Refuge puts forth a critical evaluation of the global response towards refugees and posits an approach to modernize the response going forward.

I don’t think there’s much quibble with the basic idea that Paul Collier and Alexander Betts get at in Refuge that the current refugee regime that exists internationally needs to be fixed and needs to be fixed badly (well unless you are in charge of the busted system.) The reason the system is broken is covered in the first chapter or two: It’s a system that was designed for a Cold War mentality of East vs. West persecution that has failed to adapt to the post-Cold War world and the refugee reality that most refugees are fleeing to the nearest stable state within the region instead of making the long journey to Europe or the US. This in turn burdens often fragile states themselves.

Betts and Collier argue that such a state of affairs needs to change and offer something of a framework. What if refugees are categorized as a development rather than a humanitarian problem, then the international community could adapt localized state by state solutions that could prove beneficial to both refugee populations and native communities alike? I don’t ultimately know that the global political will exists, but I applaud Betts and Collier for tossing an idea out there.

A timely non-fiction piece about Refugees and how we may better understand the situations they're in.