate hierarchical myths

This book is NOT the blueprint of a borderless world. It doesn’t give you a guide. It merely illustrates the WHY we should resist borders and HOW it could impact our fellow humankind.

Thoughts: I have a much better understanding of the US political system than I do of the UK’s, so I was keen to read this book. I learned a lot and for some reason found it surprising that the UK is complicit in similar offences as the US. There’s a massive pull towards privatisation that’s seeping into all parts of government. This clearly due to mismanagement at the central level, and will farther wedge a gap between those in the top 1% and everyone else. And guess who the government will continue to blame? 🤔

The Verdict: Read this book! It’s super important info and is not very long. Essentially, I would highly recommend it.

[Lois · Rating 5 out of 5]

A vigorous, defiant text, unwavering in its scrutiny of border control laws and an excellent myth-buster. Border Nation is only 149 pages long but it thoroughly addresses the many nuances of the inherently oppressive, inherently racist nature of border policing.

[Zoë Siobhan Baillie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent, succinct, enraging, inspiring

[Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Definitely saw who the Jamaican gov has on their pinterest inspo board through reading this book. This was especially apparent to me when it spoke about people being detained for a long period of time without trial. Indefinite detention is a hallmark of our judicial system and ofc in writing this i’m questioning the “our” in the country’s judiciary process. This doubt arises especially as a result of how much “our” legal system is as a result of our colonial rule. There was recently a controversy (if you want to call it that) with the “Jamaican” judiciary system criticizing a Chief Justice Brian Skyes for giving bail to those who don’t have enough evidence attached to their case to remain behind bars. So essentially people were upset about a judge not violating UNCHR article 9 and other possible articles.

Jamaican people unfortunately due to a lack of theoretical understanding of our position as a black country in this world give “consent” to prisons because we can’t imagine anything beyond it. Lots of people are of right wing and or centrist ideals so they believe the heavy visa sanctions and mass deportations are because we “nuh behave weself when we go up deh”. I believe apart of the reason why we aren’t able to conceptualize the ways in which the Britain border regime (and the history it has left on this island) has harmed us is because British media isn’t as syndicated as American media. Jamaicans on the island consume CNN way more than BBC and are more in tune with America’s perception of race. It may sound simple but i feel like globalizing transgressions towards AfAms paint this picture that they are the only black people experiencing violence and serves as a way to gaslight black ppl of the diaspora. So Jamaicans aren’t acutely aware of how white middle class British society see them and as such don’t equate racist motives with them.

I’ll be honest I wasn’t too aware of race relations in UK & that scene in Top Boy where they took the man out of his house to deport him and when they deported Steff’s mummy I became interested in what being black in England is like. I have an uncle that’s a teacher there but our relationship is not that deep for him to be any source of insight. So I found this book, first of many that I’ll read to better understand. Lots of outrageous statements made in this book that I had no clue where being made. They never told us about a white list I only saw lots of ppl being deported on TV cause there was a time where they would broadcast them. This book made me realize that British-Jamaican relations go deeper than I thought and realize that the British way is not isolated to British soil.

I also wanted to read this book to help guide my understanding of the Essequibo situation between Guyana & Venezuela. I hope we can return to the ways of Chavez and push for peace above all 🇻🇪🇬🇾💕❤️. The part that stood out in the book that can be related to this was the aspect of Global North countries exploiting the insecurity of Global South borders for their corporate interests and immediately thought of Essequibo. The ways in which Exxon is exploiting the divide between GY & VE over the borders Britain created. Interesting book, nice read for a beginner like me.

Love from Jamaica to the diaspora, hope we can continue to thread together our existence like this. The existence of diaspora alone shows us that borders can’t contain us. Im Jamaican anywhere and everywhere and so are those born onto other soil. Nationalism is the states attempt to weaponize people against one another. Much love to the Jamaican diaspora from St. Catherine 😃🇯🇲❤️

[Tessimo Mahuta · Rating 2 out of 5]

Unfortunately pretty disappointed with this book. I've loved a bunch of Pluto press' 'outspoken' series, most notably feminism interrupted, but this one missed the mark. At the core of things I agree - and certainly want to believe - what the book is laying down. But even coming from the same corner of was repeatedly underlining arguments with question and exclamation marks, usually both.

The book does give a broad overview of Britain's borders and some of the legislation maintaining it, as well as a lot of anecdotal evidence about its detrimental impact. However, I couldn't even count on two hands how many times a statistic was thrown in to support an argument with zero context for the reader to understand its significance. Writing like this always gets my back up; it either assumes you're already so far on to the same side that you don't need a comprehensive, contextual argument, or that the existence of a random statistic in a sentence is enough evidence.

There is clearly a lot of personal opposition that the author takes against some individuals, which I never mind in a book. What I do mind in a political commentary is describing events in such reductive ways as to seem intentionally misleading, or setting up a straw man so that an argument can be 'supported' and wrapped up in a paragraph rather than having to grapple with its contradictions.

Overall, obviously, I don't think this is particularly worth the read. The outspoken series gives us books that are short and packed with information from which we can dive further, but this book seems to just throw contradictory and not particularly intersectional arguments out there with evidence that I really found lacking. Shame, because I love a lot of the series and wanted to love this.

Recently I read Minority Rule by Ash Sarkar and, although not specifically on borders and migration covers those topics a lot more convincingly and comprehensively within the book.

Ah well, on to the next one!

[Rachel H · Rating 5 out of 5]

Powerful and succinct, and it ends with a positive call to action.

Most of Border Nation is a compelling description of all that is wrong with borders. Cowan includes many detailed accounts of cross-border experiences and the suffering these pointless barriers create in people's lives. Having taken part in No Borders protests nearly 20 years ago, I found it saddening to read that the same situation persists today. In fact, Brexit has arguably made things worse, being as it is a move away from a borderless world.

In the final chapters of the book, Cowan dispels the myth that borders are necessary. Her writing is brilliantly persuasive in these sections, which should be read by everyone who works in government and border control.

[Judy Ugonna · Rating 5 out of 5]

This short book (150 pages) is a must read if you care even a tiny bit about the issues faced by so-called migrants. The opening sentence: " Borders are indisputably sites if violence" is proven over and over again as the writer lays out the histories and attitudes that gave rise to borders as we know them today and facts and figures that show how terribly badly certain categories of people arriving in this country are treated in so many ways, not least by the structures and systems put in place by our government.

[Gareth · Rating 2 out of 5]

interesting, thought-provoking and written in an engaging style, but I didn't think that Pluto Press did a good enough job of editing, and checking those references. Although my eyes were opened regarding the plight of migrants and Britain's role in creating and sustaining the inequalities that drive migration, the penultimate chapter did feel a bit like a utopian dream as it didn't really address the practicalities of abolishing borders Would like to read more on the topic, though, and more by Leah Cowan.

[Karina Mukanova · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very detailed and rich-in-references account of border regime in the UK and in the world. Gave me lots of food for thought to what I am personally experiencing as a person studying and living abroad and how I can use this knowledge in what I do as a job and how I view things and the world itself. Thought-provoking, easy to read and understand even for non-native English speakers and non-UK residents.

[Ella Powell · Rating 5 out of 5]

An eye opening and important read that is very compelling in its summary of the history of borders and their colonial, imperialist, racist and capitalist foundations in Britain. I knew the immigration system was corrupt and racist, but I was truly shocked by the extent of smoke and mirrors with which the British government covers up the inhumane acts and hostility it creates for people seeking to cross borders in search of a better life.

[AndreanaMaria Deiana · Rating 4 out of 5]

A damning and sharp analysis of the UK’s border regime, it colonial legacy and everyday effects on migrant communities. I particularly appreciate the focus on practices of resistance and solidarity in the final part of the book.

[Karris Hamilton · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really good introduction to the history and politics of migration in the UK. The author makes a compelling argument for a border free world which I hope lots of people will believe in/be won over by. I hope this gets into the hands of the people who need convincing.

[Bethany Dawson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it! Really succinct and informative, painted a great, detailed picture of the reason to live beyond borders

[Ivi · Rating 4 out of 5]

really made me think about borders in a UK/European context and how they are used for profit and often as a form of punishment rather than actually addressing the root issue.

[Joanna Ward · Rating 4 out of 5]

this was great ! firm and clear re: the idea of no borders and lots of good little case studies / facts which really bring home why this is such an important project to imagine

[George Bidwell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredible primer on one of the key issues of our times.

[Olivia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Law and order are not objective truths, and borders have not always existed.

[Ngoc Diep · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is so incredibly important, especially in today‘s society & political culture. It challenges the meaning of borders and calls for a world exempt from any physical (and mental) borders.