Why Did I Not Die with My Family?

""Why Did I Not Die with My Family?" is a searing, ground-level account of Europe's refugee crisis, following individuals through the camps, borders, and forests that define the continent's response to displacement. Hardigan doesn't flinch from the brutal machinery that thrives in these gaps—the smugglers and traffickers who profit from desperation, and the organized crime networks that turn a humanitarian crisis into a criminal marketplace. The result is essential, humane reporting on a system that fails the people it claims to protect." ~Tuesday Reitano, Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime

"Informative, lucid, and deeply affecting. I strongly recommend Richard Hardigan's book." ~Norman Finkelstein

"Behind every statistic is a human being. Richard Hardigan gives voice to those too often reduced to numbers, headlines, or political talking points. Through powerful testimony and careful research, this book offers a compelling account of displacement, survival, and the human consequences of Europe's border policies." ~Tommy Olsen, Founder, Aegean Boat Report

"True to his legacy as a writer dedicated to unveiling truths through lived human experiences, Richard Hardigan once again establishes himself as a master of people’s history. Why Did I Not Die with My Family? delivers unadulterated truth grounded in historical context. This volume is far more than a mere recounting of the horrors refugees face in Europe, or a critique of the continent's brutal, selective migration policies; it offers a holistic framework for understanding the root causes of the displacement crisis and the West’s undeniable culpability in engineering it. Why Did I Not Die with My Family? is an indispensable document — not only so that future historians may comprehend what transpired during the pivotal decade following the 2015 influx, but to understand what is unfolding today, and what will inevitably occur tomorrow if this hypocrisy, double-dealing, and moral collapse are not remedied for good." ~Dr. Ramzy Baroud, editor, Palestine Chronicle; author, 'Before the Flood' and 'My Father Was a Freedom Fighter'.

"Richard Hardigan’s 'Why Did I Not Die with My Family?' is a deeply moving account of the experiences of refugees and migrants making their way to Europe. Drawing on years spent working in camps, along the Balkan route, and aboard rescue ships in the Mediterranean, Hardigan brings us extraordinarily close to people too often reduced to statistics and political abstractions. His vivid reporting illuminates the enormous dangers, hardships, and indignities they encounter along the way and after arrival. Whatever one’s views on the extraordinarily difficult challenges migration poses for Europe, Hardigan reminds us that those at the center of these questions are individual human beings, each with a story that deserves to be heard." ~Sarah Whitson, former director, Human Rights Watch, Middle East and North Africa division

"Richard Hardigan’s masterpiece weaves personal stories with important historical and political contexts, covering not just the horror of Europe’s recent refugee crisis, but also the resilience and the solidarity. There is much for the reader to get angry about regarding the failures of European governments to live up to their moral and legal obligations, but there are also important lessons that might better enable us to mitigate such tragedies in the future" ~Stephen Zunes, Professor of Politics and Director of Middle Eastern Studies University of San Francisco

"A vital insight into the ongoing human cost of Europe's deadly border policies." ~Daniel Trilling, author, "Lights in the Distance: Exile and Refuge at the Borders of Europe"

"Drawing on gripping personal narratives of refugees and first-hand reporting from the front lines, Richard Hardigan exposes the heartbreaking tragedies of migration to Europe. An essential guide to understanding one of the defining issues of our time." ~Reece Jones, author, "Smuggler: Drugs, Gangs, and Refugees at America's Northern Border"

"An important contribution to humanizing the millions of people seeking sanctuary in Europe. Hardigan skillfully ties the human stories to a clear headed analysis of the conflicts driving asylum seekers across the sea and exposes the political resistance that underpins the shocking welcome that they receive when they arrive." ~Ben Rawlence, author, "City of Thorns", 'The Treeline" and "Think Like a Forest"

"This is a hard book to put down. It tells the story, in excruciating detail, of the global migration crisis and the failure of the EU to develop an appropriately humanitarian response. The political response has, so far, been framed in large part by the discourse of denial, blame, punishment and deterrence that has been promoted by the far right. They have both demonized migrants and turned a blind eye to the bigger systemic issues. This book sets out to correct the violent and deluded images that dominate public debates on migration. It not only gives insights into the conditions that migrants face, but also provides a vehicle for the migrants to tell their own story. If this does not force politicians, policy makers, media figures and ordinary people to put pause on their reflex use of stereotypes and develop a new vocabulary and perspective on the migrant crisis, then I don't know what will!" ~Nikos Papastergiadis, Professor of Media and Communications, University of Melbourne; author, "The Turbulence of Migration"

"A thorough, riveting, and often heartbreaking book. Hardigan collects decades of stories into a coherent analysis of the so-called refugee crisis in Europe. Part journalism, part scholarship, part anthropology, and part historiography, "Why Did I Not Die with My Family" is impossible to put down." ~Steven Salaita, Professor of English and Comparative Literature, The American University in Cairo

"Humanizing the most vulnerable in our world has a long and noble history and this important book contributes to the genre with compassion and insight. As refugees are demonized as a threat, listen to the voices of people who deserve our support and understanding. Humanity and sense can win." ~Antony Loewenstein, independent journalist and film-maker; author, “The Palestine Laboratory“

"Richard Hardigan draws on years of deep reporting and immersive field research to expose a European asylum system deliberately designed to deter, exhaust, exclude, and kill those most in need of refuge. Driven by the testimonies of asylum seekers themselves, Why Did I Not Die with My Family is an unsparing, essential account of an ongoing humanitarian tragedy." ~Peter Tinti, co-author, "Migrant, Refugee, Smuggler, Savior"

"Most academic works about refugees treat refugees in a way that undermines their agency as passive subjects. This book does the opposite. It creates space for refugees themselves to share their stories and knowledge. I understand this as fundamentally radical." ~—Behrouz Boochani, award-winning Kurdish writer, journalist, scholar, cultural advocate and filmmaker; author, 'No Friend But the Mountains' and 'Freedom, Only Freedom'

"Richard Hardigan’s book is an essential document chronicling the far too often invisible costs of the European Union’s efforts to stop migration and a testament to the humanity of those Europe is seeking to keep out. It should be essential reading for the citizens of all countries enacting policies of deterrence at their borders." ~Eric Reidy, Migration and Special Coverage Editor and Reporter at 'The New Humanitarian'

"Fortress Europe's logic is absurd, and Richard Hartigan makes you see it in full: a continent whose own imperial and neoliberal policies bear much of the responsibility for a refugee crisis now takes in the smallest fraction of those fleeing, while the true weight falls on already-stretched states in the Global South like Lebanon. Getting inside the camps, Hartigan lets refugees speak for themselves — portraits so vivid they turn abstract news figures and generic boat photos back into people, in the true surroundings of stateless camp life. So well does he humanise the absurdity and suffering of their stories in Greek camps such as Moria that I feel the great ancient playwrights could turn these tales into heart-wrenching tragicomedy. It's an indictment of the corporate media's silence on Europe's inhumane deterrence of refugees, and a warning to act: as the far right rises and climate collapse accelerates, the millions displaced today are a preview of the billions to come." ~Robin Boardman, Extinction Rebellion

"Hardigan trades philosophical debate for something far harder and far more useful: the actual stories of the people living it. A vital act of humanization, especially for LGBT Arabs, whose lives have gone largely untold." ~Dr. Nas Mohamed, Founder and President, Alwan Foundation; Qatari human rights activist

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…shows that the absurdity of the European and global mobility regime can be enforced only with border violence—death by policy, at sea and in deserts, the torment of having life placed on hold by asylum bureaucracies, in the limbo of processing and repatriation facilities.

In this heartfelt account, people—such as Mohamed, Paolo, and many other refugees met by Hardigan aboard the Sea Watch, on Greek islands, and along their trek across Balkan countries—are not symbols, or threats, or statistics. They are not passive victims, or saints. They simply try to navigate the unapologetic hostility that may emerge both in countries of origin and in Greece, Libya, Israel, Italy, and Tunisia (among other countries), and the obstacles that European Union and national authorities put on their way.

Europe’s “war on refugees,” as rigorously told by Hardigan and as experienced by the refugees he met, needs to become part of academic and civic curricula everywhere. In their residually liberal-democratic spaces, readers will not be able to claim ignorance. They will also see that pockets of humanity continue to exist and to resist. While alternative policies and ideas are also presented in the book, an author cannot tell readers what to do. Thus, do we join in solidarity, or perpetuate the war on refugees?

" ~Maurizio Albahari, author, 'Crimes of Peace: Mediterranean Migrations at the World’s Deadliest Border'

"A powerful and compelling indictment of the European Union’s border regime and the resounding failure of global north countries to recognize their complicity in producing forced migration. An accessible resource for folks who want to more fully understand the lived experiences of border control which are typically hidden from mainstream media and political discourse. Hardigan persuasively demonstrates the political choices that sanction and perpetuate racialized violence and harm against refugees and migrants seeking protection at European borders, reminding us that a different world is possible." ~Sarah Turnbull, Associate Professor of Sociology and Legal Studies, University of Waterloo

"Richard Hardigan captures the historic moment of Western societies’ shift from humanitarianism to securitarianism, from human rights to silent dehumanization. He does so through poignant narratives of exiles fleeing conflict and persecution only to encounter further violence, or even death, along their journey—and his demonstration of Europe’s responsibility for this moral collapse is painfully irrefutable." ~Didier Fassin, Collège de France; the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton; author, Humanitarian Reason, co-author Exile: Chronicle of the Border