A 21st Century Perspective of W.H Auden’s Refugee Blues

The present ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine, has resulted in an influx of Ukrainian refugees to Western Europe. The retrieval of bodies on the Italian coast of migrants from countries like Somalia, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan trying to escape from their countries due to war, economic crisis, has become a common sight. The problem of sheltering refugees from war torn has become a major political and humanitarian crisis in Europe in the 21st century. Taking the current geo-political scenario into consideration, this paper attempts to examine W. H. Auden’s perspective on the plight of refugees in his poem ‘Refugee Blues’, published in 1939, which calls for more flexible immigration laws by European countries on humanitarian, moral and ethical grounds.