Jessica Reinisch

Introduction: Relief in the Aftermath of War:

This special issue continues the Journal of Contemporary Historys tradition of presenting volumes dedicated to single topics or themes in modern history, a practice which dates back to Volume 1, Number 2, published in 1966. l Like its predecessors, this issue of the journal takes an unfamiliar or specialist subject relief work at the end of the second world war and puts it at the centre of historical enquiry. It focuses on emergency relief operations in Europe, which aimed to provide civilian populations with food, clothes, medicines and other living essentials. As the war drew to a close, large areas of the continent were marked by unparalleled destruction and the dislocation of millions of their inhabitants. The problem of how to feed, house, clothe and repatriate these destitute Europeans confronted those who sought to establish a measure of law and order. This collection of articles is concerned with the

‘Forever Temporary’: Migrants in Calais, Then and Now

This article examines two recent refugee crises in Calais: the debate around the Sangatte refugee camp, which was resolved in 2002, and the ongoing problems in Calais, which have been escalating since autumn 2014. It asks: why are these events repeating? What, if anything, has changed between 2002 and now? It points to a number of new developments since 2002, such as growing numbers of migrants worldwide, and a changing European political and legal landscape. But it also argues that a number of the same factors that led to the Sangatte crisis are still shaping events and responses in Calais today. They concern the persistent shortcomings of European states’ immigration controls, the failures to reach Europe-wide and international agreements on migration, and the inadequacies of international bodies such as the UNHCR and the 1951 Refugee Convention which it upholds.

Introduction: Agents of Internationalism

In 2005 Contemporary European History published a special issue on transnationalism, edited by Patricia Clavin and Jens-Wilhelm Wessels.1 The articles presented six examples of ‘transnational’ connections between Europeans from different countries, focusing primarily on contacts in the political and economic realms, and documenting a multitude of ties and links between Europeans at all levels from the end of the First World War to the early 1960s. Scholarship on the history of these kinds of connections has grown enormously since Clavin and Wessel’s issue was published, building on an already large body of research that had been expanding rapidly from at least the 1990s onwards. By now, an abundance of literature has puzzled over how to write the history of a complex, interconnected, ‘globalising’ world. Scholars have offered a number of different approaches: comparison of different (national or local) contexts; focus on the ‘entanglements’ between nations or the spaces ‘in between’ national borders; portrayal of diasporas and the movements of people, ideas and goods across borders; documentation of inherently international spheres and activities (such as science or humanitarianism); and inquiry into the roles of international organisations and institutions in the political architecture of the nineteenth and twentieth century world. Even if this growth of interest in ‘transnationalism’ was ultimately only making explicit assumptions that had long been implicit (and even if it is in practice more a ‘perspective’ than a ‘clear-cut method’)2, historians’ (and other scholars’) eagerness to

Refugees and the Nation-State in Europe, 1919–59:

This special issue examines how refugees and refugee crises were defined and managed by European nation-states in the four decades after the end of the First World War. Our introduction sketches out the broad historical canvas of the refugee problem in Europe and highlights a number of overarching themes of and comparisons between the papers.