The Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children

Issues surrounding migration, both legal and illegal, have fascinated social scientists for decades. Unfortunately, widespread focus on migration in academia has not been accompanied by innovative perspectives. Indeed, research on migration tends to be dominated by economic models and group perspectives such as the classic ‘‘cost-benefit analysis’’ and ‘‘social network theories.’’ For Ali Nobil Ahmad, the quantitative, group-focused, and rational choice models employed by researchers of migration are useful, but incomplete. In Masculinity, Sexuality and Illegal Migration, he argues for the importance of analyzing the individual-level drives that impact migration. After summarizing the strengths and weaknesses of conventional theories of migration including social capital theory and transnationalism, Ahmad applies a psychodynamic approach to the study of migration practices and argues that both masculinity and sexuality play important roles in illegal migration practices of Pakistani men. The writing is both articulate and engaging. The personal interviews conducted by the author and reprinted (in part) in the text allow the reader to delve into the mind of the Pakistani migrant and discover how various psychological drives push them toward a path of migration. Of particular interest is the interplay between gender and sexuality/desire in prompting the motivation to migrate. Though the majority of the book focuses on individual men, Ahmad contextualizes the individual by commenting on historical, social, and legal forces that influence migration. In many ways, then, the author helps to fill a gap in the migration literature by providing a more complete picture of migration practices. In summation, this is a must read for any scholar interested in a novel approach to the study of migration and the application of psychoanalytic theory to the investigation of migration practices. Further, the commentary on where migration studies currently stand and its future makes this book appropriate for those who have no prior knowledge of research on migration.