DOMICIDE: Architecture, War and Destruction of Home in Syria

Ammar Azzouz. 2023. London: Bloomsbury Visual Arts. 176 pages. ISBN 9781350248106 (hardback); ISBN 9781350248113 (ebook).

Over one-third of the housing stock and half of the neighborhoods have been destroyed in the Syrian city of Homs. Homs is known as the “Capital of the Revolution,” for its consistent and large-scale protests, in which Syrians took to the city's streets in a brave attempt to overthrow Bashar Al-Assad and his regime. Azzouz's moving book is about this city—in which he grew up—and about its destruction.

He explores this destruction through the concept of domicide, the “planned, deliberate destruction of home causing suffering to the dwellers” (Porteous and Smith 2001: 19), which “tends to reinforce existing socio-spatial struggles of segregation, inequality and oppressions” (14). Crucially, while there has been a catastrophic loss of homes in Homs since 2011, Azzouz locates this destruction in a longer narrative and history of the city, insisting not only that domicide can exist in times of both “peace” and war but also that understanding the destruction during wartime—and reconstruction “after” it—can require an understanding of the dynamics of the earlier “peacetime.”

In the latter part of the first decade of the twenty-first century, for example, the “Homs Dream” project (known to many in the city as the “Homs Nightmare”) “called for the destruction of several parts of the city” in favor of high-rise buildings and city plans aligned with the interests of wealthy donors, particularly from the Gulf (36). After the mass destruction of Homs in the intervening years, the city council announced that the Homs Dream “has not been cancelled but will be edited and worked on for the future reconstruction” (107). This analysis allows us to see how “domicidal plans,” with similar focus and priorities as prewar attempts to reshape the city “emerge in the name of ‘redevelopment’ and ‘reconstruction’” (122). Many interpret the incident with which the book opens—a 2013 fire in the council building, which houses the city's housing, land, and property records—in the context of these long-standing schemes of dispossession.

In contrast to these elite-oriented projects, Azzouz's book takes the time and care to engage with the perspectives of non-elites, for whom the destruction of their homes is also an assault on their dignity, identity, and belonging (135). He explores how Homsis’ lives are deeply entwined with the city and reflects on their experiences of displacement within and beyond it (chapter 2). This is just part of the intricate detail of Homs's history and character that the book provides, and this rich, textured description, despite its often bleak subject matter, is a very rewarding experience for the reader. We learn, for example, about Homs's old city and squares, its art centers and architecture departments, and perhaps most poignantly its famous black and white clock tower, which has been both a site of a massacre and a revolutionary symbol that is reconstructed in exile (82).

His book also offers a critique of—and an antidote to—much knowledge production on Syria. As Azzouz notes, a lot of this work has been extractive, far removed from affected communities and disproportionately focused on the destruction and protection of Syria's monuments and ancient heritage, “in separation and isolation” from Syrians themselves (10). Simultaneously, he passionately denounces the academics in Homs who discourage students from undertaking their graduation projects on the rehabilitation of the city and the gap between the perspectives and priorities of the architects of his home city and the communities that live there. This gap, he details, has widened even further since 2011. In contrast, Domicide is a very generous book, profiling the work and experiences of many of Azzouz's interlocutors, who, along with Azzouz, tell their stories not only through words, but through artwork, maps, sketches, and photographs.

While focused on Homs, Domicide examines other areas in Syria (notably Damascus) but also brings in examples from a wide range of contexts including Lebanon, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Spain, and the former Yugoslavia. As I write this review in November 2023, however, it is the comparison with the Gaza Strip that is most prominent in my mind, as Israel inflicts upon it an unprecedented campaign of violence. In only three weeks, according to the United Nations, Israel destroyed or damaged more than 40 percent of the housing units in the Gaza Strip. While of course the situation in Gaza and Palestine is different in many important ways from that of Homs and Syria, the Israeli regime's violence—like the Syrian regime's destruction of Homs—comes in a wider context of attempts to dispossess people of their homes and land. It demonstrates, tragically, the continuing relevance of Azzouz's work beyond the Syrian case he explores and the vital importance of the insights he shares in Domicide.

Lewis Turner

School of Geography, Politics and Sociology, Newcastle University

TAHRIIB – Journeys into the Unknown. An Ethnography of Uncertainty in Migration

Anja Simonsen. 2023. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan. 228 pages. ISSN 2662-2602

A group of young women take to the water to cool off in the afternoon heat. They are alone on the beach, swimming in the sea. Four of them hesitantly, the fifth with confident ease. Back on the shore, they spot two other women determinedly practicing long-distance swimming. The beach is located just outside the town of Berbera on the coast of Somaliland in the Gulf of Aden. The confident swimmer is anthropologist Anja Simonsen, accompanied by four Somali friends, while the two other women are preparing for irregular migration toward Europe, where swimming skills increase the chances of crossing the Mediterranean alive.

The scene is found in Simonsen's moving book Tahriib – Journeys into the Unknown. An Ethnography of Uncertainty in Migration that examines irregular migration of young Somalis toward Europe, known as tahriib in Somali. Focusing on perceptions, practices, and positions of and in relation to tahriib, Simonsen has followed several young men and women during 11 months of ethnographic fieldwork in Somaliland, Greece, Turkey, and Italy. The result is a fine and insightful analysis of how migration, ideas about the future, hopes and dreams develop over time and place.

Tahriib includes nine chapters, all of which (except for the introduction and conclusion) commence with a Somali proverb. This sets a framework for the book and, at the same time, serves as a poetic and respectful nod to the rich Somali oral tradition. Three overarching theoretical and analytical themes are central to the book: futures, hope, and return migration, with migration and mobility as a common thread. Simonsen is present in the text as an ethnographer, reflecting critically on the inequalities which fieldwork illuminates: how different living conditions create different frameworks for being a young man or woman who wants more from life than what is locally possible.

One of the most important points of the book is that tahriib is about using your time in the best way possible. This means that in the eyes of some young people, it may be more useful to spend time preparing for migration by searching and comparing information rather than taking up physically hard and/or low-paid labor—for those who have that option. Economic resources and family ties hence shape tahriib. Furthermore, whereas public and political debates often portray irregular migration as an expression of despair or ignorance, young Somalis reverse the picture.

Accordingly, Simonsen analyzes young people's hopes and migration practices as an expression of avoiding so-called social death, understood as a lack of prospect for dreaming of—and realizing—a meaningful life. Being able to provide for one's family and experience prosperity and progress in life constitute an important part of such meaningfulness. For many young Somalis this seems to be best realized in Europe, while Somaliland—a patriarchal society where older men dominate and youth unemployment is high—appears stagnant and with few opportunities for young people. An important point, however, is that Europe is not necessarily the final destination but a means to obtaining opportunities and qualifications that can be translated into a meaningful future in Somaliland.

As Simonsen writes in the conclusion, the phenomenon of tahriib—understood as wanting to seize life, seek a meaningful future, and be able to care for one's family—is universally relatable. It is not a specific Somali phenomenon but a striving that is recognizable to many of us, including those who hold passports that facilitate safe and authorized border crossing. This is an important point that is also found in migration research from other parts of Africa and the world. That said, widespread mobility and willingness to move are prominent elements in narratives of Somali culture and nomadism. Simonsen begins chapter 2 with Calaf waa labo cagood—happiness is two feet (25). However, as this book shows, access to safe and legal migration is not universal but unevenly distributed. The ways young Somalis migrate, the risks they face along the way, including extortion, torture, and death, and the risk of being stranded—social death—in Europe or elsewhere without being able to move forward, are embedded in the migration regime of the EU with militarized borders, asylum camps, and biometric identification, as Tahriib also demonstrates.

Tahriib is a beautifully written and recommendable book, constituting an important contribution to the literature. It illustrates why and how young people embark on tahriib—that it is meaningful to them, despite the ob- vious and well-known risk factors. Simonsen delivers ethnographic sensibility in combination with analytical curiosity and a theoretically well-founded analytical gaze, without pointing fingers or romanticizing. In other words, Tahriib deserves to be widely read for several reasons: it is an excellent ethnography as well as a very good introduction to theoretical discussions of migration, hopes and dreams of the future that remain relevant questions in an unequal world.

Nauja Kleist

Danish Institute for International Studies

BORDER NATION: A Story of Migration

Leah Cowan, 2021. London: Pluto Press. 167 pages. ISBN 9780745341071 paperback, ISBN 9781786807038 (ebook)

In Border Nation, Leah Cowan explains the imperative need to break down borders through a powerful case study of the United Kingdom's borders, from imperial times to the present day. She calls for resistance and for the abolition of borders in their current forms.

While she lays out, chapter after chapter, the violence inherent in borders and in their reinforcement, she also gives both personal and historical perspectives to remind us of the role of individuals in advocating against the harm of borders. Cowan writes as much for the silenced migrants as for those who hold a status of privilege and power. She reminds the reader not to be complicit and to recognize instead that with privilege comes the responsibility to take down what reinforces inequalities, conflict, and harm in our world.

One line from the first chapter illustrates her direct tone and style and her ability to call out uncomfortable truths, not in an attempt to make readers feel guilty or ignorant but to invite readers to join a collective, human cause. She awakes the reader in the introduction by saying: “if you have never felt the surveilling eye and iron fist of borders, it does not mean borders are not violent weapons; it means that your privilege enables you to circumnavigate the gleaming edge of their blade” (7).

The 149 pages of this book are an easy read despite the complexity of the topics discussed: the structural forms of violence, at the hands of states and given states’ lack of interest to diffuse borders and with the blessing of the media. As a former editor and writer, she calls out the biased treatment of borders by Western media and the fact that they reinforce dominant narratives, ones that are far removed from those of migrants themselves. In this, the book is entirely decolonial and advocates for a new lens.

Borders as Colonialism, Capitalism, and Sexism

Cowan's book is a carefully crafted reminder that borders are one of the most violent remnants of colonialism and of the worst of capitalism: a few powerful elites—states, international corporations, and others—are reproducing white heterosexual dominant norms at the expense of migrant communities, of diverse sexual orientations and gender identities, of unprotected labor, further enlarging divisions instead of addressing them. She shows how the power of these elites is used to silence those that it seeks to govern and profit from.

Her most powerful tool against this is to take back ownership of narratives, to recreate new narratives to counter the overwhelming efforts to silence migrants. She recognizes her own privilege and calls others with the same privilege to record their personal histories, draft and share narratives that are not the dominant narratives of migrants as played out in popular discourse and in the media. She reminds us throughout the book that migrants are not victims but that they are being silenced. She links her book to the need for recognition of and accountability to her ancestors’ past, and the forms of contemporary resistance that need to be upheld.

Modern Slavery and State Violence

In a context where the UK has been advocating for the end of modern slavery, she shows the contradictions and the paradoxes of their policies. Just ahead of the introduction of the Modern Slavery Act, she shows how public policies shifted to make it harder for migrant workers to change jobs and to simply be able to choose what is best for them, entrapping them in new forms of exploitation. She states that borders set the stage for human trafficking, thereby reinforcing modern forms of slavery.

She returns to important events in recent history that made headlines—such as the tragic death of 39 people from Vietnam called the Essex 39—where the media covered the “story” without humanizing the many stories of the individuals who lost their lives in inhumane circumstances because they had no other recourse to legally travel. She shows how the risks of migration do not stop at these headlines. She shares stories of many invisible migrants, one of them too scared to go to the general practitioner for health treatment, without legal status, forcing them to suffer or die from health risks that could have been treated. Migrants have internalized the borders that prevent them from accessing services, and from accessing their basic human rights.

A Culture of Silence around Detention and Deportations

One of the final chapters is dedicated to the violence—and costliness—of detention and deportation. She shares with a general audience what they may not know: the existence of detention centers, invisible to the public eye yet spread out across the UK, where the government can detain 25,000 individuals a year, without any trial and at times, indefinitely. She explains that detention centers become lands where the law does not apply, an administrative process. She shows how states use these centers, as spaces of exception where rights are ignored, as immigration statuses supersede all other considerations. The presence of these centers is well known to migrants who live in fear of being arrested or their documents checked at any time; even those with pending residency applications could be subject to detention in the UK, and foreigners who sleep rough could be subject to deportation. She shows how the rise of these detention centers has been planned over several Immigration Acts, hand in hand with the decrease in asylum rights. She documents those who lost their lives in detention, whose mental health deteriorated severely, as their lives remained in limbo and their ability to speak annulled in the face of the immediate threat of deportation.

This brings us to the present day. Cowan shows us that before discussions of offshoring asylum treatment to Rwanda, in recent years, the UK government had planned to delocalize these detention centers to Jamaica and Nigeria. In 2015, Cowan reminds us, Prime Minister David Cameron had vetted a deal to build a prison in Jamaica where those in the UK could serve their prison sentence. These processes went hand in hand with mass deportations to Jamaica, bringing detention and migration response closer together. This consolidated a shift, she explains, of the criminalization of migrant lives. The oppression that borders bring is rooted in the same ideologies that once allowed slavery and colonialism to happen. This is why she makes such a compelling case that resisting borders and calling for “no borders” is not just about the physical borders. It is about fighting racism, violence, and oppression, and about upholding human rights.

She concludes on a series of common questions and invites us to keep this conversation an open and a continuous one, both as a means to heal from oppressive and violent systems as for the hope of creating new responses to these challenges.

Nassim Majidi

Founder and co-director of Samuel Hall, http://www.samuelhall.org

Research Associate Tufts University (USA) and Wits University (South Africa)

THE REFUGEE SYSTEM: A Sociological Approach

Rawan Arar and David Scott FitzGerald. 2023. Cambridge: Polity Press. 316 pages. ISBN 9781509542796

How would migration policy, programming, and research be transformed if analysis shifted away from dominant disciplinary siloed ap- proaches? In The Refugee System: A Sociological Approach, Rawan Arar and David Scott FitzGerald creatively engage with an alterna- tive perspective, rooted in systems that connect individuals to policies and power structures. By changing the focus and methods of analysis, The Refugee System also disrupts long-standing assumptions and assertions, like references to “crisis” and exaggerated “unprecedented” displacement numbers that mix stocks and flows.

The book is structured in seven substantive chapters bookended by the introduction, which lays out the authors’ systems approach, and the conclusion, which proposes recommendations, including the need for refugee- centered protection. Chapter 2 delves into the debates and challenges of definitions, with a particularly well-articulated critique of the migrant–refugee binary. Chapter 3 demonstrates how norms, laws and institutions governing forced migration have evolved over time and space. The next chapter—chapter 4—using the Asfour family as an example, is a fine-grained analysis of individual and collective decision-making around migration and the ways these decisions to stay or go are linked to broader processes and structures. This chapter empirically demonstrates the theoretical salience of a systems approach to displacement. Chapter 5, on exit, offers a typology of state goals, which both provoke and constrain mobility. The next chapter focuses on states in “global souths” (plural) who host the majority of the world's refugees but who have not necessarily committed to Eurocentric norms and regimes. Chapter 7 analyzes the rationale for hosting refugees from a state perspective, with particular at- tention to how power inequities determine varying levels and means of protection. The final substantive chapter again profiles the Asfour family to illustrate the importance of transnational connections and ties to home and homelands.

Far-ranging and both deep and broad in its research, this book covers historical events as well as contemporary migration from legal, political, social, and economic perspectives. It is a key resource for students, scholars and policymakers seeking a comprehensive analysis of how decision-making structures operate at individual, family, community, state, and transnational levels. This multi-scalar approach is a particularly refreshing counterpoint to siloed thinking that dominates discussions and analysis of migration.

Zooming in and out on the story of the Asfour family, who cross multiple borders and confront different systems and policies, The Refugee System connects individuals to broader power structures. Indeed, the book carefully shows how power inequalities un- derpin systems and structural constraints, but also how people in situations of displacement exercise their agency—individually and collectively—to navigate dynamic migration decision-making contexts. Arar and FitzGerald's analysis is particularly strong in demonstrating the interconnectedness of global and individual events through feedback loops and other decision-making mechanisms.

Their carefully constructed systems ap- proach is a major contribution to the field of migration studies. As they explain, “A systems approach shows how refugeedom—the relationship between refugees, state, and society—interacts with refugeehood—the experience of becoming and being a refugee” (6). While they build on others’ work, Arar and FitzGerald's systems approach is theoretically novel and empirically rich. It also has methodological and epistemological implications for the production of research and knowledge, challenging media framings of “crisis” and victimhood.

It is somewhat surprising, however, that the title of the book is The Refugee System (singular) when the authors so carefully analyze—in the first chapter and throughout the book—overlapping and heterogeneous systems (plural). Moreover, the use of “The Refugee” as an adjective can be essentializing and dehumanizing, which is clearly not the intent of the book, as articulated in the detailed discussion of labeling and categorization in chapter 2. While other factors and individuals (including marketing teams) are involved in deciding on a book title, it is unfortunate that the first impression of the book does not effectively communicate its rich, nuanced, and transformative arguments.

Indeed, The Refugee System is a transformative book, which is destined to become a widely cited and discussed contribution to migration studies. It challenges students, scholars, and policymakers to think differently about how migration decisions—at individual, family, community, state, and global levels—are intertwined and embedded within broader power structures and histories.

Christina Clark-Kazak, Professor, University of Ottawa

CONTINENTAL ENCAMPMENT: Genealogies of Humanitarian Containment in the Middle East and Europe

Are John Knudsen and Kjersti G. Berg, eds.2023. Berghahn Books. 332 pages. ISBN 9781800738454 (ebook)

Over the past decade, Syria's displacement crisis has positioned the Middle East as a primary global host for refugees. Meanwhile, the European Union's efforts to curb outward migration and repatriate those who manage to leave have created a zone of humanitarian containment, restricting the movement of millions within the region.

The book Continental Encampment: Genealogies of Humanitarian Containment in the Middle East and Europe edited by Are John Knudsen and Kjersti G. Berg, combines historiography and contemporary ethnography to offer a new understanding of refugee politics in the Middle East within the context of humanitarian containment practices adopted by the European Union. The book is organized into nine core chapters that guide readers through the development of humanitarian containment, tracing its roots from the days of the Ottoman Empire and the inception of refugee camps to the contemporary “crises” of displacement and the reinforcement of borders in Europe.

In the first three chapters, the authors delve into the historical context of humanitarian practices and refugee management since the late Ottoman Empire (Dawn Chatty), the establishment of refugee camps in Iraq during the British colonial mandate (Benjamin White), and the historical evolution of refugee camps, focusing particularly on the Palestinian context and the role of UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency) (Kjersti Berg). By tracing the history of humanitarian encampments, the first section incites readers to consider whether contemporary humanitarian practices could leverage lessons from the past to gain a better understanding of the complex factors that have shaped present-day humanitarian governance and containment approaches.

The following chapters (4, 5, and 6) present case studies on Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon, offering insight into the Middle East's development into a containment zone aimed at “preventing refugees and migrants from reaching Europe,” and showcasing humanitarian containment as an innovative “durable solution” to mass migration (34). These chapters not only integrate narratives from the field, illustrating the refugee experience, but also describe various elements and characteristics of containment observed by the authors in each case study. In chapter 4, Kamel Doraï and Pauline Piraud-Fournet provide examples of how aid secures refugee containment in Jordan through the concept of “asylum rent,” resulting in limited mobility and settlement options. Chapter 5, authored by Sophia Hoffman, addresses the politics of encampment and the role of humanitarian organizations such as UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) in shaping the conditions for encampment, even in settings without formal refugee camps, taking the example of Iraqi refugees in Syria. Hoffman presents a critical perspective on how easily humanitarian priorities may be folded into repressive politics of exclusion through the establishment of parallel systems of migration management. In the sixth chapter, Are John Knudsen, delves into urban informality in Lebanon, highlighting how humanitarian aid perpetuates spatial containment within urban poverty, introducing the notion of “urban architectures of containment” (202).

The last section includes three chapters that focus on the European Union's externalization strategy and the re-bordering practices that transformed host countries in the Middle East into permanent encampment zones and buffer states for Europe. The authors examine the journey of refugees to Europe, where they navigate through challenging and unpredictable conditions.

In chapter 7, the concept of the “biopolitical buffer zone” is explored in the context of displacement, with a particular focus on Syrian refugees in Turkey. Rebecca Bryant argues that containment is not only spatial but also temporal, as the refugees’ anticipation of returning home creates institutional and structural barriers to planning their future. Chapters 8 and 9, authored by Synnøve Kristine Nepstad Bendixsen and Antonio De Lauri, delve into the intricate interplay among migration policies, border practices, and the experiences of migrants along the Balkan Route and in Lampedusa. The authors analyze how these dynamics shape the crisis narrative, ultimately disrupting the migrants’ journeys and their presence in Europe.

Overall, this book offers a comprehensive theoretical and empirical analysis of the politics of containment in the Middle East, providing an analytical framework that can prove valuable in understanding similar dynamics in other regions. With its interdisciplinary approach, the book appeals not only to migration scholars but also to urban anthropologists and policymakers. Throughout the book, the editors ensure a logical and seamless flow of arguments, helping readers better understand the various elements of humanitarian containment discussed in each chapter.

Yet, the book falls short of thoroughly addressing the complexities and potential repercussions of this approach, particularly in the context of the Middle East. It prompts readers to contemplate the sustainability of this strategy, especially in situations where host countries leverage the refugee situation to gain political concessions and additional funding from the EU. While effectively illuminating the intricacies of humanitarian containment, the book leaves readers yearning for a more comprehensive exploration of the long-term implications and efficacy of the EU's approach.

A concluding chapter that consolidates the various containment strategies discussed by individual scholars would have been valuable. This chapter could offer a taxonomy of continental encampment, providing a comprehensive guide for comprehending and studying the genealogies of humanitarian containment in other regions, while also anticipating its potential long-term implications.

Josiane Matar

University of Oxford

WE THOUGHT IT WOULD BE HEAVEN: Refugees in an Unequal America

Blair Sackett and Annette Lareau. 2023. Berkeley: University of California Press. 291 pages. ISBN 9780520976504

We Thought It Would Be Heaven: Refugees in an Unequal America traces the poignant journeys of Congolese refugees escaping the tumultuous civil conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Their odyssey leads them from the United Nations’ refugee camps in East Africa to the suburbs of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Employing rich ethnographic fieldwork and interviews spanning four years, the authors weave a narrative that offers readers a broad and multigenerational account of Congolese refugees’ experiences of displacement and resettlement in the United States. Each chapter unfolds with the story of a different refugee family, revealing their everyday struggles and shedding light on the gaps and limitations of the current US refugee reception system. Contrary to their expectations, the refugees encounter a complex and inadequate welfare and immigration system, compounded by systemic racial biases and structural inequalities that set them up for failure. By meticulously detailing how these families experienced the reception of refugees, this book uniquely contributes to ongoing public and scholarly debates on refugees and forced migrants in the United States.

The authors contend that organizations designed to assist refugees often hinder them, creating complex obstacles, errors, and challenges that impede access to promised resettlement and welfare resources. They identify different levels of obstacles and categorize them as hurdles, knots, and reverberations. Hurdles represent problems arising from formal institutional rules or requirements, knots involve inefficiencies and errors that emerge within organizational workflows, and reverberations denote interconnected problems spreading through multiple institutions (7). These obstacles, coupled with refugees’ lack of everyday know-how and skills in navigating them, create significant difficulties in accessing a range of institutions—not only the welfare institutions, but also many other public services as well as banking, transportation, education, and healthcare.

The book comprises an introduction, five empirical chapters, and a conclusion. The first chapter, “Journeys to America: Lots of Red Tape,” describes the circumstances leading to their flight and places in historical context their refugeehood in camps and in the United States. Chapters 2 and 3, “Hurdles and Knots Everywhere” and “Problems Reverberate,” vividly depict the abrupt, grueling, and traumatic conditions of resettlement through the stories of two families. These Congolese refugees with limited formal education cannot accustom themselves to normative social and bureaucratic expectations in the United States. The complexities of welfare provision for refugees at federal and state levels make it difficult for the Congolese families to navigate everyday encounters with institutions and their representatives, such as police officers, educators, probation officers, and so on. Additionally, these chapters detail how errors made by institutions create further problems for refugees and shed light on proposed analytical tools: hurdles, knots, and reverberations. Chapters 4 and 5, “How Cultural Brokers Help” and “The Power of People Doing Their Jobs,” showcase positive Congolese refugee resettlement experiences where local volunteers and helpful officers play pivotal roles in helping families overcome the challenges they face. These chapters illustrate how refugee families with modest educational and professional backgrounds achieve independence, livelihood success, and social mobility with the advice and help of cultural mediators and public service employees going above and beyond in their jobs. In these two different cases, refugee families become homeowners and provide better educational opportunities for their children through the support of their church and neighborhood volunteers as well as advise from social workers, educators, and bankers.

This book is a compelling read for migration and refugee scholars, and social work, public policy, and pre-law students interested in issues of refugee resettlement, social welfare, public work, and civic engagement in the United States. It not only reveals the institutional deficiencies of the welfare and resettlement provision to refugees but also highlights the indispensable role of cultural intermediaries. Blair Sackett and Annette Lareau introduce a novel analytical framework that enables researchers to delve into the workings of both public and civil society institutions. Throughout the text, they meticulously delineate how concepts such as knots, hurdles, reverberations, cultural brokers, and institutional insiders shape the experiences of refugees in varied ways. While the proposed analytical framework is immensely valuable and enriches ongoing discussions in both public and scholarly spheres regarding refugees and forced migrants in the Global North, certain instances in chapters 2 and 3 witness a blurring of boundaries between categories, potentially hindering rather than clarifying the reader's comprehension of complexities. Nonetheless, the book overall sheds light on often overlooked intricacies in accessing welfare, prompting a critical reassessment of local practices and expectations concerning refugees and marginalized communities. By challenging prevailing assumptions and spotlighting the bureaucratic challenges unique to the refugee experience, the authors underscore the significance of this work in understanding the accessibility of social safety nets and public services in the United States.

Ayda Apa Pomeshikov

University of Washington, Seattle