Book Review: Kamal Sadiq, Paper Citizens: How Illegal Immigrants Acquire Citizenship in Developing Countries, Oxford/New York, Oxford University Press, 2009

The recent book by Dr. Kamal Sadiq, who earned his doctorate in Chicago and presently teaching at the University of California (Irvine, CA), treats just about every aspect of illegal immigrants in developing countries such as India, Pakistan and Malaysia, a hitherto little known problem that is fast becoming unmanageable in certain parts of the globe. Proceeding from a Mahatma Gandhi statement, one can assert that one way to judge governments is by the manner in which they treat refugees who come to live or work in a new country. Sadiq s well-researched, scholarly-treated and handsomely-expressed work informs the reader of the many facets of this multifarious topic. This new volume is an informative description, based on field work as much as book probing, on how some immigrants found and followed illegal paths in order to gain access to citizenship generally in the developing countries and specifically in three Asian sovereign states, one of which (India) happens to be the author s original homeland.