Ruminations of a globalist

The book is divided into 10 chapters (including the conclusion) to illustrate stories of migration and the author's personal experiences

The New Nomads: How the migration revolution is making the world a better place

Author: Felix Marquardt

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Pages: 278

Price: Rs 699

Felix Marquardt’s The New Nomads sets a context for the globalist perspective to migration; it also calls for a more inclusive approach.

A visit to the Indian National Museum of History’s first-floor section will inform you how vital the water buffalo was to the Indus Valley Civilisation. The symbol finds its way to almost all major seals. One can find references to the water buffalo in Sumerian seals. No less important is that it is through the water buffalo that historians have established a link between the Mesopotamian and Harappan civilisations, the sort of cross-cultural blending that inevitably accompanies global trade.

Although it is difficult to definitively establish the cultural intermingling that accompanied trade, it would be erroneous to assume that trade did not impact cultures. Capitalism, however, turned trade into a more mechanical exchange of goods and services. The commodity fetishism, as Karl Marx described, denuded the whole process of any cultural and social value. But the undercurrent still existed and was detailed by Marx in his writings on capitalism.

A similar logic has since been ascribed to the migration of humans. Sociologists, economists and anthropologists have been trying to ascertain the causes and factors of migration without filtering it down to one economic or sociological factor. Felix Marquardt’s book is one such attempt at deciphering the specifics of migration.

The book The New Nomads: How the Migration Revolution is Making the World a Better Place is divided into 10 chapters (including the conclusion) to illustrate stories of migration and the author’s personal experiences. Instead of focusing on the macro picture, which many organisations such as the World Bank and World Economic Forum end up doing, Mr Marquardt picks up specific instances in this semi-autobiographical account to illustrate the nuances of migration from the migrant’s perspective and the viewpoint of those interacting with migrants.

Mr Marquardt careens through his life and the lives of his subjects to show each instance of migration. He also draws comparisons with others brought up in a similar environment but with a different upbringing and different world views. The focus is not only to present a liberal view to migration but also to consider the anti-migration sentiment among the populace and identify the reasons for this animosity. More important is the propounding of an idea of migration, in which the nomad is not defined by a class or a culturally fashionable trend. Mr Marquardt redefines a nomad as one who is able to find a local place to settle by being global in her approach. The author derides the nomad culture in which travel without ever settling in a place becomes a way of life. In the context of Covid-19, where people have been forced to work from home, this idea of a local pod has gained significance, but whether it is transitory or permanent needs to be explored further.

Besides, the question of whether the virus will encourage a more global outlook, or force people and communities into xenophobic cocoons needs to be debated as well. The attacks on US citizens of Chinese descent in the wake of coronavirus reveals a picture of the world that is quite contrary to Mr Marquardt’s preferred view.

Although one would want an unbiased academic view of migration to understand all facets, anecdotal and autobiographical accounts tend to display some sort of bias. Mr Marquardt does his best to avoid this weakness but still ends up presenting the feel-good version of migration. The stories offer only one side of the picture and sometimes ignore the other reality. The author is not alone in his selection bias, of course. Commenting on the works of Aristotle, Marx opined that the latter’s philosophy was limited by the times in which he lived. That outlook proved true eventually for Marx’s work as well. As for the globalist view of migration, there is nothing new that Mr Marquardt tries to present in this book, though the upside is that we get to know about the lives of the few and the opinions of many. If you want an academic understanding of nomadism, this is certainly not the work to which you should refer. If, however, you would like an intellectual Eat, Pray, Love version of globalism and nomadism, Mr Marquardt provides just that.