PositiveScience... a thoughtful and thought-provoking defense of migration ... One of the more original aspects of [Shah\'s] book is that it depicts human migration in the context of migration by plants, animals, and even viruses ... I disagree with the book’s premise that, the current global standstill notwithstanding, climate change will trigger a new great migration. Most sensible scholars agree, of course, that the effects of climate change will accelerate migration. But there remains little consensus concerning how many people will be forced to move, where they will move from and to, or how soon this migration will happen. But whatever the numbers, Shah is right to assert that we need to start respecting the rights of migrants and seizing the opportunities of migration ... Some of the book’s most powerful sections reflect on the author’s own migrant heritage ... Shah does not overdramatize or sentimentalize their stories. Instead, the reader is left with an overwhelming sense that people who migrate out of desperation are resigned to experiencing great hardship as a means to improve their lives ... Shah methodically dismantles the racial \'science\' that still underlies certain attitudes toward those who migrate and rejects arguments for controlling migration on the grounds that it could potentially lead to overpopulation, an idea that originated in the work of Thomas Malthus. It is not particularly groundbreaking to take such attitudes and assumptions to task, but Shah does so in an engaging manner, weaving history with geography and storytelling with science...Still, I think Shah overestimates the importance of such ideas and beliefs in explaining the xenophobia, discrimination, and antimigrant sentiment and policies that abound today, which I believe are more driven by perceptions about the economic impact and security implications of immigration. I do, however, agree with her pessimistic prognosis that unless we shift attitudes, our default response to more migration will be to build more walls and enact more stringent border controls ... Her closing chapter is a grim litany of migrant deaths and the detention of immigrant children. Countless scholars, analysts, and researchers have produced evidence that migration overwhelmingly benefits economies and societies and that there is a higher rate of criminality and violent extremism among nationals than among migrants, but seemingly to little effect. Perhaps Shah’s more fundamental plea—that migration is normal, that we are all migrants, and that, like nature, migration can be both beautiful and terrifying—will have more traction.
