The Game

The Game follows a group of Afghan families and friends as they attempt the journey from Iran to Germany to seek asylum. Through this multi-sited ethnographic approach, Hannah Pool explores the economic and social interactions essential to completing undocumented border crossings. Bridging economic sociology and migration studies, she demonstrates how relationships along the route with family, fellow migrants, smugglers, humanitarian actors, and border control officials shape and are shaped by access to financial resources. Ultimately, the book shows how disparities in means and social networks can be the difference between remaining trapped or achieving the promise of a new life.