ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in subsequent chapters of this book. The book aims to theorising detention as a complex system of exploitation that goes beyond macro-economic considerations, such as profit and loss or the state-private sector relationships involved in the immigration industrial complex, to consider intimate economies that enmesh with and exacerbate the impacts of detention. It contributes to identifying and addressing larger global trends of forced migration across national borders. By bringing attention to the growth and reverberations of immigration detention through a focus on intimate economies, the book challenges us to think deeply and critically about what we already know about detention. It includes an array of perspectives and brings together original work from scholars and advocates whose research examines detention in the US, UK, Australia, Finland and Denmark, as well as case studies from Mexico, Central America, South Korea, Libya and the United Arab Emirates.
