Festival of Ideas: Suketu Mehta

Suketu Mehta: A Manifesto for Immigrants
Fri 8 November 2019, 19:00-20:00
Waterstones (Union Street Entrance)
£8/£6/£4.50

£4.50 PARTNER RATE is for staff, students or members at the following organisations: Arts Council England, Bristol City Council, Business West, University of Bristol and UWE.

Today, more people are on the move than ever before. This global movement corresponds with a sharp rise in populism and a worldwide anti-immigrant backlash. Suketu Mehta – author of

This Land Is Our Land: An Immigrant's Manifesto, an impassioned defence of global immigration - argues that misinformation and scapegoating of migrants causes far more damage that immigration itself. But the positives, Mehta asserts, hugely outweigh the negatives.

Exploring the history of visas, the economics of migration, shrinking western populations and fluid workforces, Mehta shifts the narrative from then to now. The past has dictated the present, but the present is also now dictating the future - civil strife and climate change are reshaping large parts of the planet.

He tells the stories of many immigrants, those who, for myriad reasons, have left everything they know, often journeying thousands of miles to make their homes and raise their families, in unfamiliar sometimes unfriendly, places. When today’s immigrants are asked, ‘Why are you here?’, they can justly respond, ‘We are here because you were there.’ And now that they are here, as Mehta demonstrates, they bring great benefits, enabling countries and communities to flourish.

In conversation with Nikesh Shukla.

Please note that you will be asked of proof for your eligibility of a concession ticket. Concessions apply to Full Time Students, Job Seekers Allowance, Incapacity Benefit claimants, over 60s and disabled people. The Partner Rate applies to those working at the following organisations: Arts Council, Bristol City Council, Businesswest, University of Bristol and UWE. Please note that no refunds/exchanges are possible for tickets already purchased at the higher price.

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