ABSTRACT
This chapter sets the context for book and the themes and analysis in the subsequent chapters that explore theoretical and substantive aspects of current forced migration. It traces continuities and discontinuities in histories and the experiences of forced migrants that unfold in the global and local landscapes. It examines the ways in which forced migration has become increasingly complex with greater numbers living in prolonged precarity and with fewer or no rights. This central themes explored are: the reconfiguration of borders, the expansion of prolonged exile, and changes in protection and rights and individual agency.
