LAUSR

Shaw’s careful analysis of how refugee relief was intertwined with imperial history. As she notes, any troublesome refugees could be easily dispatched to imperial locales. When these opportunities for imperial transmigration diminished, so, too, did British sympathy for refugee aid. At the same time, the empire generated refugee crises of its own. If refugees had typically served as symbols of despotism overseas, then what happened in the case of those who were fleeing British violence? Today, Britain is confronting a global refugee crisis on an unprecedented scale. Shaw’s nuanced history is a vital reminder of the twists and turns that intervention in refugee care has taken in the past and the varied effects such intervention has had. Much has changed since the days depicted in Shaw’s meticulous account, not least the legal frameworks through which refugees and migrants interact, and Shaw is rightly cautious about drawing any easy parallels between past and present. Still, all historians of refuge and refugees have much to learn from this smartly told origin story.