Refugees: A Very Short Introduction

Very Short Introductions #673

by Gil Loescher

Refugees and other forced migrants are one of the great contemporary challenges the world is confronting. Throughout the world people leave their home countries to escape war, natural disasters, and cultural and political oppression. Unfortunately, even today, the international community struggles to provide an adequate response to this vast population in need.

This Very Short Introduction covers a broad range of issues around the causes and impact of the contemporary refugee crisis for both receiving states and societies, for global order, and for refugees and other forced migrants themselves. Gil Loescher discusses the identity of refugees, asylum seekers, and internally displaced persons and how they differ from other forced migrants. He also investigates the long history of the refugee phenomenon and how refugees became a central concern of the international community during the twentieth and twenty first centuries, as well as considering the responses provided by governments and international aid organisations to refugee needs. Loescher concludes by focussing on the necessity of these bodies to understand the realities of the contemporary refugee situation in order to best respond to its current and future challenges.

ABOUT THE SERIES:
The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

Genres: Nonfiction, Politics, Audiobook, History, Sociology

152 pages, Paperback

Published August 1, 2020

Reviews

[Ioana Crețu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Written in 2020, it is what it claims to be: up-to-date, concise, comprehensive introduction about forced migrants (history, present, some future directions).

[Dorrie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Textbook-y but an important read in this current climate.

[Sean Mann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Clear and concise, this is a great overview of the international systems created to support refugees. While it mainly focused on the UN, it also had an excellent review of the history of refugees and a briefer look at the recent proliferation of national and international civil society organizations supporting refugees.

Major international cooperation to support and resettle refugees mainly happened after WWII, and the US and other Western Nations were integral in reducing support for a repatriation model in favor of a definition which more broadly protected people facing persecution so that those fleeing communist countries would not be forced back. While not perfect at the time, and many refugees were forced to stay long term in displaced person camps rather than being accepted into Western countries, the book makes clear that understanding this history is important to understand the hostile turn many countries have taken toward refugees. Without the threat of the Soviet Bloc and communism, many nations would rather scapegoat refugees than help them.

[Peter · Rating 3 out of 5]

The late American political scientist Gil Loescher published Refugees: A Very Short Introduction in 2021. This was Loescher's last book before he passed away (Loescher xix). The political scientist James Milner wrote a forward for Loescher’s book (Loescher xix-xxi). Milner writes Loescher’s “writings on refugees and world politics were pioneering. Loescher’s work endures as a cornerstone for the discipline” (Loescher xix). Loescher is a character in his introduction to the field of refugee studies (Loescher 84-86). The books have graphs. The book has an index and a “list of acronyms” (Loescher xxiii). The book has a section entitled “further reading” (Loescher 113-116). Milner writes Loescher “was deeply troubled by world events in recent years, especially how the rise of populist and exclusionary politics and misinformation contributed to a breakdown in international cooperation and collective action” (Loescher xx). The book was written around 2019 when Loescher writes “there were 79.5 million people in the world who were displaced for a great variety of reasons” (Loescher 1). Loescher writes that 2019 saw a very high level of displaced people (Loescher 1). Loescher writes "refugee emergencies have recently affected entire regions, such as the Great Lakes region in Central Africa, the Horn of Africa, North Africa and the Maghreb, the Middle East, parts of South and Central America, Southwest Asia, and Myanmar" (Loescher 49, 2-3). The book gives an excellent overview of refugee studies as of 2019. I read the book on my Kindle. The book is older but an excellent introduction to refugee studies.

[Raven · Rating 4 out of 5]

A clear and easy-to-understand academic guide on the topic of migration, which remains relevant and will continue to do so even more, despite being written in 2020.
The only thing that didn't convince me was the constant repetition of topics, even from one paragraph to the next, I understand that this book is often used as a textbook for exams, as in my case, but this is too much!

[Lucy Emery · Rating 5 out of 5]

Definitely a very academic style of writing, but perfectly comprehensive and a must read.