Book Review - “Move — the Age of Migration” by Parag Khanna

Move completely overwhelmed us, maybe even overran us. A book written with movement. Numerous thought processes, tons of information, countless loose threads. This has triggered a variety of emotions in us. One time or another, we had to put the book down and take a deep breath, distance ourselves and start again. Move by Parag Khanna has definitely moved us, we're not just seeing the term mobility with different eyes now.

That is what it is about

Parag Khanna, Indian-American political scientist and founder of FutureMap, describes himself as a world traveler who sees migration as an opportunity for our society. People will have to move and redistribute around the world over the next few decades as a result of climate change and other changes of our time. His basic assumption, which is the basis for the book Move. Khanna works with figures, facts and examples to illustrate what it means to be in the age of migration and draws various future scenarios.

In doing so, he addresses numerous topics — on the one hand, those that already have an influence on the development of our society today and, on the other hand, those that will only have an impact in the future. Khanna sees the effects of climate change, the rejuvenation of emerging countries on the one hand and the aging of industrialized nations on the other, the increasing speed of change — including through new technologies — and many other reasons why migration will be the fate of humanity.

Ideas that move the world (including us)

Khanna also provides inspiration and fodder for discussions that don't end in one evening — not even with 2 bottles of red wine. He throws new ideas, approaches and concepts into the room that demand brainpower but reveal real perspectives. Examples from the book:

• Broad view of military service in the sense of a one-year compulsory service for men and women in order to “make a necessary contribution to social cohesion and national identity.”
• Digital education platforms as universal equalizers that allow young people to “enter the labour market directly without debt.”
• Not to regard growth and innovation as an end in themselves, but to “ask ourselves what purpose they serve” in order to shape the future.
• Young people should stop “chaining themselves to real estate that they neither need nor can afford — and that is not where it is needed” but instead “[planning] and [building] for an era of continuous mobility. ”
• Effective strategies against climate change and concrete solutions using construction technologies (e.g. water-permeable asphalt in flooded areas, thermoelectric cooling and heating systems) or mobility concepts (e.g. vehicles powered by renewable energy, 3D printed cars made from recycled metal alloys or cellulose fiber) so as not to fuel the next major migration of peoples.
• “Nation Building” projects in the Arab region to employ “his youth for the benefit of society.”

In some places in the book, graphics appear that are not self-explanatory, statements that appear ill-considered, or even facts that are not sufficiently validated and have thus triggered controversial discussions among our team. Where is the source or translation error for: “The life expectancy of people born [in Japan] is now 107 years”? Statements such as: “But flows of people [follow] [...] cultural preferences [...]” sound as if fleeing South Americans are coming to the USA for Big Macs and country music. “Moving means being free” may apply to those who have the choice, but not to those who have to flee. And statements such as: “Geopolitically speaking, the world [...] is becoming more and more yellow, but demographically speaking, it is becoming unquestionably

brown” is something we find completely inappropriate in terms of skin colors.

But even if not all statements are directly scientifically verifiable or transferable to Germany, the basic tenor of the book and the ideas it contains are moving.

Why the book awakens ambivalent feelings and why it should do just that

Move has triggered a lot of emotions in us. From anger to enthusiasm to incomprehension to gratitude, everything was there. But according to Brené Brown, anger is only a “secondary emotion” (Atlas of the Heart, p. 220) and therefore always an indicator of underlying feelings that are harder to describe.

So the book also caused emotional chaos because...

... it triggers unrest in us about what the future will look like and whether we are doing enough to actively shape it.

... we are afraid of not knowing where our place will be in the future, how our sense of security and home will change, and what decisions we must make today in order to be prepared for tomorrow.

... it is confusing due to the numerous sophisticated information spread over, in our opinion, insufficiently structured chapters. At the same time, it awakens our desire to understand every aspect of it and to make it accessible to everyone around us, because the topics are so exciting and important.

... it makes us feel guilty for the privileged position in which we are and the outdated thought patterns that each of us discovers in ourselves with shock.

... it makes it clear that everything is in motion and resilience alone will not be enough to be able to deal with the unforeseeable changes that lie ahead of us.

... it shows us how unfair the world is and how powerless we sometimes feel against it.

... it raises questions that we can't answer and may have never asked ourselves before.

Questions arise

While reading the book, we asked ourselves many questions that are still bothering us now. Khanna cites resource scarcity as a reason for migration in many places. In doing so, we asked ourselves: How can society manage to make resources available on an equal footing?

The book has also shown us that we are in mental prisons due to a wide variety of factors. How did these walls come about? How can we tear them down? At the same time, Khanna is also asking questions that we are still discussing today. With regard to population decline, he asks: “Who else is going to eat out and buy all the nice things that are on display in stores? “while we're thinking: Is that really a reason to need to continue to grow as a global society? What does an alternative with more space for nature, fewer people, less production and less consumption look like?

In the end, one question remains: Has the irony perhaps been lost in the direct translation in some places in the German version?

Would we read the book again?

Absolutely! Move contains an enormous number of aspects that were impossible for us to grasp the first time we read it. It's almost like reading a hidden object book: You read a page several times and discover something new over and over again.

Quotes from the book that move us

• “You may not be interested in migration, but migration is interested in you.”
• “Having multiple identities is becoming a genetic norm.”
• “Most people must look beyond their own borders when they seek noble inspiration, and the best global citizens make heroic efforts to act accordingly.”
• “[...] Finding yourself [means] not going home, but feeling at home.”

Have you also read the book and would like to talk to us about it?
We're looking forward to that! Feel free to send us a message.

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