52
demonstrate that what has been happening currently is not unusual. There follows
an analysis of the laws applicable to refugees today and the extent to which these
laws have been followed. This is not worse than elsewhere, such as Australia (Cave
2019) and the United States (Ahmed and Villegas 2019; Kingsley 2019). Space does
not allow discussion of these other situations.
1 Migrants and Refugees Before the Twentieth Century
Humans have been moving since the species began. Homo sapiens migrated across
Africa and spread rapidly to all other habitable continents (e.g., Harvati et al. 2019).
People moved without conflict into lands not already occupied by humans or hominids. That possibility disappeared millennia ago. People moved, then and now, to
seek better opportunities in life, or to flee problems such as famine, floods, or a
changing climate.
Migration often involves violence. Sometimes the violence came from the
migrants conquering or displacing prior inhabitants (Hermann 1954). An example is
the Europeans who conquered the Western Hemisphere from the sixteenth to the
nineteenth centuries. In other cases, the migrants were fleeing violence, violence
that targeted individuals or that targeted ethnic or other groupings of people.
Migrants fleeing violence have always been a special case, bearing the special name
“refugee.” Sometimes, when enough refugees settle together, they retain an ethnic
cohesion even if they are not able to establish a new homeland. The best-known
example is the Jewish diaspora, which began with the Babylonian exile of 586
BCE, and culminated in the Roman expulsion of the Jews from Palestine in the first
and second centuries (Ehrlich 2018). Jews would not have a nation of their own
again until 1948, yet despite ongoing persecution they survived as a distinct people.
Or consider the people variously called “Gypsies,” “les Bohèmes,” “Roma,”
“Romani,” etc. because of their supposed place of origin, who in fact are refugees
from India (Fraser 1995).
The industrial revolution generated two phenomena that created unprecedented
flows of refugees. First, it enabled vast population increases in the industrialized
countries (Bar and Leukhina 2010). Vast numbers of these people voluntarily
migrated from rural areas to cities, and also to other countries, seeking a better life
(Hatton and Williamson 1994). Second, it brought on a series of violent social
revolutions, each of which produced larger numbers of refugees. The first, the
American Revolution (1775–1783) led to the flight of “Loyalists” to Canada. The
French Revolution (1789–1815), produced what was seen at the time as numerous
refugees (Carpenter and Mansel 1999). 1848 generated refugee flows across
Europe, with many of the refugees eventually migrating to North or South America
(e.g., Tóth 2014).
J. W. Dellapenna
demonstrate that what has been happening currently is not unusual. There follows
an analysis of the laws applicable to refugees today and the extent to which these
laws have been followed. This is not worse than elsewhere, such as Australia (Cave
2019) and the United States (Ahmed and Villegas 2019; Kingsley 2019). Space does
not allow discussion of these other situations.
1 Migrants and Refugees Before the Twentieth Century
Humans have been moving since the species began. Homo sapiens migrated across
Africa and spread rapidly to all other habitable continents (e.g., Harvati et al. 2019).
People moved without conflict into lands not already occupied by humans or hominids. That possibility disappeared millennia ago. People moved, then and now, to
seek better opportunities in life, or to flee problems such as famine, floods, or a
changing climate.
Migration often involves violence. Sometimes the violence came from the
migrants conquering or displacing prior inhabitants (Hermann 1954). An example is
the Europeans who conquered the Western Hemisphere from the sixteenth to the
nineteenth centuries. In other cases, the migrants were fleeing violence, violence
that targeted individuals or that targeted ethnic or other groupings of people.
Migrants fleeing violence have always been a special case, bearing the special name
“refugee.” Sometimes, when enough refugees settle together, they retain an ethnic
cohesion even if they are not able to establish a new homeland. The best-known
example is the Jewish diaspora, which began with the Babylonian exile of 586
BCE, and culminated in the Roman expulsion of the Jews from Palestine in the first
and second centuries (Ehrlich 2018). Jews would not have a nation of their own
again until 1948, yet despite ongoing persecution they survived as a distinct people.
Or consider the people variously called “Gypsies,” “les Bohèmes,” “Roma,”
“Romani,” etc. because of their supposed place of origin, who in fact are refugees
from India (Fraser 1995).
The industrial revolution generated two phenomena that created unprecedented
flows of refugees. First, it enabled vast population increases in the industrialized
countries (Bar and Leukhina 2010). Vast numbers of these people voluntarily
migrated from rural areas to cities, and also to other countries, seeking a better life
(Hatton and Williamson 1994). Second, it brought on a series of violent social
revolutions, each of which produced larger numbers of refugees. The first, the
American Revolution (1775–1783) led to the flight of “Loyalists” to Canada. The
French Revolution (1789–1815), produced what was seen at the time as numerous
refugees (Carpenter and Mansel 1999). 1848 generated refugee flows across
Europe, with many of the refugees eventually migrating to North or South America
(e.g., Tóth 2014).
J. W. Dellapenna