Citizens Abroad: Emigration and the State in the Middle East and
North Africa. By Laurie A. Brand. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 2006. 264p. $85.00.
This book charts new territory by taking emigration, and the
policies of sending states toward their citizens abroad, seriously. Laurie
Brand's comparative examination of state emigration institutions and
policy across Morocco, Tunisia, Lebanon, and Jordan places her in an
excellent position both to critique and to contribute to literatures on
transnationalism and citizenship that are myopically focused on
immigration to the North and host country policies toward migrants. Most
intriguingly, early research led Brand to frame her investigation in terms
of broader questions about the contemporary reconfiguration of
“sovereignty in the international system” by home states in
response not only to host state actions but also to the changing demands,
material resources, and experiences of émigré communities
(pp. 10–11, 222).