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9781409409755

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'Drawing on extensive ethnography and literature on psychology, desire, sexuality and masculinity, this book sheds new light on the migrant experience. Ahmad builds a brilliantly subversive critique of fashionable models of migration, debunking neoliberal optimism, transnationalism and social capitalism. A refreshingly original analysis of labour migration into the underworld of the European economy.' Russell King, Sussex University, UK 'Whatever direction migration studies take, the way scholars and policy makers conceive of the causes and consequences of male migration will have to include considerations about desire and sexuality. Identifying the link between sexuality, labour process and the persistence of patriarchal social relations, which this study does so brilliantly, is key to accounting for contemporary global migrations.' Rutvica Andrijasevic, University of Leicester, UK 'Ahmad takes seriously what has been called 'migration culture', setting out a new and original theoretical model that sheds light on why so many thousands of young men from Pakistani Punjab have set out in the last decades for an increasingly perilous journey across central Asia to the West... His data are intimate and sustained, which is itself a considerable achievement given the level of familiarity needed for an illegal migrant to speak trustingly about his situation... it is very strong on human smuggling, travel, transit and the new migrant economies in Europe, and offers richer analysis of any of these areas than any other work I can think of.' Journal of Punjab Studies 'The writing is both articulate and engaging... In many ways the author helps to fill a gap in the migration literature by providing a more complete picture of migration practices. In summation, this is a must read for any scholar interested in a novel approach to the study of migration and the application of psychoanalytic theory to the investigation of migration practices. Further, the commentary on where migration studies currently stand and its future makes this book appropriate for those who have no prior knowledge of research on migration.' Contemporary Sociology 'Ali Nobil Ahmad, [...] argues that even scholarly work fails to account for motives other than economic or conflict-induced ones. The manner in which analysis is conducted in most sociological studies of migration networks and transnational economic practices effectively bypasses the individual; it assumes all actors within the 'migration network' to be objective rational actors... Most do not address the question of motivation in sending contexts at all. His book, Masculinity, Sexuality and Illegal Migration: Human Smuggling from Pakistan to Europe, is of a quality that is markedly missing in the current discourse on the issue. ... Not only is it grossly unfair to deny illegal migrants other motives than those mentioned in the EU's handbook of asylum laws, it also dangerously bypasses a genuine solution to the real problem. And sometimes, daring publications like Ali Nobil Ahmad's, especially considering that the issue has been around for decades, are long overdue.' Dawn Pakistan

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Ali Nobil Ahmad is Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at Lahore University of Management Sciences, Pakistan

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