Beginning with the forced deportation of refugee women from Rome to Lagos in 2015, this book builds a compelling case for an intersectional rethinking of migration and refugee law. Grounded in women’s lived experiences of borders, it exposes the deep interconnections between mobility, labour and social reproduction. Drawing on feminist theory, Rigo challenges binary legal categories—forced versus economic migration, free versus paid labour—while making a radical claim for freedom of movement.
By foregrounding gender as a critical lens, this book offers fresh insights into global migration regimes and reimagines hospitality as a space of resistance and decolonial praxis.
Price: $119.95
Pages: 144
Publisher: Bristol University Press
Imprint: Bristol University Press
Series: Global Migration and Social Change
Publication Date:
21 July 2026
ISBN: 9781529247497
Format: Hardcover
BISACs:
SOCIAL SCIENCE / Emigration & Immigration, Refugees and political asylum, LAW / Emigration & Immigration, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Feminism & Feminist Theory, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Gender Studies, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Refugees, Asylum law, Feminism and feminist theory, Gender studies: women and girls
'Migration, Asylum and Exploitation. A Feminist Legal Perspective is a groundbreaking and deeply moving book. Enrica Rigo brilliantly weaves together feminist theory, critical legal studies and the politics of migration to offer a wholly new way of thinking about borders, mobility and justice. By connecting the freedom of movement to the sphere of social reproduction, she exposes how gender structures the global regimes of asylum, laborur and exploitation—and how migrant women’s struggles open radical possibilities for reimagining rights and solidarity. Written with intellectual rigor and political passion, the book is a luminous work that will leave a lasting mark on contemporary feminist and critical thought.' Leopoldina Fortunati, author of The Arcana of Reproduction: Housewives, Prostitutes, Workers and Capital
Enrica Rigo is Associate Professor in Philosophy of Law at the University of Roma Tre, Italy. Her work is situated at the crossroads between academic research and legal activism.
Introduction: Freedom of Movement at the Centre of the Making and Remaking of Life
1. The Gender of Migration
2. The Gender of Asylum
3. Regimes of Reproduction and Exploitation
4. Beyond Hospitality: Towards Freedom of Movement
