UNSETTLING OF EUROPE: How Migration Shaped a Continent

Migration is one of the key issues of our time and this highly praised study steps back from current anxieties round the subject and looks at the whole picture in Europe since the end of World War II. The author discusses both economic migrants and those seeking asylum, examining the impact of a wide variety of forces driving the movement of peoples, from Irish nurses crossing the Irish sea to work in the newly-formed NHS to the controversies surrounding the people-trafficking in the English Channel today. The term 'migration' rather than 'immigration' suggests a two-way traffic and an unwillingness on the part of many migrants to close the option of returning to their birth-country. After the war there was a huge and chaotic movement of displaced people, with 17 million Europeans on the move. The Hungarian uprising of 1956, the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974, the disintegration of the Soviet bloc in 1989 and the upheaval of Yugoslavia in the 1990s were further events prompting mass migration. At the same time there was colonial migration of Moroccans to France and Indians to the UK. In the 21st century the rhetoric has changed as migrants are perceived as a possible threat. There are abundant instances of generosity on the part of nations and individuals, but there is also the "hostile environment" which was an aim of Theresa May's government. The author looks in detail at cases such as the Italian island of Lampedusa which took the brunt of Libyans escaping Colonel Gaddafi. Rarely has it been acknowledged that many asylum seekers are extremely resourceful and well-educated, with news reports dismissing them as a "wave" or "flood". The author believes that migration in Europe is multi-layered and open-ended, and is a testament to co-operation and cultural encounter. 548pp, photos, maps.