Paper Trails

“The rich collection of case studies in Paper Trails reminds us that states have increasingly refined their surveillance techniques. A must-read for anyone interested in how the issuing of the identifications and documents that pervade our everyday lives give states power over the populations—both citizens and immigrants—they govern.” — Leo R. Chavez, author of The Latino Threat: Constructing Immigrants, Citizens, and the Nation

“Offering a unique way to think about the materiality of immigrant life and the ways that papers shape migrants' identities, experiences, rights, and sense of belonging, this volume tells a compelling story about the need to center documents in the study of international migration.” — Leisy J. Abrego, coeditor of We Are Not Dreamers: Undocumented Scholars Theorize Undocumented Life in the United States

“Documents, or ‘papers,’ both reflect and help construct a global reality of heightened border policing and profound socioeconomic inequality. By powerfully illuminating the work that documents do in producing the state and people of unequal status, and the tactics people employ to contest citizenship-related forms of exclusion, Paper Trails provides valuable tools for those engaged in the struggle to realize a more just world.” — Joseph Nevins, author of Dying to Live: A Story of U.S. Immigration in an Age of Global Apartheid