Page - 92 - in Mobile Culture Studies - The Journal, Volume 2/2016

92 Mobile Culture Studies. The Journal 2 2o16 Tony Kushner | Lampedusa and the Migrant Crisis a political act.’ 115 With this imperative in mind, I want to end with the words of the migrants themselves who have passed through this remarkable island or have undertaken similar trau- matic journeys. First, with the universalism proclaimed in the Charter of Lampedusa that ‘As human beings we all inhabit the Earth as a shared space [demanding] global freedom for all [and recognising that] the history of humanity is a history of migration.’ It adds poignantly that there must be ‘No Illegalisation of people. Migration is not a crime.’116 And second with the voice of the individual migrant, Kenyan born Somali refugee, Warsan Shire in Home: “no one leaves home unless home is the mouth of a shark... you have to understand, that no one puts their children in a boat unless the water is safer than the land... no one burns their palms under trains beneath carriages... unless the miles travelled means something more than journey.” 117 115 Nightingale, 2015, ‘Lovely Lampedusa’. 116 The Charter of Lampedusa. 117 Warsan Shire, ‘Home’, edited by Alessandro Triulzi and Robert McKenzie (eds). Long Journey: African Migrants on the Road (Leiden: Brill, 2013), xi. Author’s affiliation Tony Kushner, Marcus Sieff Professor of the History of Jewish/non Jewish Relations, University of Southampton, A.R.Kushner @ soton.ac.uk