Introduction

The uncomfortable fact, pointing indeed to the vulnerability of many human populations which once thought themselves secure within their national boundaries, protected by their wealth and technology, but now exposed to terrorism, climate change and pandemic, suggests many responses. Some of these will be policy ones: plans for managing and, as we have seen in some cases, attempting to stop such flows of human beings. Displacement is not simply a social and psychological phenomenon: it is also an ethical one and a question that touches on the philosophy of history. The very notion of displacement logically requires a place or space from which one was removed, by force, by creeping environmental changes, or voluntarily or semi-voluntarily (one may move, although one would have preferred not to, because of loss of job, an unwelcome change in immigration status, or changes in the political or religious environment). The chapter also presents an overview on the key concepts discussed in this book.