'This Land is our Land' by Suketu Mehta - An Immigrant's Manifesto

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The First or Second of 2020 - Started First, but completed Second.

And this is the perfect time to read the book 'This Land is our Land' by Suketu Mehta. At this juncture when migration has become a global issue needing global solution, this book is a compassionate and powerful plea by migrants. Gives us insight on challenges, pressure and benefits they derive in course of the journey, with hope that it will generate empathy and understanding for those who have to cross them. " The heart 💓 should have no borders".

Divided into three parts - The Migrants are coming; Why they are comming and Why they are feared; this book will generate empathy and understanding for those who have to cross borders; even if you do or not and you belive in open borders, closed borders or something in between. Colonialism, inequality, war and climate change affect us all, rich or poor wherever we may dwell. The planet is on the move. Migration is like the weather, people will move from areas of high pressure to those of low pressure. India has been a witness to it and the wounds of partition are still alive. People move when their homeland is less habitable, to pursue happiness and a better life to support those left behind.

The history of MNC's is inextricably linked with the onset of colonialism; one of the earliest being East India Company. It can move money around countries with very little oversight. Over a tenth of all the world GDP is hidden in these tax havens. How colonizers rob the colonies?
1) They loot the treasuries of the native kings - The Indian Kohinoor diamond in the crown jewels.
2) Impose extortionate taxes on their subjects.
3) Force subjects to grow crops like cotton but prevent them from setting up industries to convert them into textiles, which is done in the home country.
4)They force the colonial armies to fight their wars both within and without.

Colonialism began with a huge migration, when millions of Europeans moved overseas to invade, settle and rule other countries; but migration began even before that.

Another cause of migration is war. Mexicans, Guatemalans, Hondurans and Salvadorans are desperate to move north, to come to US cities to work as dishwashers, cleaners, because of their history with Spanish and then Yankee colonialism, partly because of race and class conflict and systematic corruption, and these days because of drug war. While people migrate to Europe because of the big war in the middle east, people migrate to US because of the small wars in the backyard. The foundational principle of America was'nt religious liberty, it was the rule of the gun, which allowed the white settlers to dominate and massacre the natives. Terror is bankrolled by most extreme faction of the religion the wahhabis in Saudi Arabia and follow money with their oil power. The Wahhabi Madrassa sponser Koranic education for your children, and your child might grow up to join Taliban.

Climate Change is another major factor. People think of the Syrian civil war as a conflict between Sunis and Shiites, or a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran. But another way to look at it is the natural result of 3 year drought, worst in region's history between 2007 and 2010. As the world gets hotter, the hotheads grow angrier. Climate change is a 'threat multiplier', it makes a bad problem like ethnic conflict worse.

People prefer living in places where dignity of every human is valued, rights are protected, and there is freedom. It was only in the early twentieth century that the modern, convoluted superstructure of passports and visas came about, on a planet where porous borders had been a fact of life for years beyond count. A globalist is a nationalist who bothers to get a passport.

In fact increasing immigration is good for economy; makes the country safer; are better behaved and brings in cultural mix/diversity. Very quickly 'they' become 'us'. There is enough land space in US alone to hold all seven billion of our species. Argument against open borders are you cannot let too many people into the lifeboat, otherwise it will sink and all will die; members of a nation who have enhanced the value of the nation through their hard work and talent are entitled to reject migrants from other nations that have not been similarly enhanced. Also there is a fear of being replaced.

Immigration could be as refugees or as reparations. You could be shunned and feared, if your are a political refugee. Paying the poor countries what they own in lieu of migration is Reparations. When migrated, those left behind are supported by way of remittances. So significant are remittances that the United Nations has declared 16 June the International Day of Family Remittances. Migrants contribute without becoming complaisant. Best way to adopt and be part of the new land is to own a house.

The traffic of people migrating might reverse. India's greatest export for long has been Indian's. 20th Century was the American century, today a young person in Denmark or New Zealand has a better quality of life. We have a right to a home, but not fixed abode. You may prefer to stay in the house you were born in all your life, but it's not a constitutional right. Immigrants are more willing to move to fast-growing, high-income, dense cities than natives are. If the native-born lose a job, they tend to stay where they are. If immigrants lose jobs, whether they're skilled or unskilled, they move. Once you're set in motion, your get used to motion. They don't see a need to follow an imagined, idealized way; because of the strength and regular reinforcement of their ties to the old country, they can live in their new country in many ways. You will have greater network of people. They have the freedom to not melt into any sort of pot, to speak in their language as well as their home country's ; so also with worship and marriage. Can you belong to a country without belonging to a nation? People prefer belonging to a community. They would be around to support. They feel the need for family.