Refuge: Transforming a Broken Refugee System

by Alexander Betts (Author), Alexander Betts (Author), Paul Collier (Author)

New
Paperback
2018
$12.27

Europe is facing its greatest refugee crisis since the Second World War, yet the institutions responding to it remain virtually unchanged from those created in the post-war era. Going beyond the scenes of desperation which have become all-too-familiar in the past few years, Alexander Betts and Paul Collier show that this crisis offers an opportunity for reform if international policy-makers focus on delivering humane, effective and sustainable outcomes - both for Europe and for countries that border conflict zones. Refugees need more than simply food, tents and blankets, and research demonstrates that they can offer tangible economic benefits to their adopted countries if given the right to work and education. Refuge sets out an alternative vision that can empower refugees to help themselves, contribute to their host societies, and even rebuild their countries of origin.

Synopsis

Europe is facing its greatest refugee crisis since the Second World War, yet the institutions responding to it remain virtually unchanged from those created in the post-war era. Going beyond the scenes of desperation which have become all-too-familiar in the past few years, Alexander Betts and Paul Collier show that this crisis offers an opportunity for reform if international policy-makers focus on delivering humane, effective and sustainable outcomes - both for Europe and for countries that border conflict zones. Refugees need more than simply food, tents and blankets, and research demonstrates that they can offer tangible economic benefits to their adopted countries if given the right to work and education. Refuge sets out an alternative vision that can empower refugees to help themselves, contribute to their host societies, and even rebuild their countries of origin.

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More Information

Format: Paperback
Pages: 304
Publisher: Penguin
Published: 05 Apr 2018
ISBN 10: 0141984708
ISBN 13: 9780141984704
Book Overview: An eye-opening account of the migrant crisis which shows why our global refugee regime is broken and how it can be fixed.

Media Reviews

Refuge is the first comprehensive attempt in years to rethink from first principles a system hidebound by old thinking and hand-wringing. Its ideas demand a hearing -- 'Books of the Year 2017' * Economist *
[A] brilliant polemic ... [Refuge] is very strong on diagnosis ... [Betts and Collier] come up with a number of ingenious remedies -- Robert Fox * Evening Standard *
Brilliant ... Instead of making the usual hand-wringing humanitarian gestures, Betts and Collier have come up with some mind-blowingly simple, practical solutions, particularly for refugees from fragile or war-torn states -- Sarah Baxter * Sunday Times *
This book is a rare and wonderful thing: a work of politically engaged scholarship with a trenchant analysis and original solutions ... Betts and Collier can look at the bigger picture. They may thereby have helped to improve millions of lives -- David Goodhart * Standpoint *
A brilliantly argued book... It's a call to action and it's absolutely needed -- Sayeeda Warsi
A page-turner -- Nomia Iqbal * BBC Asian Network *
Based on careful historical and economic analysis, Refuge proposes win-win-win improvements for the world's 20 million international refugees. The integration of refugees encamped across the borders of their homelands into the economies of their hosts will contribute to their hosts' development; dispel the refugees' loss of hope; and further allow them to contribute to their homelands, if it is ever safe for their return. Refuge is the seminal work on one of the world's most important problems -- George Akerlof, Nobel Laureate in Economics 2001
This book is both timely and radical. But is also down to earth and practical. It is time to stop spouting the same old mantras about the existing refugee conventions and look at how we can best genuinely help refugees both now and in the future. Collier and Betts point the way -- David Cameron, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (2010-2016)
Refugees and policy makers need practical answers to what is now a global crisis. This valuable book represents the kind of can-do thinking that we need to see -- David Miliband, International Rescue Committee
This book is a must-read on one of the defining issues of our time. As the number of refugees reaches record highs, Refuge takes us beyond the simple emotional versus political split of the migration debate, by offering smart, practical solutions to address the global crisis. As such, every policymaker, and concerned citizen should read it! -- Dambisa Moyo, author of 'Dead Aid' and 'Winner Takes All'
Superb, accessible and riveting... Their book is a manifesto for caring for the uprooted in the twenty-first century... Their argument is thorough and seductive... A bolder and brighter vision * Times Literary Supplement *
At once compassionate and dispassionate, and full of bold and innovative thinking -- Justin Marozzi * Sunday Times *

Author Bio

Alexander Betts (Author) Alexander Betts is the Leopold W. Muller Professor of Forced Migration and International Affairs at the University of Oxford, where he is also Director of the Refugee Studies Centre. He has written for the Guardian, New York Times and Foreign Affairs and appears regularly on news channels including CNN, Al Jazeera, and the BBC. He has also given two TED talks, which have garnered over a million views. Paul Collier (Author) Paul Collier is the Professor of Economics and Public Policy at the Blavatnik School of Government. He is the author of The Bottom Billion, which won the Lionel Gelber Prize and the Arthur Ross Prize awarded by the Council on Foreign Relations, The Plundered Planet, Exodus and Refuge (with Alexander Betts). Collier has served as Director of the Research Department of the World Bank, and consults with the German and many other governments around the world.