This book considers the history of the emergence of Homo sapiens who vanquished earlier groups and can be identified as our ancestors. Going back to the rift valleys of Africa, this study of migration covers historic swathes of human movement to more recent settlements in North and South America, the patterns of European settlement and colonisation across the globe. It takes into account slavery and indentured labour as responsible for the enforced movement of vast groups across continents and the continuing reality of mixed racial communities which have emerged from these shipped cargoes of people. It looks at the cataclysmic effect of the displacement of millions as a result of the Indian Partition and considers the movement and influx of refugees today escaping violence, exploitation or effects of the climate crisis, as they face hostility and/or indifference on shores they arrive at, are rendered stateless and face the reality of homelessness as the world’s flotsam who exist on the margins of society. About the Author: Bimalendu Bhattacharya, completed his BA and Master's in Geography from Presidency College and the University of Calcutta, before conducting his research at the London School of Economics as a Commonwealth Scholar. He has consistently pursued a career in teaching and research, having taught at many of India's premier institutions like Gauhati University (Assam), Indian Institute of Technology (Kharagpur), Presidency College, Calcutta (now University) and the University of North Bengal where he was instrumental in founding India's first Department of Geography and Applied Geography, was a Senior Professor, Head of Department and Dean of the Faculty of Science. Prof Bhattacharya is an established Geography scholar and his publications include Samaj Bigyaniyo Bhugol (Social Geography in Bengali) co-authored with his late wife, Prof Anima Bhattacharya. He is the author of Urban Development in India Since Prehistoric Times (1979; Revd Edn. 2006), Sikkim: Land and People (1997), Geography of a Himalayan Kingdom (with Anima Bhattacharya and Neil Fraser, 2001), Urbanisation, Urban Sustainability and the Future of Cities (2010), Geography of Deprivation: An Unfair World (2014), Global Urban Process: Growth of Towns and Cities (2017), Food: The Growing Challenge for Human Survival (2020). His book, entitled Agricultural Practices Sustaining Mankind is in press.