This book is a major contribution to our understanding of the condition of the immigrant and it will transform the reader's understanding of the issues surrounding immigration. Sayad's book will be widely used in courses on race, ethnicity, immigration and identity in sociology, anthropology, cultural studies, politics and geography.

Acknowledgements. A Note on Terminology. Preface. Sources. Introduction. 1 The Original Sin And The Collective Lie. 2 The Three Ages Of Emigration. 3 An Exemplary Immigration. 4 Nationalism And Emigration. 5 The Backlash On The Society Of Origin. 6 A Relationship Of Domination. 7 The Wrongs Of The Absentee. 8 The Immigrant: ‘Os For Life’. 9 Illness, Suffering And The Body. 10 The Weight Of Words. 11 ‘Naturalisation’. Appendix: Three Interviews About Identity. 12 Immigration And ‘State Thought’. 13 Recapitulation. Notes. References. Bibliography: The Writings Of Abdelmalek Sayad

This work of outstanding originality is a powerful account of the nature of immigration and the condition of the immigrant in our societies today. It represents the synthesis of twenty years’ of research on immigration and emigration, two processes that are, by their nature, as inseparables as the two sides of a coin, yet so different in appearance that we are led to believe that one can be understood without reference to the other. By highlighting the intrinsic relationship between these two phenomena, Abdelmalek Sayad – an Algerian sociologist and close associate of Pierre Bourdieu – succeeds in providing a comprehensive and illuminating account of the nature of immigration and the lives of immigrants in the West. Through a sensitive and profound analysis, the author reveals the reality of the displaced existence of immigrants and the harrowing contradictions that characterize it. Among these contradictions is the deep collective dishonesty through which immigration perpetuates itself, where immigrants are compelled, out of respect for themselves and the group that allowed them to leave their country of origin, to play the suffering of emigration and to encourage more of their compatriots to join them. Separated from their families, towns and homelands, and weighed down by the unshakeable guilt of this absence, immigrants are also ‘absent’ in their country of arrival, where they quickly become victims of exclusion and are seen simply as member of the workforce. Students in sociology, anthropology, cultural studies, politics and geography, as well as the general reader, will find this an invaluable text.

A brilliant excavation of the condition we usually describe as immigration. Sayad brings to light aspects of that condition typically camouflaged or neutralized by the language itself of most academic research on immigration. He juxtaposes to this language the apparent opacity of the language of immigrants’ lived experience and helps us see its transparence and what it communicates.’ – Saskia Sassen, author of Guests and Aliens