Refugee Week 2025
16–22 June 2025

Refugee Week 2025
80 years ago, the Second World War came to a conclusion in Europe. While some may have been rejoicing in the streets, millions of others were on the move across Europe and around the world. These people were refugees of a global conflict, of genocide and a new developing Cold War – where to move to, how to move and what their welcome would be were a set of moving outcomes and resulting insecurity. However, the huge shifts that the war had created meant that refugees and displaced persons were just another part of the turmoil that the 20th century appeared to be in.
This huge movement of people would result in the 1951 UN Refugee Convention and a promise to help those who had been displaced by circumstances around them
Today people movement of any type has become an issue with political connotations of a small and/or capital ‘p’. Yet once you pare back the politics, the results are the same as they were 80 years ago – people of all ages moving from their homes due to necessity resulting in insecurity. History has taught us that it is unusual for people to abandon their homes and families when everything around them is good and promising; people generally do it as a result of a lack of choices, because they are scared or are scared for others, because they are forced to move or because they cannot survive where they once lived.
It took huge global co-operation and charitable intervention to try and support those who became refugees in 1945. Today it needs a greater understating of why people become refugees and a political (small ‘p’) resolve to help them.
Refugee Week is an opportunity for historians to use their knowledge of the past to help understand some of the needs of the present and to fill some of the gaps in historical knowledge that others may have.
The HA has drawn together some articles and resources that explore the historical experiences of refugees, their status and their experiences.
General resources
- Recorded webinar: The Aftermath of War: Allied Occupation and Displaced Persons in post-war Europe (open access in June)
- Recorded webinar: Researching the history of migration and refugees in Europe (open access in June)
- Real Lives: Surviving the war in the Soviet Union (open access)
- The Norwich Exile Community and the Dutch Revolt (History journal, open-access article - Wiley Online Library)
- Of Spies, Refugees and Hostile Propaganda: How Austria dealt with the Hungarian Crisis of 1956 (History journal article - Wiley Online Library)*
- Migration into the UK in the early 21st century (Historian article)
- Immigration and the making of British food (Historian article)
- Podcast: England's Immigrants 1330-1550
- Podcast: The Huguenots in Britain & Ireland
- Podcast: The Spanish Jewish expulsion
- Recorded Webinar: ‘Drawing the Line’: the 1947 Partition of India
* All HA members have access to all History journal articles (Wiley Online Library site). To access History content:
1. Sign in to the HA website (top right of any page)
2. Then click this link to allow access to History content on the Wiley site.
Primary resources
- Teaching about the Russian invasion of Ukraine and events happening there (open acess)
- Ideas for Assemblies: The life stories of refugees - Judith Kerr
- Scheme of work: Journeys - the story of migration
- Migration to Britain through time
- Teaching about the Kindertransport without the Kinder
- Recorded webinar: The Aftermath of War: Allied Occupation and Displaced Persons in post-war Europe (open access in June)
- Recorded webinar: Researching the history of migration and refugees in Europe (open access in June)
Secondary resources
- Teaching about the Russian invasion of Ukraine and events happening there (open acess)
- From The Holocaust To Recent Mass Murders And Refugees (open acess)
- Cunning Plan: Exploring the Migration experience
- Recorded Webinar: Teaching Jewish histories (open acess)
- Recorded Webinar: ‘Drawing the Line’: the 1947 Partition of India
- Recorded webinar: The Aftermath of War: Allied Occupation and Displaced Persons in post-war Europe (open access in June)
- Recorded webinar: Researching the history of migration and refugees in Europe (open access in June)
- Podcast: The Spanish Jewish expulsion