Refugee Politics in Early Modern Europe

The first comparative exploration of refugee politics in early modern Europe to identify the agency of displaced minorities in forging humanitarian networks.

Refugees have existed since ancient times, but it was in the early modern era that they were first recognized as a social category. This open access book maps the invention of the refugee and uncovers their impact on local, regional, and transnational politics.
With case studies ranging from Scandinavia to the Mediterranean Basin, Refugee Politics in Early Modern Europe traces how refugees transformed the European continent. Topics explored include: the discursive strategies of exiles to distinguish themselves from other migrants; the role of displaced people in forging humanitarian networks; and the agency of religious minorities in migration management and imperialism. Moving beyond common images of refugees as passive victims of repression, this collection of essays shines a spotlight on the political interplay between displaced people, persecuting authorities, transnational support groups, and receiving societies – drawing a fuller picture of the many decision-making processes that determined the lives of newcomers and their hosts. The result is a sophisticated comparative study of mobility, identity, power, and politics, which will be vital reading to all scholars of migration history.
The open access edition of this book is available under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license on www.bloomsburycollections.com. Open access was funded by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO).