Border Nation: A Story of Migration (Outspoken by Pluto)

161 Pages·2021·1.376 MB·English

by  Leah Cowan

Border Nation
Outspoken by Pluto
Series Editor: Neda Tehrani
Platforming underrepresented voices; intervening in important
political issues; revealing powerful histories and giving voice
to our experiences; Outspoken by Pluto is a book series unlike
any other. Unravelling debates on feminism and class, work and
borders, unions and climate justice, this series has the answers
to the questions you’re asking. These are books that dissent.
Also available:
Mask Off
Masculinity Redefined
JJ Bola
Behind Closed Doors
Sex Education Transformed
Natalie Fiennes
Lost in Work
Escaping Capitalism
Amelia Horgan
Feminism, Interrupted
Disrupting Power
Lola Olufemi
Split
Class Divides Uncovered
Ben Tippet
Border Nation
A Story of Migration
Leah Cowan
First published 2021 by Pluto Press
345 Archway Road, London N6 5AA
www.plutobooks.com
Copyright © Leah Cowan 2021
The right of Leah Cowan to be identified as the author of this work
has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act 1988.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978 0 7453 4107 1 Paperback
ISBN 978 1 7868 0702 1 PDF eBook
ISBN 978 1 7868 0704 5 Kindle eBook
ISBN 978 1 7868 0703 8 EPUB eBook
Typeset by Stanford DTP Services, Northampton, England
To my grandmothers

Contents
Acknowledgements viii
Introduction: Why break down borders? 1
1. In the shadow of the British Empire 11
2. Whitewashing and the myth of the migrant ‘outsider’ 21
3. Why should migrants contribute? 42
4. Building borders through headlines and column inches 50
5. Everyday borders and de facto border guards 74
6. The violence of detention and deportation 98
7. Big business and the ‘profit motive’ for borders 111
8. Borderlands of resistance 126
Conclusion: Living beyond borders 141
Acknowledgements
Thank you to the team at Pluto, in particular to Neda, for your
precision, patience and enthusiasm, and to my agent Millie for her
ongoing guidance.
Thank you to those who have encouraged me to keep writing.
My parents and sisters have provided unwavering support; Patrice
Lawrence played a pivotal role in setting me on the road. Thank you
to everyone who spoke to me formally and informally for this book,
including my grandad, O.K. Cowan.
Thank you to the Society of Authors for granting me the John C.
Lawrence award which enabled me to take two unpaid months off
work to finish this book.
Thank you to Micha Frazer for your voice notes and dedicated
unionising, a true comrade. Thank you Tamara-Jade and Marissa
for your wise inputs – you’re still the smartest people I know. Thank
you to the team at Anamot Press for your somewhat relentless
encouragement.
I am inspired and informed by the writers, thinkers and
organisers who are working to break down Britain’s borders in
different ways: UKBLM, JCWI, SOAS Detainee Support Group
(SDS), Marai Larasi, Dorett Jones, Neha Kagal, Huda Jawad, Luke
de Noronha, Empty Cages Collective, Community Action on Prison
Expansion (CAPE), Docs not Cops, Corporate Watch, Anti-raids
Network, Sisters Uncut, United Families & Friends Campaign
(UFFC), the London Campaign Against Police and State Violence
(LCAPSV), North East London Migrant Action (NELMA), and the
New Economy Organisers Network (NEON).
To Daisy, Delia and Soraya: I am eternally grateful for your
love and care.
Introduction
Why break down
borders?
‘Another world is possible beyond the plunder, exploitation
and expropriation that are the bedrock of liberal democracies.’
– Akwugo Emejulu and Francesca Sobande
‘To struggle for a world without borders is to have hope . . . is
to think that human beings can do better, and we do deserve
better.’ – Bridget Anderson
Borders are indisputably sites of violence. Borders create citizens
and non-citizens, ‘aliens’ and nationals, undocumented people
and sans papiers, ‘foreigners’ and expats. Borders segregate, cate-
gorise and dehumanise us. They are the product of long histories
of injustice, which means that we – our, flesh, bones and the
very breath which keeps us alive – can be crudely termed ‘illegal’
in the eyes of the law. The phrase, ‘illegal immigrant’, which in
Britain creeps from newspaper headlines to state policies and
back again, encourages us to believe that we can be a violation of
law and order as it is sold to us.
However, laws and order are not objective truths, and borders
have not always existed. Immigration laws, for example, are ideas
crafted in the imaginations of the powerful to maintain their
position and preserve the world as they like it. Borders are not
real. The criminal ‘justice’ system and its agents such as border
1