The Next Great Migration (the Story Of Movement On A Changing Planet)

By (author) Shah Sonia
Description
''A dazzlingly original picture of our relentlessly mobile species’ NAOMI KLEIN ‘Fascinating . . . Likely to prove prophetic in the coming months and years’ OBSERVER ‘A dazzling tour through 300 years of scientific history’ PROSPECT ''A hugely entertaining, life-affirming and hopeful hymn to the glorious adaptability of life on earth'' SCOTSMAN __________________ We are surrounded by stories of people on the move. Wild species, too, are escaping warming seas and desiccated lands in a mass exodus. Politicians and the media present this upheaval of migration patterns as unprecedented, blaming it for the spread of disease and conflict, and spreading anxiety across the world as a result. But the science and history of migration in animals, plants, and humans tell a different story. Far from being a disruptive behaviour, migration is an ancient and lifesaving response to environmental change, a biological imperative as necessary as breathing. Climate changes triggered the first human migrations out of Africa. Falling sea levels allowed our passage across the Bering Sea. Unhampered by borders, migration allowed our ancestors to people the planet, into the highest reaches of the Himalayan Mountains and the most remote islands of the Pacific, disseminating the biological, cultural and social diversity that ecosystems and societies depend upon. In other words, migration is not the crisis – it is the solution. __________________ Tracking the history of misinformation from the 18th century through to today’s anti-immigration policies, The Next Great Migration makes the case for a future in which migration is not a source of fear, but of hope.
Review quote
This fascinating study debunks false narratives about immigration and finds that, in common with other species, the urge to move is written in our genes . . . This book – a wandering narrative about why people wander – is likely to prove equally prophetic in the coming months and years, since it asks two questions that are already shaping our geopolitics: what causes human beings to migrate? And is such mass movement beneficial to more settled communities and nations?
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Shah [tackles] with compassion and insight a deeply complex and challenging subject . . . Shah effectively shows that understanding human migration is fundamentally an intersectional problem, incorporating race, ethnicity, religion, gender, class, economic inequality, politics, nationalism, colonialism and health, not to mention genetics, evolution, ecology, geography, climate, climate change and even plate tectonics . . . Her work addresses issues of fundamental importance to the survival and well-being of us all
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A deeply researched and counterintuitive history . . . [Anti-immigration] arguments may indeed be hollow but they spread their spores nonetheless: we need books such as this to expose them
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Sonia Shah’s life-affirming celebration of migration is an antidote to the naysayers . . . A hugely entertaining, life-affirming and hopeful hymn to the glorious adaptability of life on earth. Always, the argument is threaded through with delicious descriptions of the natural world and its endless mobility, from butterflies to hungry bears . . . [Shah’s] luminous love for this changing world is surely a far better guide, as we face an uncertain future, than the dreary fear-mongering and lies of those she condemns . . . A rich measure of gaiety, humour, and hope
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A book that captivates on many levels . . . Part travel journal, part reportage, part investigative journalism, it’s a work impeccably researched but heartfelt and driven by eloquent descriptive storytelling . . . Shah takes the reader on a fascinating kaleidoscopic historical and geographical journey . . . Fascinating, and extremely well written, this is a book of our times