Unsettling of Europe: great migration 1945 to the present. Peter Gatrell. 2019.

Whether trying to escape danger, or to find a better life, or as a result of deliberate policy, whether moving from the countryside to the city, or between countries, or from outside the continent altogether, migrants have stood at the heart of modern Europe’s experience.

Unsettling of Europe is a new history of the continent, charting the ever-changing arguments about the desirability or otherwise of migrants and their central role in Europe’s post-1945 prosperity, Gatrell is as fascinating on the giant movements of millions (such as the epic waves of German migration) as on that of much smaller groups, such as the Karelians, Armenians, Moluccans or Ugandan Asians. Above all he has written a book that makes the reader deeply aware of the many extraordinary journeys taken by countless individuals in pursuit of work, safety and dignity, all the time.