Jacobin contributor David Bacon reframes the migration debate by asking why so many people are forced to leave their home countries in the first place. In The Right to Stay Home, he links US trade policy — especially NAFTA — to the destruction of rural livelihoods in Mexico, which drives mass emigration. Bacon’s perspective is rooted in solidarity with both US and Mexican workers, and he highlights the importance of cross-border labor organizing. The book argues for resisting both forced migration and anti-immigrant repression, making a case for a binational working-class politics.

In a similar vein, Justin Akers Chacón and Mike Davis deliver a historically grounded and politically sharp account of how US imperialism shaped patterns of Mexican migration. Chacón and Davis emphasize the agency of migrant workers in resisting exploitation.

Isaac Stanley-Becker’s Europe Without Borders offers a critical history of the Schengen project, showing how Europe’s celebrated internal openness was built on external exclusion. Drawing on newly available archives, he traces how European policymakers crafted a “border-free” zone for capital and citizens while erecting a hard perimeter to keep out migrants — particularly those coming from former colonies. Far from realizing the liberal ideal of cosmopolitan freedom, Schengen institutionalized a two-tier system that facilitated labor market integration for some while subjecting others to surveillance, detention, and deportation.