Research Handbook on Asylum and Refugee Policy is an edited compilation of chapters on asylum and refugee issues written by an international collection of authors, which includes an attempt to decenter States receiving refugees in the global choice of chapter authors. The book is arranged in five parts, along with a brief introduction. The first part provides historical background, while the remaining four dig into current and emerging asylum and refugee policy issues.

Part I, which focuses on historical context, uses a critical lens to interrogate problems in past and current refugee systems. The focus, however, is not limited to covering the modern history of the 1951 Refugee Convention to the present. The authors discuss the refugee system’s development over centuries, including its colonial history, to provide context for understanding how the past has impacted the present and what led to the current refugee system. The thoughtful decision to provide nuanced historical discussions throughout each chapter makes for an effective first part.

Part II looks through a geographic lens to better understand how policies developed in Latin America, India, Canada, Europe, the Middle East, and the United States. Digging into the details of refugee policies in each location reveals the many approaches and some parallels. This assists the reader in developing an in-depth understanding of how each policy functions, including each policy’s shortcomings. The chapter on Europe provides a captivating account of how three refugees ended up in France, interweaving narratives with an analysis of how their experiences have been shaped by the European Union’s Dublin Regulation.

The remaining parts discuss issues common across refugee policies, with some chapters taking a deep dive into one country or region while others paint a broader brush across regions, looking at such issues as gender, climate change, children, race, and violence. The COVID-19 pandemic affected border policies, and refugees have felt the impact of these changes. One chapter focuses on the devastating details of these impacts. Several other chapters hone in on African countries, including discussions of othering and gender issues, with significant emphasis placed on revealing colonial impacts on the current system.

Based on over eighty interviews, another chapter discusses Syrian refugees in Jordan and Turkey and, like the aforementioned chapter on Europe, provides a personal perspective on the devastating impact of certain refugee laws and policies on the studied populations. Another chapter is co-authored by a queer United Kingdom (UK) barrister who was born in Nigeria and was granted asylum in the UK after a thirteen-year court battle. Juxtaposed among chapters that include big-picture discussions of refugee systems, the book’s editors wisely decided to include chapters that view the topic from a personal lens, providing the necessary grounding to consider refugee policies’ real-world impacts on individuals. As a useful tie-in, two chapters detail ethical considerations when researching refugee populations. This is a thoughtful inclusion to help readers critically evaluate whether the information they receive about refugees was ethically obtained, or if it exploited the researched migrants.

Overall, this edited compilation includes chapters that capture the nuances of asylum and refugee policies and their impacts on refugees. This is a truly global issue, and the editors addressed this by cultivating a global set of authors, thus providing insight based on their expertise within this area of law and policy. Any library that includes immigration law in its collection should consider this book for the depth and breadth of understanding it brings to asylum and refugee issues.