From Refugee to Obe


Book Description

The Life of Charles Gad Strasser is well captured in the title, From Refugee to OBE. The reader will find not only a passionate personal story of one mans climbing of the mountain but also an important historical rendition from war-torn Europe to the flourishing industries and institutions, which have contributed to our current prosperous world. Charles Strasser fled from his native Czechoslovakia when he was eleven in 1938 just barely in advance of the Nazi war machine. Six years later, he joined the allied armies and participated in the final victory. Before his twenty-fifth birthday, he founded a company that would employ hundred and have an international scope, with ties to Germany, Japan, and many developing countries. While he excelled in business, it was for his many humanitarian services that he was awarded the distinction, Officer of the Order of the British Empire. He received his OBE from Her Majesty, the Queen, at an investiture in Buckingham Palace. The reader is invited to come along with Charles Strasser on his exciting journey from refugee to OBE.




Children of the Siege


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The Suitcase


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"When a weary stranger arrives one day with nothing but a suitcase, his new neighbors ask nervous questions about who he is and where he comes from before they are challenged to decide between trusting the newcomer or taking the risk of not believing him"--




The Making of a Refugee


Book Description

Through an examination of interviews provided by 100 children of refugees in Cyprus, born after their family's displacement, Hadjiyanni illustrates the formation of a refugee consciousness, an identity adopted by many children who never experienced the actual displacement of their family. Focusing on the process by which a child born into a refugee family develops a refugee identity, the book identifies nine dimensions that inform this consciousness. Establishing the family as the primary transmitter of the refugee identity and the child as its constructor, the author points to the power of homeplace in forming and supporting such an identity. The book challenges the notion that refugee consciousness is a separate identity and a crisis by reinterpreting it as a resistance to adversity. Shedding new light on what it means to be a refugee, this work is a welcome addition to the field. Beginning with a discussion of the meaning of the term refugee, and how it has been adopted by the children of some refugees in Cyprus, the author moves to an examination of the meaning of past and present to the formation of a refugee consciousness. She then looks to the causes of such identity formation, focusing on the transference of identity from parent to child, and the effects of past loss on children who have not actually experienced displacement. Housing issues are also examined as a contributing factor, as refugee housing is typically distinct, and constrained, compared to housing for native citizens of a community. The author concludes her work with a discussion of the implications of the Cyprus example for both the future and for general refugee studies.




The Boy Refugee


Book Description

The Boy Refugee: A Memoir from a Long-Forgotten War is the story of a young refugee boy in the aftermath of the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971. The story chronicles his escape from war-ravaged Bangladesh to the relative safety of a barbed-wired internment camp in the foothills of the Himalayas, his day-to-day life as a civilian prisoner of war, and his thousand-mile, two-year-long journey back to Pakistan.




Borderline Justice


Book Description

From pre-arrival to detention and deportation, Borderline Justice describes the exclusionary policies, inhumane decisions, and obstacles to justice for refugees and migrants in the current legal system.Frances Webber, a legal practitioner with over 30 years experience, provides a unique insight into how the law has been applied to migrants, refugees and other "unpopular minorities." The book records some of the key legal struggles of the past thirty years which have sought to preserve values of universality in human rights - and the importance of continuing to fight for those values, inside and outside the courtroom. With its combination of legal and political analysis with insider insights, Borderline Justice will appeal to both academic and non-academic audiences. The themes and analysis cross boundaries of law, politics, sociology, criminology, refugee studies, and terrorism studies, appealing to the radical tradition in all these disciplines.




Second Chance


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From Migrants to Refugees


Book Description

In From Migrants to Refugees Jill Rosenthal tells the history of how Rwandan migrants in a Tanzanian border district became considered either citizens or refugees as nation-state boundaries solidified in the wake of decolonization. Outlining the process by which people who have long lived and circulated across the Rwanda-Tanzania border came to have a national identity, Rosenthal reveals humanitarian aid’s central role in the ideological processes of decolonization and nation building. From precolonial histories to the first Rwandan refugee camps during decolonization in the 1960s to the massive refugee camps in the 1990s, Rosenthal highlights the way that this area became a testing ground for novel forms of transnational aid to refugees that had global implications. As local and national actors, refugees, and international officials all attempted to control the lives and futures of refugee groups, they contested the authority of the nation-state and the international refugee regime. This history, Rosenthal demonstrates, illuminates how tensions between state and international actors divided people who share a common history, culture, and language across national borders.




Saving One's Own


Book Description

In this remarkable, historically significant book, Mordecai Paldiel recounts in vivid detail the many ways in which, at great risk to their own lives, Jews rescued other Jews during the Holocaust. In so doing he puts to rest the widely held belief that all Jews in Nazi-dominated Europe wore blinders and allowed themselves to be led like “lambs to the slaughter.” Paldiel documents how brave Jewish men and women saved thousands of their fellow Jews through efforts unprecedented in Jewish history. Encyclopedic in scope and organized by country, Saving One’s Own tells the stories of hundreds of Jewish activists who created rescue networks, escape routes, safe havens, and partisan fighting groups to save beleaguered Jewish men, women, and children from the Nazis. The rescuers’ dramatic stories are often shared in their own words, and Paldiel provides extensive historical background and documentation. The untold story of these Jewish heroes, who displayed inventiveness and courage in outwitting the enemy—and in saving literally thousands of Jews—is finally revealed.




The Damned Balkans - A Refugee Road Trip


Book Description

"If you ask me, being a refugee is a feeling of bitter hopelessness, of sweet desire for life, and naive hope in a miracle. These feelings can only be fully understood by those few who have gone through that experience. And, of course, by John Farebrother." Refugees have no rights and no voice. This is the inside story of part of the refugee crisis in the Balkans 20 years ago