New Delhi, Jan. 6 -- At the cusp of a new year, the global outlook appears increasingly grim. Escalating conflicts and resurgent authoritarianism are undermining domestic and international institutions alike, while rising wealth inequality is deepening economic insecurity and eroding social cohesion.

Perhaps the most dispiriting development is the growing hatred of the 'other.' In country after country, political leaders increasingly dehumanize migrants and refugees, casting people fleeing poverty, persecution, and conflict as a mortal threat. Such rhetoric brings to mind W. H. Auden's Refugee Blues. Written on the eve of World War II, a period when refugees were similarly blamed for economic insecurity and social decline, the poem depic...