We are all descended from migrants. Humans are, in in fundamental ways, a migratory species, more so than any other land mammal. Migration is one of the most toxically controversial subjects of our day, but it is not only an issue of our age. Migrants are expected to assimilate and encouraged to remain distinctive; to defend their heritage and adopt a new one. They are sub-human and super-human; romanticised and castigated, admired and abhorred. Migration tells us that this is not a new narrative; this is the history of migration, which is part of everybody's backstory - for those who consider themselves migrants and those who do not.
For most of our existence as a species, we were all nomads, and some of us still are. Houses and permanent settlements are a relatively late development - dating back little more than ten thousand years. Borders and passports are much more recent. From Neanderthals, to the Ancient Greeks, to the African slave trade, to modern migrants, Migration shows us that it is only by understanding how migration and migrants have been viewed in the past, that we can re-set the terms of the modern-day debate about migration.
We are all descended from migrants
Humans are, in fundamental ways, a migratory species, more so than any other land mammal. For most of our existence as a species, we were all nomads, and some of us still are. Houses and permanent settlements are a relatively late development - dating back little more than twelve thousand years. Borders and passports are much more recent. From the Neanderthals, Alexander the Great, Christopher Columbus and Pocahontas to the African slave trade, Fu Manchu, and Barack Obama, Migrants shows us that it is only by understanding how migration and migrants have been viewed in the past, that we can re-set the terms of the modern-day debate about migration.
Migrants presents us with an alternative history of the world, in which migration is restored to the heart of the human story. And in which humans migrate for wide range of reasons: not just because of civil war, or poverty or climate change but also out of curiosity and a sense of adventure. On arrival, migrants are expected both to assimilate and encouraged to remain distinctive; to defend their heritage and adopt a new one. They are sub-human and super-human; romanticised and castigated, admired and abhorred. Migrants tells us that this is not a new narrative; this is the history of us all, part of everybody's backstory - for those who consider themselves migrants and those who do not.
