The disturbing sight of migrants crossing the English Channel in dinghies is a timely reminder that the seemingly unstoppable human urge to seek a better life has survived even the impact of Covid-19. So have the strenuous efforts of many states, including the UK, to limit the flows. Home secretary Priti Patel’s call to deploy the navy is only the latest move in a list topped by President Donald Trump’s wall and the EU’s marooning of migrants on Greek islands.
Sonia Shah argues passionately that this is the wrong approach. In her view, migration has been integral to human history since people moved out of Africa, the continent where most scientists think human life first evolved. Wanderlust may even be hard-wired in our bodies, she suggests, with the 1999 discovery that a particular gene, DRD4 7R+, occurs more commonly in humans whose ancestors moved furthest out of Africa, and among nomads.
Environmental shifts may have driven many past migrations and are doing so today, with people moving in response to climate change. “We can continue to think of this as a catastrophe,” writes Shah. “Or we can reclaim our history of migration . . . We can turn migration from a crisis into its opposite: the solution.”