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 the monitoring of the UK's impending workforce and expanded population, on all fronts, is continuously redefined. Sales cuts through the ensuing political storms and media frenzies, presenting an informed view of the immigration problematic.

Sales' book is divided in to two main parts. The first part deals with globalisation issues, and how migration has intersected with it, with the resulting global fallout. Sales' poses the questions early on ‘what is at stake in immigration policy?’ (p. 3). A central theme in this book is the intersectionality of immigration and issues of inclusion and exclusion, and, the construction of national identities (i.e. whose face fits). Sales discusses the various debates surrounding immigration and asylum and their inherent politicisation: the need to measure and control immigration flows, the need to redistribute vital resources by local authorities to aid newcomers (whether refugees or economic migrants) and the defining of refugees and ‘forced migration’; all in concert with their perjorative depiction by the media, to some degree culpable for negative public opinion polls on immigration. Sales draws attention to the fact that a small pool of selected individuals have succeeded in publicly presenting the affirmation that British values (‘national interest’) can act as the salve to the social malaise of our time.

Sales very cogently summarises major developments within the breadth of theories of migration, and notes the importance of recognising that the decision-making processes surrounding migration are complicated and constantly changing. Any new reconceptualisation of twenty-first century migration theorising therefore by definition needs to address individual, intermediate as well as structural factors (institutions and networks), within which gender issues need to be embedded (pp. 51–54). On the latter point, post-Accession migration bears witness to the unsuitability of positing grand theories to explain subsequent migratory waves, especially in relation to the global movement of women and the gender-relevant contingent nature of the processes involved. Sales coverage of the main themes within the first part of the book are most comprehensive, and her various analyses serve to underpin the wide range of complexities therein.

The rest of the book focuses on Britain, set within the context of EU policy. Sales informs us of the conflation of immigration and asylum debates (p. 214), which have continued to persist as interchangable explanations for the problematic since (at least) the late 1980s. Once again mostly germane reading matter, given the recent intention to change EU asylum rules governing UK-bound asylum seekers and their rights. Sales clearly deals with anti-immigration issues throughout the book, but does not provide a balance here by putting forward much of a pro-immigration discussion; a clear omission. She identifies three contender policies to immigration problems: firstly, immigrants' inclusion into society; secondly, structural support for existing immigrant populations, but applying restrictions on further immigration; and, thirdly, withdrawing support for existing immigrant populations. Sales contends, and rightly so, that the second ‘solution’ is the currently the UK's modus operandi in dealing with its immigration flows. This notwithstanding, given the flux-like nature of immigration debates and resulting policies (such as the withdrawal of healthcare for failed asylum seekers – about to be reconsidered by the Home Office and Department of Health) these do not really keep up with the realities of experience had by all groups, and therefore the stated solution does not cover exclusionary tactics levelled at (some) existing immigration populations. Regardless of this, the splendid overview of key concepts, and how the examination of how policies impact directly on migrants are also key issues, and most welcome, as these are not nearly depicted enough in many texts of this nature.

Nonetheless, Rosemary Sales accomplishes an analysis of the contradictions which continue to drive immigration and refugee policy, and her book achieves its aim for the primary target audience. The overall format lends itself as an indispensable tool for students of social policy, inviting their further engagement. It is not, in my view, the case that including detailed migratory experiences detracts from the topic. On the contrary, adding the necessary intuitive and human element actually serves to ground theory with the sheer reality of immigration as it is felt within people's real lives.

I have introduced this book to my students mid-term, and genuinely recommend this text to students, researchers and anyone wanting an up-to-date assessment of the current position on immigration in the UK.