Suketu Mehta, This Land is Our Land *** 1/2

These days, a great many people in the rich countries complain loudly about migration from the poor ones. But as the migrants see it, the game was rigged: First, the rich countries colonized us and stole our treasure and prevented us from building our industries. After plundering us for centuries, they left, having drawn up maps in ways that ensured permanent strife between our communities... They stole our minerals and corrupted our governments so that their corporations could continue stealing our resources; they fouled the air above us and the waters around us, making our farms barren, our oceans lifeless; and they were aghast when the poorest among us arrived at their borders, not to steal but to work, to clean their shit, and to fuck their men.

This Land is Our Land bills itself as "An Immigrant's Manifesto," but it is as much a jeremiad as any anti-immigration screed. Mehta cherry-picks anecdotes and studies to make a vivid and angry pro-immigration argument. I happen to agree with most of what he says, but he doesn't make any serious attempt to convince opponents.

Mehta's boldest and most interesting idea appears on the very first page: that immigrants are "creditors" to whom rich countries owe a debt. "You took all our wealth, our diamonds. Now we have come to collect." I find this perspective illuminating, albeit overstated. It shows how the ethical issue of immigration is similar to the question of reparations for African Americans: society has benefited at their expense and morally owes them compensation in return. And as with reparations, the proper remedy (even the very possibility of remedy) is unclear.

In support of his view, Mehta offers a comprehensive and depressing vision of the ways that the Western powers have undermined -- and continue to undermine -- the developing world. He also makes more familiar pro-immigration arguments about the effect on the economy and culture of the host country (lower crime rates and higher economic activity among immigrants).

To the people who voted for the populists: Do not fear the newcomers. Many are young and will pay the pensions for the elderly, who are living longer than ever before. They will bring energy with them, for no one has more enterprise than someone who has left their distant home to make the difficult journey here... They will create jobs. They will cook and dance and write and play sports in new and exciting ways. They will make their new countries richer, in all senses of the word. The immigrant armada is actually a rescue fleet.