The Outsiders

Subtitled 'refugees in Europe since 1492', this is an eye-opening and comprehensive account of population movements over the last 500 years, beginning with Catholic rulers in Spain initiating the first mass flight and expulsion. All this puts the current refugee crisis into a long historical view and reveals the sheer scale of many forced migrations. One early example is the fact that 100,000 Huguenot refugees passed through Frankfurt between 1685 and 1705. The three main chapters highlight the roots of intolerance in religious conflicts, the two faces of nationalism in ethnic is cleansing and national solidarity, and more modern political refugees in our era that has seen the rise of international humanitarianism since the Second World War. An interesting feature of the book is biographical sketches of famous refugees, including Hannah Arendt, Mazzini and Queen Rania of Jordan. Jewish and other migrations and displacements during the 1930s are covered in some detail, as is the fallout from Yugoslavia. This amounts to a total of 30 million people being forced to leave their homelands because of national ethnicity. There are a couple of interesting geographical charts in this respect, with numbers and directions of migration. The author summarises four experiences of flight: existential, predetermined, proactive and political. He also discusses in the range of political attitudes towards migrants and refugees, arguing that right-wing nationalists are not in fact acting in the national interest, which he feels should include 'decency, a sense of proportion, and a rational approach in dealing with mass flight, its causes, and its consequences.' This will surely become the classic book in its field.