14-05-2025
New book by Najat Vallaud-Belkacem explores urgent refugee issues in Europe
Currently serving as president of the association France Terre d'Asile, Najat Vallaud-Belkacem has co-authored a new book with Benjamin Michallet, an economist specializing in forced displacement and an assessor judge appointed by the UNHCR at France's National Court of Asylum. Titled Refugees – What We Aren't Told (published by Stock), the book will be released on May 21, 2025, and explores the complexities of migration within the European asylum framework.
A subject often approached polemically or exploited for political ends, migration is more urgent than ever. «Images of migrants in makeshift boats fuel growing public anxiety, while human rights advocates helplessly count the dead in the Mediterranean or the English Channel…» notes the publisher.
«If there's one topic that pits two entrenched camps against each other—impervious to opposing arguments—it's this one. Yet, as the world changes in every possible way, for better or worse—through international conflicts, climate change with its all-too-predictable consequences, and crises that know no borders—it is urgent to break this deadlock», the statement continues.
A former Minister for Women's Rights and later of National Education, Higher Education, and Research, Vallaud-Belkacem brings her political experience to the table. Together with Michallet, she offers a multidisciplinary perspective aimed at anticipating future migration flows and exploring how to reconcile the protection of displaced people with the well-being of host societies—through a clear understanding of data, statistics, and public policy evaluations.
The authors argue that «the widespread confusion surrounding these issues is what feeds the sense of being overwhelmed». This is why their book draws on «the latest international research» to shed light on the situation by addressing simple yet often overlooked questions absent from mainstream debate.
