The New Odyssey: The Story of the Twenty-First-Century Refugee Crisis

By Patrick Kingsley

Liveright Publishing Corporation, 2017

ISBN: 978-1631492556

351 pages

USD $26.95

Reviewed by Jamie N. Sanchez, PhD, Assistant Professor and Program Director of PhD Intercultural Studies, Cook School of Intercultural Studies, Biola University, La Mirada, California.

According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, twenty-four people are displaced every minute. In fact, the modern-day refugee crisis has created the largest population of displaced persons, estimated at 65.3 million people in 2015, since World War II (See Edwards 2016 article, “Global forced displacement hits record high,” on the UNHCR website). Governments, NGO’s, religious organizations, churches, and concerned individuals throughout the world are grappling with the overwhelming numbers of displaced persons and those impacted by them.

Patrick Kingsley, who is The Guardian’s first-ever migration correspondent, has written a fascinating account of one man, Hashem al-Souki, and his journey from Syria throughout Europe in an attempt to get asylum. Through Hashem’s story – he is referred to by his first name throughout the book – Kingsley alerts the reader of the horrifying details of what a modern refugee must endure on the long trek to possible settlement.

The book is organized into ten chapters and all except one highlight a different location along Hashem’s journey. Chapter Five focuses on the worst shipwreck in modern history in which nine hundred people drowned (119). Kingsley places this chapter just after Hashem steps on a boat and just before the reader learns he has made it safely to Italy, to highlight the arbitrariness of a refugee’s journey in which so many different factors are involved. The book ends with Hashem’s arrival in Sweden awaiting asylum and permanent residency.

Kingsley’s inclusion of refugee stories and voices is what makes this book stand out. Much of what is currently available about refugees is historical, statistical, or anecdotal. Throughout his book, Kingsley vacillates between reporting the story in journalistic fashion and including the voices of those involved in the refugee story. For example, in addition to Hashem, the reader meets Hans, a Jewish Austrian man who smuggles Syrians into Hungary. The humanization of the impersonal label “refugee,” invites the reader into a story, into pain, and into the struggle thrust upon people, turned refugee, due to war, famine, and natural disasters. It also invites the reader into a space of contemplation where one is left to wonder, “What would I do if I were in Hashem’s situation? Would there be a Hans there to help?”

The modern-day refugee crisis is a heart-wrenching reality that demands both compassion and action from the Christian Church. In just about every region of the world, there are, unfortunately, growing populations of displaced people in need of help. This book is a great tool to begin learning the details, barriers, and tragedies involved in resettlement. But, it should also spur reader on to ask themselves, “How can I be a part of a refugee story?” 

For Further Reading

Bauman, S. and Soerens, M. and Smeir, I. Seeking Refuge: On the Shores of the Global Refugee Crisis. Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers, 2016.

Padilla, E. and Phan, P., eds. Contemporary Issues of Migration and Theology. New York, NY: Palgrave MacMillan, 2013.

Weiwei, Ai, dir. Human Flow. Germany: NFP Marketing and Distribution, 2017.