“Fikes convincingly links new regulation enforcement to the emergence of novel notions and practices of citizenship. Her focus on citizenship governmentality enables a fruitful articulation between a macro-perspective (on state legislation and economic reform) and the micro-level approach to individual motives and practices cherished by anthropologists. Managing African Portugal is an interesting. . . exploration of the social consequences of modern European integration on ‘race’ ideologies and relations.” - Ana Mourão, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Association “[ A] brilliantly written book. . . . This is an important book that finally puts Portugal on the map of an English readership interested in questions of modernity, race, citizenship and nationalism.” - Bernd Reiter, Ethnic and Racial Studies “Fikes’ book is a thoughtful assessment of how colonial legacies impact contemporary social relations in an EU context and is a poignant critique of how government-sponsored ‘multiculturalist’ programs can increase the marginality of the people they purport to help.” - Samuel Weeks, Etnografica “Managing African Portugal is a well-developed ethnographic account of migrant experiences in Portugal. Kesha Fikes’ political economic perspective brings to light the performative interactions involved in the fashioning and refashioning of citizens and migrants alike. . . . Fikes nuanced discussion of gender, race, transnational migration, and citizenship helps demonstrate the value of ethnography.” - Brandon D. Lundy and Jessica Lopes, African Studies Quarterly “This is a unique study that transcends traditional ethnography. . . . Managing African Portugal is a must-read for anyone interested in the study of postcolonial relations within Europe and the livelihoods of African migrants who are systematically excluded from citizenship.” - Isabel P. B. Fêo Rodrigues, American Anthropologist “In Keisha Fikes’s engaging ethnography, Managing African Portugal, she offers a detailed account of how European Union accession hasmeant the production of the social, political, and economic distinction between migrants and citizens. . . . Through Fikes’s ethnography, the reader sees how the Europeanized demands to distinguish the citizen from the migrant not only make possible a new vision of the Portuguese citizen as ‘white’ and middle class but also forces the ‘African migrant’ away from economic independence and out of public space.” - Damani J. Partridge, American Ethnologist “Managing African Portugal is a moving ethnography of the fraught but persistent lives of Cape Verdean peixeiras (fishmongers) caught between the cultural logics of citizenship, remittances, and migrant labor. But it is also a searing account of how state-organized anti-racist campaigns, meant to free citizens like the peixeiras from racial violence, can be one of the means of locking them into new forms of class violence.”—Elizabeth A. Povinelli, author of The Empire of Love: Toward a Theory of Intimacy, Genealogy, and Carnality “Managing African Portugal is a timely and invaluable contribution to the study of African migrants in Europe. Kesha D. Fikes offers a thoughtful examination of how colonialism’s legacies inform the social politics of a European nation-state now significantly embedded within the contours of the European Union. In so doing, she illuminates interpretations of race as historically constituted effects of different political regimes and policies.”—Paulla A. Ebron, author of Performing Africa “Managing African Portugal is a well-developed ethnographic account of migrant experiences in Portugal. Kesha Fikes’ political economic perspective brings to light the performative interactions involved in the fashioning and refashioning of citizens and migrants alike. . . . Fikes nuanced discussion of gender, race, transnational migration, and citizenship helps demonstrate the value of ethnography.”
Brandon D. Lundy and Jessica Lopes
African Studies Quarterly
“[ A] brilliantly written book. . . . This is an important book that finally puts Portugal on the map of an English readership interested in questions of modernity, race, citizenship and nationalism.”
Bernd Reiter
Ethnic and Racial Studies
“Fikes convincingly links new regulation enforcement to the emergence of novel notions and practices of citizenship. Her focus on citizenship governmentality enables a fruitful articulation between a macro-perspective (on state legislation and economic reform) and the micro-level approach to individual motives and practices cherished by anthropologists. Managing African Portugal is an interesting. . . exploration of the social consequences of modern European integration on ‘race’ ideologies and relations.”
Ana Mourão
Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute
“Fikes’ book is a thoughtful assessment of how colonial legacies impact contemporary social relations in an EU context and is a poignant critique of how government-sponsored ‘multiculturalist’ programs can increase the marginality of the people they purport to help.”
Samuel Weeks
Etnografica
“In Keisha Fikes’s engaging ethnography, Managing African Portugal, she offers a detailed account of how European Union accession hasmeant the production of the social, political, and economic distinction between migrants and citizens. . . . Through Fikes’s ethnography, the reader sees how the Europeanized demands to distinguish the citizen from the migrant not only make possible a new vision of the Portuguese citizen as ‘white’ and middle class but also forces the ‘African migrant’ away from economic independence and out of public space.”
Damani J. Partridge
American Ethnologist
“This is a unique study that transcends traditional ethnography. . . . Managing African Portugal is a must-read for anyone interested in the study of postcolonial relations within Europe and the livelihoods of African migrants who are systematically excluded from citizenship.”
Isabel P. B. Fêo Rodrigues
American Anthropologist