This book offers the first historical examination of the origins of refuge for persecuted foreigners. It argues that this modern humanitarian norm—the responsibility to protect foreign refugees of any race, class, politics, or creed—developed in nineteenth-century Britain through a popular movement that equated the provision of refuge with a national liberal identity and compelled even the most powerful politicians to heed its demands. The public’s moral enthusiasm for foreign refugees ironically drew strength from the political and physical resources of the British Empire. When the Empire’s r ... More

This book offers the first historical examination of the origins of refuge for persecuted foreigners. It argues that this modern humanitarian norm—the responsibility to protect foreign refugees of any race, class, politics, or creed—developed in nineteenth-century Britain through a popular movement that equated the provision of refuge with a national liberal identity and compelled even the most powerful politicians to heed its demands. The public’s moral enthusiasm for foreign refugees ironically drew strength from the political and physical resources of the British Empire. When the Empire’s resources came under strain in the late nineteenth century, the movement for refuge suffered. It was only during this period of retreat that attempts were made to codify a right to asylum and to define the refugee in law. The law formalized Britain’s commitment to persecuted foreigners, but it ultimately dampened popular enthusiasm by obviating public initiatives on refugees’ behalf. In telling this story, the book revises current understandings about the origins of refuge, which have focused exclusively on the period post-1914. The book also puts refugee relief front and center in histories of human rights and international law and of studies of Britain in the world. In so doing, it seeks to provide a better understanding of the dynamic relationship between law, resources, and moral storytelling that, central to the fortunes of refugee relief in the nineteenth century, remains critical today.