This land is our land : an immigrant's manifesto / Suketu Mehta.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Mehta, Suketu, author.

Contributor:

Class of 1932 Fund.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Refugees--Social conditions.

Refugees.

Immigrants--Social conditions.

Ethnic relations.

Emigration and immigration.

Social aspects.

United States--Emigration and immigration--Government policy.

United States.

Government policy.

United States--Emigration and immigration--Social aspects.

Western countries--Emigration and immigration--Social aspects.

Western countries.

Western countries--Ethnic relations.

Immigrants--Cultural assimilation.

Immigrants.

Immigrants--Social conditions--21st century.

Refugees--Social conditions--21st century.

Emigration and immigration--Government policy.

Emigration and immigration--Social aspects.

Genre:

Nonfiction.

Physical Description:

x, 306 pages ; 22 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2019.

Summary:

"There are few subjects in American life that prompt more discussion and rancor these days than immigration. In [this book], the renowned author Suketu Mehta offers a reality-based polemic that vitally clarifies the debate. Drawing on his own experience as an Indian-born teenager growing up in New York City and on years of reporting around the globe, Mehta subjects the worldwide anti-immigrant backlash to withering scrutiny. As he explains, the West is being destroyed not by immigrants but by fear of immigrants. Ranging from Dubai and Morocco to New York City, Mehta contrasts the phony narratives of populist ideologues with the ordinary heroism of laborers, domestic workers, and others, and he takes readers on a heartbreaking trip to San Diego and Tijuana, where a border fence divides families and damages lives. Throughout, Mehta shows why more people are on the move today than ever before. As civil strife and climate change reshape large parts of the planet, it is little surprise that borders have become so porous. But Mehta also stresses the destructive legacies of colonialism and global inequality in large swaths of the world: when today's immigrants are asked, "Why are you here?" they can justly respond, "We are here because you were there." And now that they are here, Mehta contends, they bring great benefits, enabling countries and communities to flourish. Impassioned, rigorous, and richly stocked with memorable stories and characters, [this book] is an urgent and necessary intervention, and a literary argument of the highest order."--Dust jacket.

Contents:

Part I: The migrants are coming. A planet on the move

The fence : amargo y dulce

Ordinary heroes

Two sides of a strait

Part II: Why they're coming. Colonialism

The new colonialism

War

Climate change

Part III: Why they're feared. The populists' false narrative

A brief history of fear

Culture : shitholes versus Nordics

The color of hate

The alliance between the mob and capital

The refugee as pariah

Part 4: Why they should be welcomed. Jaikisan Heights

Jobs, crime, and culture : the threats that aren't

We do not come empty-handed

Immigration as reparations

Epilogue: Family, reunified

and expanded.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [243]-289) and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Class of 1932 Fund.

ISBN:

9780374276027

0374276021

OCLC:

1091172280