Human movements across borders have always captured the interest of the social sciences. Today, with nearly 244 million international migrants and over 65 million refugees worldwide according to official figures from the United Nations, the phenomenon deserves more attention than ever. However, in order to understand the problem in all its complexity, we must look back and study it from a historical perspective. This is the only way to free ourselves from the many prejudices that exist regarding this issue. And this is what historian Emilio Redondo Carrero offers in his recent book Migrantes y refugiados en la posguerra mundial, based on a meticulous analysis of the roles that people, governments, and international organizations played in the years after World War II, when the migratory regime that remains in place in the twenty-first century was shaped.
The “catalyst” of the research, in the author's own words, is the activity...
