Kathmandu, Sept. 5 -- Today, migration is no longer about awe-inspiring journeys of Xuanzang, Marco Polo, Ibn Battuta, or James Cook. They ventured across oceans and deserts in expeditions into unknown lands without permits and sometimes even received an audience with curious royalty.

We overlook the migration of the earliest humans, those bold crossings over mountains and plains, rivers and seas, islands and continents, by people who knew no boundaries, only the pull of necessity, survival, and discovery. They exercised the most ancient human freedom: the freedom of movement.

Now, when we hear the word migration, our minds leap not to the journey but to borders, passports, patrols, visas. We ask whether someone's movement is 'legal' o...