This book provides a nice discussion about various principles by which countries can make immigration decisions. The author makes the rather obvious points that (1) states have a right to limit immigration and (2) states have a duty to help refugees. She then concedes that these two aspects have to be balanced against each other on a practical level - theoretical contemplation cannot lead to any perfect solution that would fit all states and all situations.

Even so, I was expecting something a bit more theoretically challenging based on the series this book belongs to (Oxford Political Theory). The author sets her own theory in opposition both to "open border" and "closed border" theories, but these alternatives are so unrealistic that an intermediate position is hardly a great epiphany. After that, the only thing left to do is to discuss factors which influence practical immigration decisions. The discussion is reasonably interesting, but it did not really reveal anything that I didn't already know, so on the whole I found this book a bit tedious.