What if migrants, rather than the point of contention they have become, were the key to bridging the divide of our polarized politics?
In our collective consciousness, the term “migration” conjures up images of hordes of refugees fleeing “their” country of birth for whatever reason (war, famine, poverty) and coming to “ours”. We think of Calais and the Channel crossing, of Syrians, Iraqis, Afghanis and Africans trying to make their way to northern Europe through the Balkans or the Mediterranean Sea, of Mexicans and other Central Americans at the southern border. Depending on our politics and our worldview, we end up either feeling sorry for migrants or seeing them as a problem. In both cases we end up dehumanizing them.
We’ve got it all wrong…
PRAISE FOR THE NEW NOMADS
"This book needs to be read. Urgently. Run and get it, take it in and notice your worldview evolve… Marquardt’s prose is eminently inclusive and accessible. It brings the reader in seamlessly, allowing us to grapple with difficult and complicated issues through real life examples. Without romanticising migration or the migrant, The New Nomads debunks stereotypes and sheds light on the hidden complexities of our world, showing that the pervasive injustice of our day and age is in no small measure about mobility. This book is dense yet light. I put it down with a new sense of hope."
“The New Nomads is a journey of discovery, insight and hope, in which migrants of all origins and destinies are the protagonists of a world that changes at every bend of the road, nurturing an ever-deepening perspective on our common humanity.”
“Highly engaging. Through his very personal lens, Marquardt forces you to consider one of the central issues of all time in an entirely new way - especially if, like me, you disagree with some of his views."
“Welcome to Felix Marquardt’s world of new globetrotters, their quadra-barreled names souvenirs of fleeting romances or testimony to more durable migrations. Marquardt bucks what he sees as a modern rejection of migration and introduces a choppy 21st century chronicle of almost frantic movement. How happy the travelers are seems in this telling to depend often on privilege, education - or just dumb luck. Whether Covid 19 will permanently lessen the lure of nomadism is this book’s great unanswered question.”
“On The Road meets Sapiens. Felix Marquardt makes you want to hit the road and embrace the whole wide world as a means to save it. The New Nomads is sure to become a cult book for my generation and the coming ones”
“Highly compelling... When I met him during his International Herald Tribune years, Felix Marquardt was already an irrepressible Jack of all trades with an uncanny ability to bring very different people together from all over human society and the world. He has matured beautifully and The New Nomads is a profound, timely statement on the power of migration as an exponentially generative process.”
“The New Nomads belongs not to the privileged but to the hungry: hungry for wisdom, hungry for adventure, hungry for life. Marquardt places travel, even migration, back in its ancient setting of mythic education: you leave the village to find the part of you that the village could not provide. In his consecrating of the journey as a quest, he deepens the endeavour and provokes nobility of soul. His writing is filled with wit and challenge. It is a rare gift to be both raconteur and truth teller, and Felix Marquardt is both.”
“Masterful! The New Nomads is a deeply poetic exploration of migration and its role in the human journey. The stories form a compelling tapestry: the path forward isn't left or right, neither about pinning all our hopes on technology nor forsaking it, but embracing what makes us all human.”
“Holding aloft the migrant as perhaps the most electrifying figure of our time, The New Nomads deeply moves me. Felix Marquardt’s profound exploration is no less than a political theology of migration. But also a magisterially composed paean to that shocking (but oh-so-needed) insight about our indebtedness to travel, a love note to the migrant’s feet.”
“Felix Marquardt brings a rich experience of life, intelligence and empathy into this exploration of youth, migration, and even the implications of thermodynamics for the new nomads! The stories are compelling, revealing humanity behind faces masked by stereotypes.”
“A well-written and highly enjoyable read. Felix sets out to challenge preconceptions. He contrasts the motivation and behaviour of individual migrants who have created new communities in new lands with the class of modern well heeled self promoting high carbon footprint globetrotters who lack the understanding of community essential to mobilising action on challenges like climate change. Readers may not agree with all the author’s assertions but they will be obliged to stop and think.”
“An intelligent and insightful analysis of one of great issues of our age, laced with some powerful real-life examples and culminating in a number of thought-provoking recommendations for change. Marquardt’s combination of humanity and practical idealism pores through on every page. A thoughtful and refreshingly optimistic take on one of most urgent and complex issues of our time”.
The pandemic has brought many of us into a similar headspace, for the very first time.
What happens in Wuhan is, once and for all, everybody’s problem. But so is what happens in rural Kansas, Hull, Kinshasa, Lesbos and the Amazon forest. This unprecedented moment in the human trajectory calls for new conversations.
LISTEN TO THE MUSIC THAT INSPIRED THE BOOK
Release date: 8 July 2021
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