The United States and Canada have historically accepted approximately three-quarters of resettled refugees, leading the world in this key aspect of global refugee protection. Between 1945 and 1980, both countries transformed their previous policies of refugee deterrence into expansive resettlement programs. Explanations for this shift have typically focused on Cold War foreign policy, but there was a domestic force that propelled the rise of resettlement: religious groups.

In Send Them Here Geoffrey Cameron explains the genesis and development of refugee resettlement policy in North America through the lens of the essential role played by faith-based organizations. Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish groups led advocacy efforts for refugees after the Second World War, and they cooperated with each other and their respective governments to implement the first formal resettlement programs. Those policy frameworks laid the foundation for diverging policy trajectories in each country, leading ultimately to private sponsorship in Canada and the voluntary agency program in the United States. Religious groups remain embedded in the world’s most successful refugee resettlement programs.

Send Them Here draws on a rich archival record and extensive comparative research to contribute new insights to the history of refugee policy, human rights, and the role of religion in modern policymaking and global humanitarian efforts.

Geoffrey Cameron is a PhD candidate and Trudeau Scholar at the University of Toronto. He has degrees from Trent and Oxford Universities, where he was a Commonwealth Scholar. He is the co-author of Exceptional People: How Migration Changed the World and Will Define Our Future (2012).

Geoffrey Cameron's profile page

"Send Them Here is an outstanding book, and one that is sure to have immediate impact on the study of religion, politics, immigration, and refugee policy in twentieth-century North America. In the age of Trump populism, with immigration policy front and centre in a polarized US political climate, and faith-based organizations fighting on both sides of the divide, Geoffrey Cameron's book provides us with a long view of how we got to this contested moment. Send Them Here is a brilliantly researched, sharply argued, and compellingly written book that political scientists and historians alike will celebrate as an innovative and important intervention." Darren Dochuk, University of Notre Dame and author of Anointed with Oil: How Christianity and Crude Made Modern America

“Send Them Here: Religion, Politics and Refugee Resettlement in North America is an impressive, ambitious, and multifocal study that scholars will find valuable as a comprehensive analysis of refugee resettlement policy.” Church History