"Marrus manages to offer an even-handed, superbly documented, and clearly written analysis of each episode [of European refugee flows], while simultaneously unraveling the web of another story: the evolution of international procedures and institutions that would act as occasional buffers, but more frequently as impartial but concerned middlemen, in refugee-generating crises."—Demetrios G. Papademetriou, American Political Science Review
"It is usually the most extreme aspect of calamity that attracts our attention.... Somehow, human suffering on an aggregate level seems best understood when presented in the category of death. Michael Marrus's impressive study implicitly challenges this wide-ranging epistemology of human misery and destruction by making not the millions of killed but rather an even greater mass of refugees the subject of his meticulous study. The argument is simple, yet convincing. For Marrus, the phenomenon of refugees on a massive scale is inextricably linked to the development of modern politics and society.... [W]e should be grateful to Marrus for having provided us with a fine study of a topic that should command the constant attention of all decent human beings in the world."—Andrei S. Markovits, The Journal of Modern History
"Heinrich Böll has called this 'the century of prisoners and refugees.' Michael Marrus's carefully crafted book helps to explain why this is so."—Peter I. Rose, The Christian Science Monitor