Best Books on Refugees
Last updated: August 10, 2023
Political instability and economic deprivation—and often a combination of the two—have created a huge migration crisis for the modern world. One in every 120 people on the planet is displaced by conflict. Here you can find a number of interviews recommending books that help to understand the causes of the world’s refugee crisis, as well as the lived experience of refugees.
Patrick Kingsley, of the New York Times and formerly of the Guardian talks about the refugee crisis and argues that we need to rethink fundamentally the way we think about migration and how we manage borders, if we are to limit the worst effects of the crisis.
David Miliband, the former British foreign secretary, now President of the International Rescue Committee, chooses five books to help us think constructively about the roots of the current refugee crisis. And social anthropologist Shahram Khosravi looks at the refugee experience and their reasons for moving in choosing his books. Understanding this, he argues, is essential to successful integration.
Elsewhere Gill Lewis chooses five books that help to explain the refugee crisis to children.
Children’s Books About the Refugee Crisis, recommended by Gill Lewis
How can parents even begin to explain the refugee crisis to children and young adults? Here, award-winning children’s author Gill Lewis shares her selection of vital primers – from simple picture books to challenging graphic novels – and discusses the role of ‘informed storytelling’ in describing this fraught and fragile human experience
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1
The Aeneid (Robert Fitzgerald translation)
by Virgil -
2
The Silver Sword
by Ian Serraillier -
3
Border Vigils: Keeping Migrants Out of the Rich World
by Jeremy Harding -
4
The Lightless Sky: My Journey to Safety as a Child Refugee
by Gulwali Passarlay -
5
Violent Borders: Refugees and the Right to Move
by Reece Jones
The best books on Refugees, recommended by Patrick Kingsley
The best books on Refugees, recommended by Patrick Kingsley
Having trouble getting your head around the refugee crisis? New York Times reporter Patrick Kingsley, formerly the Guardian’s migration correspondent, chooses the best books on refugees. He explains his choices to Ziad Ghandour, himself a refugee from Syria.
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1
Prague Winter: A Personal Story of Remembrance and War, 1937-1948
by Madeleine Albright -
2
City of Thorns: Nine Lives in the World's Largest Refugee Camp
by Ben Rawlence -
3
The New Threat from Islamic Militancy
by Jason Burke -
4
Not in God's Name: Confronting Religious Violence
by Jonathan Sacks -
5
Little Bee: A Novel
by Chris Cleave
The best books on Refugees, recommended by David Miliband
The best books on Refugees, recommended by David Miliband
One out of every 122 people in the world today is displaced by conflict. David Miliband, president of the IRC, chooses five books to help us think constructively about refugees and the causes of the current crisis.
Books on the Refugee Experience, recommended by Shahram Khosravi
To understand what makes integration fail or succeed we need to know why migrants moved in the first place, says Shahram Khosravi, Professor of Social Anthropology at Stockholm University and author of Young and Defiant in Tehran and ‘Illegal’ Traveller.
