Felix Marquardt

The New Nomads

A provocative book that will make you reflect and question your way of thinking about migration, but also about why some people are so afraid of it and how we can engage them in dialogue and take their concerns seriously. It explains that migration, or nomadism, has been core to our lives since the beginning of humanity, and we should rediscover it as a means not only to improve our lives but also to emancipate and grow ourselves. It is no longer only those from developing countries who are migrating to more developed countries, but also the other way around. This generational manifesto presents us with inspiring people and ideas about migration and immigrants!

“Liberals who rightly abhor the vilification of migrants often end up doing their own sort of vilifying – of those whose views they think they know but don’t share, don’t understand and see as a threat to their own.

Everywhere in the world, a similar lack of self-awareness is blinding liberals to the fact that their stance on migration is a measure and result of their privilege, rather than a testament to their superior moral fibre. Instead of wearing it like a badge of honour, it might make more sense to start by showing ourselves grateful for it. And to remember that true courage in these times of acute political polarisation lies in the very act of engaging the Other, as Jeff, Aaron and Abdi demonstrated in Montana.

In truth, Jeff and Aaron and other small-town or rural conservatives in the US, Britain and Europe often feel as though migrants and their children are not part of their group, in part because they feel themselves to be an ‘out’ group, distanced and disdained by metropolitans and their cosmopolitan values. Many liberals like myself who feel well-inclined towards immigrants fail to see that our condescending attitude towards those we see as close-minded constitutes a form of close-mindedness, too.

These attitudes fuel the far right. Openness to and interest in foreign people and places, if it isn’t paralleled by openness to and interest in people who live down the road, is not a virtuous position at all.”