Migration: A Historical Perspective

Migration from the Middle East and North Africa to Europe has reached mass proportions in the last few years. This is only the most recent development in a long history of population movements into, out of and within the Continent. Beginning with the story of European migration to other parts of the world, the largest mass migration in history, that took on immense proportions in the nineteenth century, the lecture goes on to discuss the repeated experiences of forced population exchanges, flight, and "ethnic cleansing" in Europe in the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. By examining this wider historical context we can begin to discern common features of migrants and refugees in many different situations, assess the problems they pose to receiving countries, and analyse how these countries have succeeded or failed in the attempt to assimilate large populations of immigrants.