The nation-state is undoubtedly the most important political formation in modern world history. It is universally recognized and aspired to, but not universally realized. The nation is never a finished project, and nationalism, which is understood here as the cultural politics that has the nation as its subject and its object, derives its energy and motivating force from perceived threats from within and without. While nationalism is a modern phenomenon, religion is often regarded as either ancient or transcending history. Before the nineteenth century, religion everywhere in the world was an integral part of statecraft. The legitimation of rulers came from heaven and was mediated by priestly and monastic classes. This is true in Christendom, but also in other major religions like Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, and Shintoism.

This chapter discusses the position (and especially protection) of the individual in international law, whether through human rights law, refugee law, the right to self-determination, or other means

This volume, part of the Feminist Judgment Series, shows how feminist legal theory along with critical race theory and intersectional modes of critique might transform immigration law. Here, a diverse collection of scholars and lawyers bring critical feminist, race and intersectional insights to Supreme Court opinions that deal with the source of the power to regulate immigration, state and local regulation of immigration, citizenship law, racial discrimination, employment law, access to public education, the rights of criminal defendants, the detention of noncitizens, and more. Feminist reasoning values the perspectives of outsiders, exposes the deep-rooted bias in the legal opinions of courts, and illuminates the effects of ostensibly neutral policies that create and maintain oppression and hierarchy. One by one, the chapters in this book reimagine the norms that drive immigration policies and practices. In place of discrimination and subordination, the authors here demand welcome and equality. Where current law omits the voice and stories of noncitizens, the authors here center their lives and experiences. Collectively, they reveal how a feminist vision of immigration law could center a commitment to equality and justice and foster a country where diverse newcomers readily flourish with dignity.

This chapter explores the displacement of knowledge following the First World War in two ways. First, it focuses on the displacement of people, specifically the Russian refugees displaced by the civil war in the early 1920s. It shows how thousands of intellectuals were combed out of the wider body of displaced people and relocated in sites across Europe and the wider world. Second, the chapter looks at how other forms of intellectual capital were displaced following post-war treaties and the redrawing of international borders, such as Hungarian institutions that found themselves ‘displaced’ in Czechoslovakia and Romania. Arguments about the displacement of knowledge demonstrated how individuals, institutions, and even modes of thinking were portrayed as synonymous with certain national identities in order to effect political change. The chapter explores the tension between the nationalization of knowledge and its simultaneous claims to universalism.

Chapter 5 troubles the narrative on German culture further by situating the traditions of education and in the context of the migration of refugees into Germany from 2014 onwards. It analyses how this migration has prompted a profound recalibration of the role of artistic institutions, especially theatre. This chapter focuses on public theatres and the ways in which they have forged new civil society alliances addressing refugees and migration in inner-city environments. I argue that public city theatres in Germany are uniquely situated in the interstices of civil society, urban populations, and public authorities, allowing them to reposition concepts, policies, and practices engaging with migration on multiple scales. I show how theatres reframe local public policies while creating prefigurative political spaces and developing inclusive and critical visions of diversity and citizenship. This chapter focuses on the emergence of a refugee theatre collective, documenting the struggles of doing applied theatre with marginalised groups, but retaining an aesthetic approach to theatre, focusing on the rehearsal as a space and practice for ethico-aesthetic negotiation. This concluding chapter is thus also a case study in applied theatre work at the height of this German refugee ‘crisis’.

Writing by migrant authors constitutes the bulk of Australian literature, yet more often than not ‘migrant writing’ is used as a de facto label to indicate writing by non-anglophone authors. A further distinction is made with refugee writing, which is treated as a discrete subcategory within the larger field of migrant experience. This chapter restores migrant status to that of Australian settler writing, highlighting the ways in which Australian settler identity is formed through the repression of its migrant origins. It locates this impulse to distance settler identity from migrancy in the founding doctrine of terra nullius (used to justify the British colonisation of Australia), suggesting that this might be considered as a collective trauma, a mechanism that erased not only the country’s Aboriginal history but also its migrant past. Through a comparative analysis of works by Aboriginal authors Claire G. Coleman and Alexis Wright, migrant writers J. M. Coetzee and Felicity Castagna, and the refugee journalist and autobiographer, Behrouz Boochani, this chapter demonstrates the extent to which Australia has been invented by migrants and the migrant experience.

The pandemic, coupled with weather extremes and the possibility of violent global conflicts, evokes the wicked nature of contemporary human challenges. These cascading risks reveal the true character of the social fabric and expose its frailties. With vulnerabilities amplified, we are catapulted to a world of miseries.

When governments restricted travel and closed borders in efforts to control the COVID-19 pandemic, we had a preview of how the world will most likely respond to intense global heating. Nations in the Minority World will probably erect visible and invisible walls to stop refugees and migrants from the Majority World, who will have been forced to flee their homes because of climate impacts, from entering.

This chapter analyses the multifaceted impact of the arrival of thousands of refugees in Macau, showing how relief activities depended on the pragmatic interplay and cooperation of different state and non-state actors. Focusing on Chinese refugees from Shanghai and Guangdong province, and on Portuguese Eurasian refugees from Shanghai and Guangzhou, the chapter details how an unprecedented refugee influx constituted both a crisis and an opportunity for the territory’s administration, local population and the refugees themselves. These wartime refugee waves led to the emergence of a peculiar wartime cosmopolitanism in Macau, which sprang from new flows of people, capital and ideas from major treaty-port metropolises.

This chapter focuses on the experience of Hong Kong refugees in Macau. It addresses the role the British consulate in Macau played in refugee management and intelligence networks, explaining how the enclave was an important base and a connecting node for British operations. This chapter argues that Macau played an important supportive role to many in and from Hong Kong from late 1941 to the end of the war. It allowed for escapees to reach unoccupied China, for a great number of refugees to receive assistance, for intelligence to be gathered and for resistance activities to be coordinated. The chapter highlights the significant experience of colonial transplantation that allowed the British to keep a foothold in South China and facilitated the reoccupation of Hong Kong.

Chapter 3 argues that the successful prosecution of the war relied on civilians living under Allied occupation. In 1917, refugee camps and social services emerged as tools of humanitarian aid and administration to help secure Allied authority. It analyzes the administration of the camps and auxiliary services alongside writings of refugees, eye-witnesses and aid workers who learned to live with a war that wreaked havoc on the local economy, social services and regional governance.

Story of escaping the Holocaust and concentration camps. Becoming refugees. Lessons of adaptation. As we age, change is inevitable. Those who are successful are willing to make the necessary alterations to their current lifestyle. It’s all about adaptability. Two types of people as they age: Denialists and Realists. Anticipating and planning adjustments to your everyday way of doing things can make a tremendous difference in well-being. Ultimately, happiness comes from the inside, not the outside. It is understanding that each of us is a precious human life. If we can learn to adapt as we grow old, and be grateful, it allows us to find a new fullness of joy.

Fleeing the Hungarian Revolution. Becoming refugees in multiple countries.. Never give up and have a better attitude. The best way to work through your suffering? Helping others. Having compassion for the well-being of others will make you happy. I realized that if I shifted my focus and concern to another person, my own pain lessened. Fastest way to finding a happy brain is to start with love and compassion with others. It was drilled into us: respect for others. That was our culture; how we were raised. We took care of our parents and grandparents awsthey got older. Facing the Pandemic. If we all do what we’re supposed to do, keep our faith and have courage, and recognize the need we have for one another, then we’ll be fine.