When and how did migration become a crime? Why does ancient Greece remain so important to the West's idea of itself? How does nostalgia fuel the exclusion and demonization of migrants today? In 2021, Lauren Markham went to Greece, in search of her own Greek heritage and to cover the aftermath of a fire that burned down the largest refugee camp in Europe. Almost no one had wanted the camp—not activists, not the country's growing neo-fascist movement, not even the government. But almost immediately, on scant evidence, six young Afghan refugees were arrested for the crime.
Markham’s pivot from straight reportage to this more literary, inquisitive mode might be familiar to journalists who have covered intractable political or economic problems and come to question the point of their vocation ... Markham is skeptical about her ability to change anything, and seems to think that a mix of reporting, history, and memoir might make a more profound impact on her readers’ ability to identify with migrants’ humanity. Although Markham’s searching narrative can be thought-provoking, the personal elements of her book don’t always shed much light on the migrant crisis today, as enormous and complex as it is ... Markham’s probing and at times murky explorations sometimes seem to be the point of the book ... Markham shouldn’t lose faith in her reportorial powers—there will be many millions more people in need of the close attention of journalists like her.
Ambitious...diffuse ... Sometimes meanders so far afield that it loses its bearings ... Markham gets lost in her lostness. A Map of Future Ruins is a collage that never quite coalesces.
Strange and intriguing ... My own experience with this type of reporting is vastly more limited than Markham’s, but I’ve done enough to know there’s no way to feel entirely at ease with yourself after leaving a refugee camp to drive back to your air-conditioned hotel. Markham’s approach suggests that what we need isn’t just more stories of migration. Sometimes, rather than asking migrants to explain themselves, we, in the countries they are trying so desperately to reach, should be trying a little harder to explain ourselves.
