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Museum Manifesto. Migrations
Today, movements between countries are a source of conflict and drama. Thus, in Europe, thousands of people drown every year crossing national borders by sea. Although humans have always migrated, as have all species, these migrations have become a political issue that exaggerates their numbers and trends. Against this background, Natural history provides a dispassionate overview of human mobility to enable a calm, informed debate to take place.
3 espèces d’hirondelles, migratrices intercontinentales, peinture sur vélin, par Nicolas Robert (XVIIe siècle)
© MNHN dist. Rmn-GPMobility is essential to maintaining life on Earth. Animals and plants migrate, develop characteristics adapted to their new environment and then mix with the new arrivals. Once again, the group’s genetic heritage is made richer by this mixing, thus ensuring the evolution and sustainability of species.
Just like other species, “migration has played a major role in human expansion and evolution”, since our ancestors of the genus Homo appeared on the African continent 7.5 million years ago, right up to the current biological and cultural diversity we see today.
These days, modern forms of transport make it easier to move around and enable journeys to be longer. This does not mean that the number of migrants is on the rise. “Only a tiny proportion of humans want to migrate. Overall, 97% of humans live in their country of birthe.”
Museum Manifesto. Migrations
Museum Manifesto. Migrations
- Co-publication by the French National Museum of Natural History/Reliefs Éditions
- Auteurs: a collective headed by Guillaume Lecointre, zoologist, taxonomist and Museum professor
- Bilingual French/English
- 2018
- 94 p.
- €7.50 €
Théier, Camellia sinensis, Chine, elle est cultivée sur tous les continents, peinture sur vélin, par Madeleine Basseporte, (XVIIIe siècle)
© MNHN / Dist. RMN - T. QuerrecMultiple compounded motivations
Homo sapiens appears to have been motivated by a desire to explore, above and beyond just looking for resources to sustain life. 65,000 years ago, human populations first reached Australia.
Nowadays, migration is also about studying, working, fleeing poverty, conflict or persecution, etc.; there is typically more than one reason.
In most cases, “migration is not undertaken by people in the greatest need.” Changing the place where you live demands cultural flexibility, financial resources and a network that you can rely on.
“There are very few migrants in the poorest areas of the world […] and they mainly remain in their regions of origin. In 2017, 84% of refugees remained in countries in the Global South, close to the crisis zones from which they had fled.” In a nutshell, when you are poor, you generally migrate to countries that are close neighbours.
Immigrants arrivant à Ellis Island à proximité de Manhattan (1915)
© Library of Congress's Prints and Photographs divisionSkewed perceptions
Despite the majority of migrations being from the south to the south since the 1950s, rich countries nurse fears of invasion. Fear and preconceptions generate racist, xenophobic reactions. There is a fear of competition in the labour market or “the fear of a ‘great replacement’, [which] is neither borne out by the figures nor by behaviour”. For example, in France, two thirds of children of migrants marry native people or people who are not the children of migrants.
Flows of migrants are managed on the basis of security and via crisis meetings, all of which foster anxiety with respect to a long-term phenomenon that in reality is sustainable and which the figures put into perspective: 3% of humans are migrants.
Camp de Kibeho, destiné aux rapatriés du Zaïre et du Burundi (Rwanda)
© S. SalgadoAs a result, there are growing tensions at national borders, where physical, police and legislative barriers are reinforced, thus demonstrating that there is no “ migrant crisis ” but rather a hosting crisis. Yet, in trying to preserve society’s integrity, these restrictions overshadow our moral responsibility towards others and negates everyone’s universal right to leave wherever they may be.
Natural history reminds us that it is the concept of hospitality that sets human beings apart from other animal species; it thus reframes the debate surrounding the moral and social question of our choice of societal model, between the quest for the necessary stability and human solidarity.