New Books In European Studies

From London to Rome, Paris to Stockholm, there is no other contemporary issue that can move the general public’s political needle quite so quickly as immigration. In the seas between Libya and Malta, Tunisia and Italy, hundreds risk the crossing to a presumably new and better life, and many of those hundreds lose their lives in doing so. Many more try to enter from Turkey to Greece and Bulgaria, from Belarus and Ukraine to Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Latvia, and from Morocco up across the treacherous waters of the Gates of Hercules to Spain. Others crowd into internal pinch points within the EU, such as the port of Calais, just a few watery miles from the white cliffs of Dover. Matthew Carr‘s excellent book – Fortress Europe: Dispatches from a Gated Continent (New Press/Hurst, 2012) – is an attempt to make sense of this gigantic issue. He is a journalist, so there are compelling human stories involving those making the hopeful and often fateful journeys. There is also a comprehensive