This episode of The Dig is brought to you by our listeners who support us at patreon.com and by Verso Books, which has loads of great left-wing titles perfect for dig listeners like you. One that you might like is Lights in the Distance,

Exile in Refuge at the Borders of Europe by Daniel Trilling.

A mother puts her children into a refrigerator truck and asks,

what else could I do? A runaway teenager comes of age on the streets,

sleeping in abandoned buildings. A student leaves his war-ravaged country behind because he

doesn't want to kill. Everyone among the thousands of people who come to Europe in

search of asylum each year possesses a unique story.

But those stories don't end as they cross into the west.

In lights in the distance, acclaimed journalist Daniel Trilling, draws on years of reporting to build a portrait of the refugee

crisis as seen through the eyes of the people who experienced it firsthand.

As the European Union has grown, so has a tangled and often violent system designed to filter

out unwanted migrants.

Visiting camps and hostels, sneaking into detention centers,

and delving into his own family's history of displacement.

Trilling weaves together the stories of people he met

and followed from country to country. In doing so, he shows that the terms

commonly used to define them, refugee or economic migrant, legal or illegal,

deserving or undeserving, fall woefully short of capturing the complex realities.

The founding story of the EU is that it exists to ensure the horrors of the 20th century are

never repeated.

Now, as it comes to terms with the worst refugee crisis since the Second World War,

its declared values of freedom, tolerance, and respect for human rights are being put to the test.

...