Episode 01 - Historical Perspective and Understanding Refugees Crisis - W/ Dr. Francesca Piana

In this opening episode of Transit: Stories of Movement and Meaning, we turn to history to better understand the present.Over the last decade, Europe has repeatedly been described as facing “the worst refugee crisis since the Second World War.” But what does this comparison really mean? What histories are invoked — and which ones are forgotten — when crises are framed in this way?In conversation with historian Francesca Piana, we explore the deeper roots of refugee protection and humanitarian responses in Europe. Drawing from her book Humanitarian Protection for Prisoners of War and Refugees in the Long Aftermath of the First World War, Piana invites us to shift the frame beyond the post-1945 narrative and look instead to the aftermath of the First World War — a period marked by collapsing empires, mass displacement, forgotten prisoners of war, Armenian genocide survivors, and Russian refugees in exile.Together, we discuss how early institutions such as the League of Nations, the International Committee of the Red Cross, and the International Labour Office experimented with forms of refugee protection long before the creation of the UNHCR or the 1951 Geneva Convention. We also examine how race, gender, class, and imperial legacies shaped — and continue to shape — who is protected, who is excluded, and who is rendered invisible.This episode challenges dominant narratives of crisis by foregrounding historical continuities, institutional failures, and, crucially, the voices and agency of refugees themselves. Rather than treating displacement as an exception or emergency, it asks what we can learn when we understand migration as a structural and recurring feature of modern history.Transit is hosted by Daniel Franco Sánchez and produced by Working Group 6 of the HIDDEN Cost Action.