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The is a delicate insect, with a wingspan less than a thumb鈥檚 length and a tendency to hide from the rain. For many years, these butterflies were thought to be 鈥渢he entomological equivalent of homebodies,鈥� science journalist Sonia Shah writes in her new book, . Researchers hardly ever saw them stray far from the places where听they were born. As cities encroached on the species鈥櫶齢abitats and climate change made it harder to survive, many believed they were destined for extinction.

But in the mid-1990s, a Texas biologist named made a startling discovery. After gathering data on their habitats, she found that these fragile little animals weren鈥檛 homebodies at all: they had been shifting their range in response to climate change, moving north and to higher altitudes听in order to survive. Parmesan鈥檚 discovery brought about a revolution in climate science, and soon researchers found legions more species that were migrating in response to climate change, including corals, red foxes, and even fungi.听

This is the anecdote that opens The Next Great Migration, an ambitious work of journalism that argues migration听has played a vital role in our planet鈥檚 history. For centuries, Shah writes, scientists and political leaders have portrayed migration as something 鈥渦nnatural鈥� and 鈥渄isruptive,鈥� clinging to the idea that people, plants, and animals aren鈥檛 meant to move. But in reality, she argues, movement听is completely natural, and we鈥檝e been doing it for millennia. And while it鈥檚 sobering to know that our changing climate has disrupted so many species鈥� way of life, Shah sees reason for hope. 鈥淎 wild exodus has begun,鈥� she writes. 鈥淚t is happening on every continent and every ocean.鈥� In the coming years, as climate change threatens human and animal habitats, migration 鈥渕ay be our best shot at preserving biodiversity and resilient human societies.鈥� In other words, it has the power to save all our lives.

Shah makes her case by moving nimbly between scientific history, scenes from her travels with ecologists, and occasional stories from refugees around the world. She takes a reportorial approach, mostly staying out of the picture, but she does briefly wrestle with her own experience听as a daughter of Indian immigrants who spent many years feeling 鈥渟omehow out of place鈥� in the United States. 鈥淎s a child, I was ashamed of even small things, like my preference for suspiciously fruity strawberry ice cream over the unimpeachably American chocolate for which the other children clamored,鈥� she writes. It鈥檚 only after starting to research migration as an adult that she begins to feel like she truly belongs.听听

Scientists have been depicting migration as a destructive force since at least the 18th century, Shah writes, when invented modern taxonomy. Linnaeus believed that all the world鈥檚 species had left the Garden of Eden long ago鈥攁nd then stayed put for centuries. The notion of mass migration was unthinkable: like many of his contemporaries, Linnaeus assumed birds hibernated for the winter, diving to the bottom of lakes or hiding out in caves. Accordingly, Linnaeus developed a system for classifying plants, animals, and people based on their geographic location. Humans who lived on different continents, he believed, were separate subspecies. It was a false idea, but a politically expedient one: 鈥淔rom a colonial perspective, it was more convenient to cast foreigners as so strange as to be unrelated or perhaps not even human at all,鈥� Shah notes. Using Linnaeus as a jumping-off point, Shah surveys the vast legacy of scientific xenophobia, showing how the idea that migration is unnatural went on to influence eugenicists and the Nazis, along with prominent biologists and even U.S. presidents.

Along the way, Shah听offers an important reminder that the history of American conservation movements can鈥檛 be separated from that听of anti-immigrant politics. , who played a key role in developing the national park system, was also a white supremacist who shaped U.S. immigration policy. John Tanton, a conservationist who started a chapter of the Audubon Society, was a racist thinker who launched a network of anti-immigration groups that continue to influence the Trump administration today. Even David Brower, the famous Sierra Club leader, tried to push听his organization to adopt an anti-immigration platform as recently as the late 1990s. (Tanton also听 in that effort.) Brower was one of a group of environmentalists at the time who were听obsessed with the false idea that migration would lead to overpopulation and destroy the planet.听听

In the latter half of the book, Shah presents a skillful rebuke to the long line of scientists, environmentalists, and elected officials who鈥檝e advanced such xenophobic听thinking. In recent years, scientists have begun to discover the full extent of ancient human migration: we now know that early humans traveled out of Africa in several waves and back again, moving continuously between continents throughout the course of history. 鈥淢igration is not an exception to the rule,鈥� she writes. 鈥淲e鈥檝e been moving all along.鈥�

She also wades into the debate about invasive species, arguing that migratory plants and animals have been unfairly maligned. It turns out many scientists think that only about one percent of nonnative species pose a threat to resident plants and animals鈥攖he rest tend to increase biodiversity, if they have any impact at all. Moreover, leading biologists say that migration 鈥渕ost likely evolved as an adaptive response to environmental change.鈥� That鈥檚 why creatures like the checkerspots move as the earth gets warmer, and why migration will play a critical role in the planet鈥檚 future.

In this last part of the book, you get the sense that Shah is rushing a little鈥擨 wish听she鈥檇 spent more time exploring the complicated contemporary science of wildlife migration.听She also gives a brief overview of the ways we鈥檙e seeing climate change influence human movement today, but she doesn鈥檛 go into much depth on the topic. Despite the book鈥檚 title, The Next Great Migration focuses more on the past than on the future.听

But maybe it鈥檚 inevitable that you can鈥檛 cover everything when you鈥檙e trying to wrangle hundreds of years of human and environmental history into a book that鈥檚 just over 300 pages. Shah has done a remarkable job, distilling complex ideas from a variety of disciplines into concise and elegant prose. She has a knack for summing up a big idea in a punchy sentence, but she also knows how to linger on a lovely scene, transporting the reader from the jungles of Hawaii to the Himalayan foothills.

Prior to听The Next Great Migration, Shah wrote a , and she admits that her work in that field once contributed to her 鈥渟ense of movement as aberrant, something anomalous that needed to be examined and explained.鈥� In the past few months, politicians have been especially eager to exploit Americans鈥� heightened fear of movement. We鈥檝e seen Trump use COVID-19听as an excuse to push through draconian measures鈥攍ike indefinitely closing the border to asylum seekers鈥攖hat have nothing to do with stopping the virus.

In this time of rampant xenophobia, Shah鈥檚 book offers a call to 鈥渞eclaim our history of migration and our place in nature as migrants like the butterflies and the birds.鈥� It鈥檚 a powerful invitation, and one that鈥檚 never been more urgent.

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