Book Review: ‘Rescue: Refugees and the Political Crisis of our Time’

Rescue: Refugees and the Political Crisis of Our Time, David Miliband, TED Books, Simon & Schuster, 2017

After being UK Foreign Secretary from 2007 – 2010, David Miliband became head of the IRC (International Rescue Committee) in 2013. This short and engaging book is the companion to his 2017 TED talk. We learn of his personal formation in the Labour party, and his family of Polish Jews who escaped the Nazi period in Europe: “the first refugees I ever met were my parents”. He is savvy about politics but admits to a steep learning curve in the refugee sector: “I always say that government has more power than an NGO but more obstacles in its way”. Albert Einstein founded the IRC after fleeing to the US in 1933 and said “I am almost ashamed to be living in such peace while the rest struggle and suffer.” Miliband’s strong and inspirational values echo this and he has a self-effacing conversational style, with stories of personal revelation, refugee encounters and insights gained. He learnt that most of what he – and the rest of us – think about refugees and their context, is wrong.

Yet he declares himself as instinctively a public policy “big picture” man, whose aim is to provoke new thinking to apply idealism and pragmatism to the current context: “I truly believe this, that the biggest question in the 21^st century, concerns our duty to strangers…why they’re displaced, how they survive, what help they need, and what our responsibilities are.” With the global rise of toxic politics increasing, heightened refugee needs, and great uncertainty about the way forward, he may be one of the few leaders with the background to combine thought leadership with a practical political program. Part of his approach is reforming – by devolution of power – the way refugees are enabled to pursue their lives.

So far I have talked about Miliband, but does the IRC advance the issues he is concerned about? From the website, I found his November 2019 speech to the Chinese Communist Party Training School, where his pitch is for China to increase its global role in the humanitarian crisis. He says it is a test for the multilateral order which China supports, and solving it is a public good just like economic and ecological security. He says direct cash payments, work and education, and resettlement are the immediate needs, but many powerful countries like China don’t take refugees, and this needs to change. There is a broader agenda which you can read in this speech, and much to consider here for those who want answers and alternatives to the awful future which looms for most of the world’s refugees. It provides some confidence that a plan reflecting the right mix of heart and head can be devised, but the current stagnant political response is more like a ticking time bomb than a problem which dissipates over time.

Kevin Bain reviews refugee books at Independent Australia, and has compiled a Reading Guide for Mornington Peninsula Human Rights Group.