Europe and the refugee crisis. Local responses to migrants

Summary:

Since 2014, more than 60 million people have been displaced from their homes across the Middle East and Africa. The European Refugee Crisis, as it has come to be known, is now the largest such crisis since the aftermath of World War II. How have local communities reacted to the influx of asylum seekers? And what can we learn from their responses?

This book offers a wide-ranging ethnographical and anthropological study of local, individual responses to refugees, from Macedonia to Germany. Based on extensive interviews and field work in Europe, the author focuses for the first time on the ways that refugees have been welcomed – or not, as the case may be – by various individuals and communities.

The work ranges from Macedonians who established an NGO and lobbied to allow the refugees to use the train, to the police charged with border management; from a German organic food store owner who by her actions set the positive tone in her village, a retired IT manager who coordinates refugee volunteers for his entire town, to the district work organisation director who deems refugees unsuitable for multiple reasons.

The material is measured throughout against the author’s anthropological experience, as well as reference to the historical and political contexts in which events are unfolding. This book is essential reading for all those working on the refugee crisis and the prospects – both local and global – for the future.

Contents:

Introduction
1. What affects attitudes toward refugees
Part I: Entry to Europe through Macedonia – Transit of refugees
2. NGOs and local responses
3. Refugee transit camps
Part II: Inside Germany – Accommodation of refugees
4. Responses of villages
5. Responses of towns and smaller cities
6. Responses of large cities
7. Toward integration
Conclusion