Global crossings2013
immigration, civilization, and America
by Alvaro Vargas Llosa
"Migration has been happening, in varying forms, for millennia but it still elicits fear and mistrust, and not just on the part of the "receiving" society. Communities from where people migrate often disapprove of the migrants' decision and consider it treacherous. The recent reawakening of the debate about migration in the new millennium has evoked intense emotion particularly in the United States and Europe. Global Crossings cuts through the jungle of myth, falsehood and misrepresentation that dominates the debate, clarifying the causes and consequences of human migration. Why do millions of people continue to risk their lives, and oftentimes lose it, in the pursuit of a chance to establish themselves in a foreign land? The book first looks at the immigrant experience, which connects the...