BOOKMONGER
Borders as the cause of crisis?
British Columbia writer explores history of country borders
Maybe you’ve seen world maps that put
north at the bottom and south at the top. For
those of us who have grown up in the U.S
during this blip in time when the country
is a dominant world power, such maps can
challenge our perceptions.
Similarly, a new book, “Border & Rule,”
also turns the world on its head — possi-
bly along with our ingrained notions. The
book’s author is Harsha Walia, an immi-
grant rights organizer in Canada who lives
in Vancouver, British Columbia.
“Border & Rule” is about world geogra-
phy, and economic, political and social sys-
tems around the globe. These systems have
developed over time, both theoretical and
practical frameworks that have been cod-
ifi ed into laws. These laws impact — and
sometimes determine — a broad range of
humanity’s daily activities: where we live,
how we gain access to water and food, how
we educate children, what medical services
are available to us and how we treat one
another.
Walia considers all of this through the
lens of migrant and refugee crises that are
happening worldwide. She covers massive
displacements and global migrations —
the Rohingya from Burma to Bangladesh;
Africans to Europe and Australia; Central
Americans and Mexicans to the U.S; Asian
migrant workers to the oil-rich Gulf states
— at the feet of “systems of power that cre-
ate migrants yet criminalize migration.”
This, she says, is capitalism.
Walia asserts that having borders “simul-
taneously monetized and militarized —
This Week’s Book
‘Border & Rule’ by Harsha Walia
Haymarket Books — 320 pp — $19.95
open to capital but closed to people” is no
accident. In a capitalist system, migrant
worker programs are “carceral regimes”
where workers have limited rights and are
expected to work for substandard pay.
This situation didn’t happen overnight.
Walia traces how this is a consequence of a
long history of violent territorial expansion,
which often had race-based implications,
including the elimination or subjugation
of native populations and in some cases
— such as the U.S — the prolonged use of
enslaved labor.
Walia ties these histories to the rise of
racist-based nationalism, which is manifest-
ing in different forms throughout the world.
Climate change is a new and exacer-
bating factor in this ongoing story of dan-
gerous inequality and destabilized popu-
lations. From sea level rise to increasingly
extreme weather events, unprecedented
numbers of people are forced to abandon
their homelands.
“Decarbonizing would necessarily
require demilitarization, decarceration, and
decolonization because the climate crisis is
a symptom and not the cause of our existen-
tial crisis,” Walia writes.
Lay readers may fi nd the language in
Walia’s vigorous critique to bog down
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sometimes into verbose anti-capitalist rhet-
oric but “Border & Rule” offers many
provocative views worth serious consid-
eration. Still, it’s interesting that in this
far-ranging analysis, China and Russia get
a pass. Granted, they are decidedly not par-
agons of capitalism, which is one of the tar-
gets of Walia’s argument. But in any dis-
cussion about the problems of borders, rules
and labor, how can these two aggressive
players on the world stage be overlooked?
The Bookmonger is Barbara Lloyd
McMichael, who writes this weekly column
focusing on the books, authors and publish-
ers of the Pacifi c Northwest. Contact her at
bkmonger@nwlink.com