Browsing through the World Development Report, an annual publication of the World Bank that deals with issues of poverty reduction, climate change and global crises, Zenobia Panthaki from Virginia, USA, was surprised that in the 2023 edition, the subject of "Migrants, Refugees and Societies” included the milk and sugar "Parsi legend.” The Parsi head priest’s symbolic gesture of adding sugar to the vessel of milk sent by the local ruler to denote that the migrants would enhance but not unsettle the local society was narrated therein.
Above: depiction of the sugar in the milk legend Photo: In Search of My God; r: World Bank report
The 300+ page report reiterates that migration "can be a win-win situation if the skills migrants bring are the ones the country of destination needs and as long as they integrate with the local population,” stated Panthaki. As commented the United Nations secretary general Antonio Guterres, "As a global community we face a choice. Do we want migration to be a source of prosperity and international solidarity, or a byword for inhumanity and social friction?” ...