The outsiders

Flight and integration are among the dominant issues of the present. They are a significant reason for the rise of right-wing populist parties and threaten to divide the EU. A look into the depths of history, however, puts the "refugee crisis" of 2015 into perspective. Since 1492, when the Sephardic Jews were expelled from the Iberian Peninsula, Europe has always been a continent of refugees. Philipp Ther explores the reasons for flight: religious intolerance, radical nationalism and political persecution. Using life stories, he illustrates the hardships of flight, identifies factors for successful integration, and discusses the repeated failures of international policy and the lessons learned, such as in the 1951 Geneva Refugee Convention. Humanitarianism, as Ther shows, has always been fragile in refugee policy. But even if today once again the fear of a failure of integration dominates, the destination countries have almost always benefited from accepting refugees. This is evidenced in particular by Germany's postwar history, when the young Federal Republic in particular became a refugee country.