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Rosemary Sales' intention here is primarily to provide an apposite text for students and researchers, one which offers broad explanations, theoretical and otherwise, on a range of themes within the context of immigration policy formation. The controversies surrounding the nature of UK immigration debates, a global theme of course, have clearly helped in defining its national policy, particularly in a post-9/11 world, and even more so in a post-7/7 UK context - which is Sales' starting point - where one is concerned with border security.
Reading the book today in light of recent developments noted below, only serves to underscore the detailed attention Sales' gives to the dehumanising (as well as the cyclical sacrificing) impact that immigration policies have had on the situational experiences of those least able to protect themselves by virtue of being those most disenfranchised groups in society, namely refugees and asylum seekers.
For example just one year ago, PM incumbent Gordon Brown unveiled his new national security strategy, with the new UK Border Agency being given new powers of arrest and the power to monitor all of the population. Just one week ago, Phil Woolas, the Immigration Secretary, unveiled his latest measure for population control, a new points-based immigration system, by a government attempting to curb UK population levels reaching 70 million. 'Fortress Europe' (p. 121) has reared its head, and serves as the framework within which the justification for...