Bad news for refugees

Greg Philo, Emma Briant and Pauline Donald, Pluto Press, 224 pages, paperback, £16.99

As the Tories, UKIP and even the Labour Party strain to propose new curbs on immigration, why has the issue of asylum become such a hot topic?

The authors show how Western countries create many of the global problems but deny asylum to the victims. They show how most of the world’s refugees flee across the nearest border and are actually supported by some of the poorest countries.

The book discusses how terms such as “illegal immigrant”, “bogus asylum seeker” and “foreign criminals” are bandied about and words such as “floods”, “swamping” and “scrounger” appear with no evidence to support their use.

Through this approach we get to see the pernicious effects of unrelenting negative coverage. People are stigmatised, political policies are legitimsed and debate around the real problems facing the poor in times of extreme austerity is reduced.

It would be good if the book had perhaps devoted a bit more time to talking to some of the thousands of people who work with, and support, refugees both in the UK and across the world, to provide some antidote to the racism and reaction.

However, this is a great book that helps us all take on the arguments that appear daily in the press.

Reviews contributed by the Bookmarks socialist bookshop. Order online at www.bookmarksbookshop.co.uk