The Fixer
eBook - PDF

The Fixer

Visa Lottery Chronicles

  1. English
  2. PDF
  3. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - PDF

The Fixer

Visa Lottery Chronicles

About this book

In the West African nation of Togo, applying for the U.S. Diversity Visa Lottery is a national obsession, with hundreds of thousands of Togolese entering each year. From the street frenzy of the lottery sign-up period and the scramble to raise money for the embassy interview to the gamesmanship of those adding spouses and dependents to their dossiers, the application process is complicated, expensive, and unpredictable. In The Fixer Charles Piot follows Kodjo Nicolas Batema, a Togolese visa broker—known as a "fixer"—as he shepherds his clients through the application and interview process. Relaying the experiences of the fixer, his clients, and embassy officials, Piot captures the ever-evolving cat-and-mouse game between the embassy and the hopeful Togolese as well as the disappointments and successes of lottery winners in the United States. These detailed and compelling stories uniquely illustrate the desire and savviness of migrants as they work to find what they hope will be a better life.

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Yes, you can access The Fixer by Charles Piot in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Social Sciences & African History. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Contents
  3. Acknowledgments
  4. Introduction. Business of Dreams
  5. 1. Border Practice
  6. 2. The Interview
  7. 3. Kinship by Other Means
  8. 4. Trading Futures
  9. 5. Embassy Indiscretions
  10. 6. Protest
  11. 7. Prison
  12. 8. America, Here We Come
  13. 9. Lomé 2018
  14. Notes
  15. Bibliography
  16. Index