Refugee

The League’s agencies and commissions were specialist bodies dealing with problems such as refugees, disease, working conditions, slavery and illegal drugs. Their work was often humanitarian: it aimed to protect people’s lives and welfare. These problems crossed national borders, so individual governments could not always deal with them effectively alone.

Around 250,000 Belgian refugees came to Britain after the German invasion of Belgium. Most returned in 1919. This illustrates an important distinction: a large wartime arrival did not necessarily produce a permanently enlarged migrant community.

Refugees had reached England earlier, but persecution under the Catholic king Louis XIV brought a further major movement from the 1670s onwards. Restrictions included the destruction of Protestant churches and exclusion from professions. From 1681, the dragonnades intensified pressure: soldiers were lodged in Protestant households to force people to convert to Catholicism.

Government decisions and religious beliefs worked together to shape where refugees could settle. This did not mean that England offered equal religious freedom to everyone.