For #nottheanarchistbookfair [www.facebook.com/hashtag/nottheanarchistbookfair] and to mark the publication of their latest book, Hostile Environment, Corporate Watch will be hosting a discussion on the border regime in its many guises. Read a brief introduction to the book below.

This book is a rough guide to the “border regime” in the UK. This is a name for the system that tries to control people’s ability to move and live depending on immigration status. It classifies and controls us depending on what “papers” we have – on where we happen to be born, on who our parents were, on how rich we are, on the colour of our skin. Its controls operate both at the borders and inside the country. They include passport checks, x-ray scanners, sniffer dogs, razor wire fences, “right to work” and “right to rent” checks, dawn raids, reporting centres, asylum slum housing, detention, deportations, and more.

The aim of this book is to help people understand and fight this system. Particularly, that means migrants, and above all people “without papers”, who are on the cutting edge of this struggle. But also, we believe that the border regime is an attack on all people. Working in the interests of the rich and powerful, it spreads fear and division amongst people, to stop us uniting to make a world where everyone can live a decent life. We believe it can only be defeated with solidarity, by people both with and without papers fighting side by side.

We hope this book can be a useful tool. In order to fight effectively, we need to understand our enemy. We need to spot its weak points, to see where and how we can best take action.