A Review of Making People Illegal: What Globalization Means for Migration and Law by Catherine Dauvergne

Catherine Dauvergne’s book, Making People Illegal: What Globalization Means for Migration and Law, is a study of the intersection between the phenomenon known as globalization and the evolution of migration law. Dauvergne’s central assertion is that migration law, accompanied by what she sees as the recent global crackdown on illegal migration, has become the “last bastion of sovereignty” for the nation-state in the face of the advancing forces of globalization. Dauvergne argues that, as more of the policy decisions that traditionally fall in the domain of national sovereign power enter the murky realm of globalization, nation-states have increasingly turned to their domestic migration laws as a way to shore up their borders—both physical and intangible—and thus to reassert their national identities. This reassertion of nation-states’ weakening sovereignty serves as a barrier to meaningful progress in fighting illegal migration because it “contributes to failures of policy, law, and imagination” by discouraging creative proposals that seek to detach migration policy from domestic legal frameworks. Where Dauvergne’s book remains focused on developing this argument, it is compelling, original, persuasive, and generally successful.