In the 75th anniversary of CARA (Council for Assisting Refugee Academics), this book exploresthe experiences and achievements of refugee academics and their rescuers torecountBritain's pastrelationship with overseas victims of persecution, and as vital questions about our present-day attitudes towards immigration and asylum."

The Refuge and the Fortress offers an account of academic refugees in Britain, including those who fled Nazi Germany, and through their testimonies, seeks to understand the qualities they bestowed on their adoptive country. It provides an honest portrayal of the encounters of people from other cultures with the characteristics of the British.

Oh, Men, with Sisters dear
Oh, Men, with Mothers and Wives
It is not linen you're wearing out,
But human creatures' lives
Stitch - stitch - stitch,
In poverty, hunger and dirt,
Sewing at once, with a double thread,
A Shroud as well as a Shirt.
-from "The Song of the Shirt" by Thomas Hood (1843)

In April 2013 Rana Plaza, an unremarkable eight-story commercial block in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, collapsed, killing 1,129 people and injuring over 2,000. Most of them were low paid textile workers who had been ordered to return to their cramped workshops...