Unit 5: Defining Refugees

Crisis and the Emergence of Refugeehood

Oleksii Chebotarov

Welcome to this, the first unit in this history module in which we’ll examine the emergence of refugeedom as a social, political, and legal category in East Central Europe during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

This period was characterized by:

• imperial decline,
• ethnonationalism,
• growing antisemitism,
• shifting borders,
• mass migration.

Long before international refugee law was codified, states and societies in the region confronted the challenge of managing displaced people.

These early responses to forced migration—improvised, uneven, and often deeply political—laid the foundation for later refugee regimes and humanitarian practices.

What will you be studying?

In this unit, you will:

1. study how imperial authorities, local administrations, and non-state actors addressed displaced populations in the absence of formal asylum systems;
2. focus particularly on the Habsburg and Russian Empires, where Jewish communities faced pogroms, restrictive legal frameworks, and economic exclusion;
3. examine how these conditions produced forms of movement that combined elements of exile, transit, and emigration, blurring the lines between refugees, forced migrants, and transmigrants;
4. analyze this period by drawing on key concepts from refugee and migration studies, including:
   1. forced migration
   2. refugees
   3. exile
   4. transmigration
   5. civil society-led humanitarianism.

The case study

You will also undertake a central case study of the Jewish refugee crisis in Galicia following the 1881 pogroms in the Russian Empire.

This will offer you a lens through which to analyze how refugee status was constructed, contested, and managed at the imperial margins.

This crisis sheds light on the role of border towns like Brody as sites of experimental governance and transnational aid.

It also illustrates how displaced individuals navigated complex legal and political landscapes in search of protection and passage.

How is the unit structured?

The unit is divided into three main sections:

1. Introduction, key concepts, and definitions
2. Historical context
3. The case study

Throughout the unit, you will have the opportunity, which we highly recommend you take, to explore additional sources of information through the Exercises sections. Independent analytical work will help you develop a more nuanced understanding of the core information provided in the unit.

A reading list of Primary and Secondary sources is provided at the end; this will guide you on how you can further explore different aspects of the topic.

Through the unit, you will have the opportunity to:

• reflect on how refugeehood was shaped not only by violence and displacement, but also by how states and societies chose to respond;
• critically examine the relationship between migration and empire;
• learn about the early development of humanitarian networks;
• investigate the historical roots of contemporary debates over refugees and asylum.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this unit, you will be able to:

• Understand the political, legal, and social context of East Central Europe in the late nineteenth century and its impact on population mobility.
• Analyze refugees, forced migrants, and exiles in historical terms and interpret their significance.
• Evaluate the roles of imperial state structures, local authorities, and non-state actors in managing mass displacement and migration.
• Interpret the causes, mechanisms, and consequences of the Jewish refugee crisis in Galicia.
• Reflect on the legacy of this early refugee movement in shaping later humanitarian discourses and institutions.
• Apply conceptual tools to critically assess modern debates around refugeehood and humanitarianism through a historical lens.