As a naturalized citizen, I am very aware of immigration issues and have been interested in migration in general. I believe the current world is made and benefited by human interactions, and cultural cross-pollination.

This month, I found a book at our local library: “The Shortest History of Migration” (2024) by Ian Goldin. Its subtitle says “When, Why, and How Humans Move – From the Prehistoric Peopling of the Planet to Today and Tomorrow’s Migrants.” Goldin is a professor at Oxford University and was vice president of the World Bank and adviser to Nelson Mandela.

The book gave me a clear understanding of Homo Sapiens’ history including our ability to adapt through by migration. I understand that migration is in our surviving genes and is natural. It is a very success factor of our survival.

According to the book, we started our long-range migration within Africa about 315-200 thousand years ago. And 130-95 thousand years ago, we started our migration out of Africa. Since then, we migrated all over the world whatever the reasons were. It is an amazing story. Our history is our surviving story.

Goldin concludes the book in the chapter 14, “The future of migration” saying “Widespread hostility of foreigners in our recent past may give way to a more welcoming approach in the decades to come.” I hope his prediction will come true. And at the end of the book, Goldin used a quote from Stephen Castles “Migration and Community Formation under Conditions of Globalization (2002).” Says Castles,

” (The) Future will probably be as messy as the past, and all predictions are likely to be wrong, but one thing is clear: There is no return to the neat idea of closed-off nation-states with homogeneous national communities.”

Let’s be adaptable and survive.