"With the recent arrival in Europe of over a million refugees and asylum-seekers, a sense of panic has spread across the continent and beyond. William Maley's illuminating introduction offers a guide to the complex idea of "the refugee" and sets the current crisis within the wider history of human exile, injecting much-needed objectivity and nuance into the debate. Arguing that Western states are now reaping the consequences of policies aimed at blocking safe and "legal" access to asylum, 'What is a refugee?' shows why many proposed solutions to the refugee "problem" will exacerbate tension and risk fueling the growth of extremism among people who have been denied all hope. This lucid book also tells of the families and individuals who have sought refuge, highlighting the suffering, separation and dislocation on their perilous journeys to safety. Only through such stories can we properly begin to understand what it is to be a refugee."--Publisher information.

1. Introduction : Some categories and distinctions -- Some recurring themes -- The objectives and structure of this book ; 2. Defining 'refugees' : International refugee law : origins -- The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) -- The 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees -- Broader legal definitions -- Refugee protection under other branches of law -- Status determination by states -- Ordinary language understandings of 'refugee' -- Philosophical definitions of 'refugee' ; 3. Exile and refuge : a Brief overview : Political violence, marginalization and the human experience -- Exile and ideology from the seventeenth to the early twentieth centuries -- Russian and German refugees between the World Wars -- Postwar refugee resettlement -- Internal conflict and refugee movements in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries; 4. States and refugees : The Westphalian system -- Bureaucracy and its failings -- Individual initiatives -- People smuggling : a product of state inaction ; 5. Roots of refugee 'crises' in a globalized world : State disruption and violent conflict -- The fear of 'terrorism' -- Transport, the wherewithal to travel, and human mobility -- Globalisation and its impacts ; 6. Diplomacy and refugees : Frameworks for negotiation over refugees -- 'Burden sharing' and its dilemmas -- The temptation of 'easy options' -- Refugees as agents ; 7. Refugees, intervention and the 'responsibility to protect' : The use of force -- The idea of humanitarian intervention -- The responsibility to protect -- 'Intervention' as a solution ; 8. 'When Adam delved and Eve span...' : Some reflections on closing and opening borders : The costs of controlled borders -- The moral costs of refugee exclusion -- Confronting the 'Birthright lottery' -- A final word.