‘We are here because you were there’

New York, 1980. An Irish American boy yells at writer Suketu Mehta and his Indian friend, "Fucking Ayatollahs!" When Mehta corrects the boy (they were Indians not Iranians), the boy retorts, "Fucking Gandhis!"

Suketu Mehta's book, This Land is Our Land: An Immigrant's Manifesto, is a political treatise on the issue of migration that makes powerful use of personal narratives. Forty years after Mehta's exchange in school, hate speech and crime still abound in the United States. By capitalising on a fear of the 'other' and appealing to majoritarian groups – leaders like Donald Trump, Viktor Orban and Narendra Modi have consolidated power. Since contemporary politics often revolves around the subject of migration, framing the immigrant 'other' as a potent threat to the country's prosperity, growth and development is a profitable electoral strategy.