This Land is Our Land by Suketu Mehta
Migration. Climate Change. Colonialism. War. Mass hysteria. They are peas of the same pod in the context of immigration. Suketu Mehta, author of the Pulitzer-shortlisted Maximum City, writes this book out of anger and wishes he plants a seed of hope. He borrows the title from the folk song “This Land is Our Land” written by an Okie named Woody Gurthie. Mehta divides the book into three sections and eighteen tiny chapters that elucidate on Immigration. He touches upon: Why is immigration seen as a problem? Why are immigrants often feared? Why do people emigrate? And Why they should be welcomed? Walking into the book, the first section is The Migrants are Coming followed by Why They’re Coming and and Why They’re Feared. The book starts with the unabashed response of Mehta’s grandfather to an elderly suburban man who asks him why he is in London. Mehta’s grandfather says: “Because we are the creditors.[..] You took all our wealth, our diamonds. Now we have c...