PNAS News Article Published on the Past and Present of Migration
Penny Bickle, Ian Armit and colleagues argue that understanding past migrations can help us support migrants today and in the future
Every day 37,000 people leave their homes and join the 258 million migrants who live in a different country from where they were born. And experts believe that the number of migrants will continue to grow. Climate change alone is expected to force 200 million people to leave their homeland by the year 2050, and some expect the number to reach 1 billion by the year 2100. Routinely, we hear that these numbers are unprecedented, that this level of migration is unsustainable, and that these migrants threaten our way of life. Are these claims right? The article argues that we can test these assumptions by examining the archaeological record, which provides a rich corpus of evidence that people have always moved.