New populations appear, defined by their shared conditions of fear and victimhood and by their need to survive outside of their homelands. Their lives are marked by the daily trudge of dislocation, refugee camps, humanitarian help and the never-ending wait. These populations are the emblems of a new human condition which takes shape on the very margins of the world.
In this remarkable book Michel Agier sheds light on this process of dislocation and quarantine which is affecting an ever-growing proportion of the world's population. He describes the experience of these people, speaking of their pain and their plight but also criticising their victimization by the rest of the world.
Agier analyses the ambiguous and often tainted nature of identities shaped in and by conflicts, but also the process taking place in the refugee camp itself, which allows refugees and the deported to create once again a sense of community and of shared humanity.
* Exam copies only available to lecturers for whom the book may be suitable as a course text.
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"The essays would provide excellent material for review and discussion in short courses on forced migration, where it would provide valuable stimulus for debate amongst humanitarians, researchers and policy makers."
Journal of Refugee Studies
"A seminal, eye-opening study ... the most insightful inquiry to date into the plight of the refugees of the present era."
Zygmunt Bauman, Universities of Leeds and Warsaw
