Partha Ghosh's Migrants, Refugees and the Stateless in South Asia is an ambitious book that seeks to describe the patterns of migration in South Asia and explain their impact on receiving countries in terms of politics, culture, and concerns over national security. The strength of the book lies in the vast amount of information it provides. Anyone interested in population transfers and the relevant politics in South Asia would find this book to be a good resource: it contains migration data, outlines the relevant laws and regulations that pertain to migration, details how each South Asian country has responded to various forms of migration, and provides accounts of the range of relationships between different migrant groups and receiving states.

Ghosh suggests that in contrast to the extant West-centric literature on migration, collective historical memory and the associated trauma of violence are integral to understanding why communities in the subcontinent are often suspicious of one another. Ghosh asserts that this is what creates new waves of violence, which in turn cause people to flee to neighboring states in search of safety among co-ethnics. South Asia is hardly unique in experiencing collective violence and grappling with the collective memory of trauma many years on. What does make South Asia unique, perhaps, is that it serves as a microcosm of global migration, since it is home to all kinds of migrants with varying claims to citizenship and belonging. Ghosh's contribution lies in delineating each case to show the often contradictory stances states take in treating migrants.

While much of the book is about the lay of the land, chapters 2 and 3—on the political and security connections, respectively—form the analytical base of the book. Chapter 2 examines how migrants and migration impacted central and local politics in India, specifically left politics, caste politics, and urban developmental projects. Chapter 3 examines the “refugee warrior” phenomenon popularized by Gil Loescher in the context of Samuel Huntington's notion of the “clash of civilizations,” which in the South Asian case requires an analysis of border issues. Ghosh argues that although migration is not traditionally seen as a military threat, militant migrant groups have posed a security threat. Kashmiris, Maoists with cross-border ties in Nepal, and “illegal Bangladeshis” in India are well-known examples, but also included in this group would be Nepali migrants in Bhutan, Afghan refugees in Pakistan, Rohingyas in Bangladesh, and so on, all of whom have organized as militant groups, sometimes with links to terrorist groups, thereby posing a security threat to the receiving country.

Bengalis feature prominently in these two chapters, whether it is in analyzing the popularity of the Hindu Mahasabha in Bengal following partition; “illegal” Bangladeshis in Assam, West Bengal, and Delhi; refugees from East Pakistan during Bangladesh's War of Independence; Chakma refugees in Mizoram; Biharis in Bangladesh; or the recent (2015) swapping of border enclaves between India and Bangladesh. It is refreshing to see Bangladesh receive this degree of attention, but as the book is based on secondary sources and the migration literature on Bangladesh and Bangladeshis is quite limited, Ghosh gives in to the popular (even populist) rhetoric regarding the threat that Bangladeshis pose in India. Consequently, Ghosh's analysis vacillates between an empathic, humanistic portrayal of migrants and an acceptance of a state-centric characterization of them as borderline criminals.

His discussion of Bangladeshi migrants in India is particularly telling of the duality. Ghosh points out that because the closing of India's eastern borders was a slow process, migration between East Bengal/East Pakistan/Bangladesh and India had been ongoing for decades. Citing Willem van Schendel's work, he draws attention to the historic porosity and fluidity of the India-Bangladesh border. He further explains that the idea of Bangladeshis taking away jobs from Indians is not a rallying point among the people in India, but something that (right-wing) politicians use to rally people for their own political goals. At the same time, however, he presents as fact the use of “illegal Bangladeshis” as vote banks; he unreflexively refers to Bangladeshi migrants as “illegal” and “infiltrators,” echoing state rhetoric; and he interprets high decadal population growth in border districts in West Bengal as proof of Bangladeshi migration without comparing those districts with non-border or other Muslim-majority districts. This acceptance of the nationalist rhetoric of clandestine immigration is manifest throughout the book, as we are told about migrants who “sneak out,” “infiltrate” and “penetrate” into India, “melt into the Indian community,” “disappear among the local population,” and are periodically “intercepted” and “pushed back.”

Nevertheless, Ghosh makes the case that migrants and refugees are an inseparable, even integral, part of the fabric of South Asian localities. In showing the significant contribution that migrants have made to literature, cinema, drama, dance, painting, and culture writ large, as both producers and subjects, Ghosh reminds us that it is not so easy to separate citizens from noncitizens, after all. Migration has been a part of South Asian nation statehood, and the question of who belongs and who does not is more complex than legal definitions would have us believe.