'No borders' as a critical politics of mobility and migration

Geographers have contributed diverse and critical analyses of the complexities and often contradictory nature of immigration controls concerned with irregular forms of migration, like Martin (this issue). Through these studies we have come to know a great deal about the contemporary global condition of border management/control and migration policing, as well as its proliferation far beyond the physical location of nation-state borders. However in conducting my research regarding border crossing related deaths, particularly within the Mexico- U.S. borderlands and at the external borders of the European Union, I have struggled to find academic work that also critically questions the legitimacy of the existence of such controls in regards to irregular migration, or indeed presents alternatives to these. Reprinted by permission of the author