"A rich tapestry of oral testimony that not only makes the reading experience more enjoyable and human, but underpins an emotional and compelling argument... I would highly recommend this debut book."
"A rich and lucid narrative ... accessible, creative, and highly informative."
"It’s the inside story of the sort of thing you read about in the newspapers all the time... It validated for me this [kind of] ethnographic research, going there, being there, burrowing in."
"I was blown away by this book, it was stunning...once you have read it, you will not see migration the same way ever again."
"Best book of the year? With all the usual reservations about the virtues of each and all of everything I’ve dipped into in 2014, I’m going to go for Ruben Andersson’s Illegality, Inc. ... he brings out the ways in which awareness of borders and the relationship which the various actors have with them brings out a set of predicable roles – the border cop, the humanitarian naval guard, the calculating NGO activist, the aggrieved, indignant migrant, the camp welfare officer, right the way through to the anti-globaliser ‘no borders’ protester."
"Timely and beautifully written... Indeed, Illegality Inc. is a fascinating book, a must read not only for those interested in migration studies, but for anyone who dearly cares about the sanity of a European project – and about the way the world is governed."
"Illegality, Inc. is a rollercoaster ride through the emerging Euro-African borderlands, and at the same time a clever, timely and sometimes disturbing look at the actors who inhabit these borderlands. I know of no other monograph that explores the phenomenon of international migration from inside the heavily funded European border police forces, while at the same time casting such a critical and sarcastic view on journalists, academics and well-meaning NGOs that make up a growing 'illegality industry' with far-reaching consequences for people on the move. A must-read for anyone interested in one of the major challenges of the late modern world."—Hans Lucht, author of Darkness before Daybreak: African Migrants Living on the Margins in Southern Italy Today
"Illegality, Inc. is breathtaking in its originality and scope. Extending across the vast expanses of the Sahara desert and the perilous journeys of migrants across the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean, from Senegal and Mali to the Warsaw headquarters of the EU’s border police, Ruben Andersson deftly escorts his readers on a remarkable journey. Andersson’s methodologically innovative ethnography is truly refreshing and inspiring. Engaging creatively with a bewilderingly diverse range of actors, sites, and settings, this study helps us to comprehend a complex constellation of the often absurd features of the European border regime and the multifarious subjects and projects constituted thereby. This book reveals numerous intriguing linkages across space and time in its exploration of the intricate workings of “the illegality industry.” Illegality, Inc. is a very rewarding work of scholarship and intellectual creativity, as well as a rare literary achievement."—Nicholas De Genova, co-editor of The Deportation Regime: Sovereignty, Space, and the Freedom of Movement
"This beautifully written and politically powerful book is as compelling and moving as a novel but has the intent and theoretical depth of serious scholarship. A must read for anyone interested in migration and the borders that are constructed to restrain it, Illegality Inc focuses our attention not so much on the African migrants who attempt to reach Southern Europe but on the ways in which ‘illegality’ is both discursively and practically brought into being and the industry of prevention, control and humanitarianism that has grown up around it."—Katy Gardner, Professor of Anthropology at the London School of Economics and Political Science
