This book was published at an important time for Western states grappling with immigration matters. More important, even, than I had imagined when I set to work on it in earnest in 2013. But fortuitous timing, from an author's point of view at least, brings unique challenges.

I sent the finalized manuscript off to be copy-edited late in June, 2015. The following week, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees released its 2014 data showing that the number of displaced persons in the world was, in that year, higher than at any time since World War II. Throughout July and August of 2015, the number of people flowing out of Syria and attempting to seek refugee protection in Europe grew astronomically. This surge of need led, predictably, to a rising death toll from clandestine Mediterranean crossings, with the numbers rising rapidly, during some weeks, daily. In the final week of August, German Chancellor Angela Merkel announced that Germany would stop enforcing the Dublin regulations and instead welcome those who reached Germany and process their refugee claims. At that time, German authorities were estimating that as many as 800,000 asylum seekers would arrive in Germany by the end of 2015. The estimate was revised to a million by mid-September.

The German announcement triggered a series of border openings and closings in the European states that stand between Germany and the Mediterranean shores where most Syrians first set foot in the European Union, or in Europe more broadly. Images of Hungary's new border fence being erected transfixed the Western media. Desperate people were filmed lifting their children over the fencing separating Serbia from Croatia. People continued to die attempting to reach Lampedusa and Lesbos.

And then in the first week of September, someone photographed the body of three-year old Aylan Kurdi lying dead on a Turkish beach. This image had already acquired iconic status by October 2015. It is an image that seems to have seized the conscience of the Western world.

The question is: To what end?

Finally, the world is watching.

It has been a quarter of a century since the world paid attention like this to refugees. Over that period of time, the attitudes of Western publics and politicians have hardened markedly, and just about every indicator of the situation of refugees around the globe has worsened.