This Land Is Our Land: An Immigrant’s Manifesto

Pulitzer Prize–finalist Mehta (The Secret Life of Cities) displays his flair for evocative storytelling in this passionate argument for migration, mostly to Europe and the U.S. Migrants are coming for several reasons, he argues, war and climate change among them. But a large number “are here because you were there.” The argument for immigration as reparations for colonization forms the spine of the book’s first half; Mehta weaves the stories of migrants, including his own family, with research about the effects of colonization, past and present. In a series of short chapters, he argues that the mixing of cultures is a positive, and lays out and rebuts common arguments against migration, attempting to prove that migrants do not steal jobs and increase the crime rate. Mehta’s vantage point shifts often: in his prose, “we” can mean “Americans, in the generic sense,” “myself and my children and my uncles and cousins,” migrants in general, or certain kinds of migrants (for example, college-educated highly skilled workers or refugees). While every scene is a joy to read, and Mehta’s passion lights his prose throughout, this work will probably appeal most to those who already agree with its premise. [em](June) [/em]