Countries worry about immigration, but many don’t realise – or maybe don’t want to know – how many of their own citizens leave each year. In the developed world these days it is trendy to worry about immigration. Not the undesirable kind, meaning criminals and all sort of shady types, but immigrants in general. People like you and me are in the crosshairs too.
What goes rather unnoticed, however, is that in many developed nations many residents are packing their suitcases and move to different shores. In Ireland, departures of citizens are up by 29% compared with 2019. In New Zealand they are up by 74%. According to recent official data, emigration of British nationals is also edging up.
To an extent this is a partial undoing of a wave of immigration earlier in this decade, with many immigrants never intending to settle permanently. Students eventually graduate and temporary workers‘assignments come to an end. And the pandemic has taught many firms and their staff that work can also be completed efficiently and effectively from the kitchen table at home – even if that home is in a different country.
And last but not least there’s the tax aspect: According to globalcitizensolutions.com, a consultancy to high net worth individuals, the top marginal personal income tax rate in, for example, all of Scandinavia, France, Portugal and Spain to name but a few nations is above 50%. For many a higher earner this is reason enough to relocate.
A number of other push and pull factors are at play: Most commonly these are economic considerations with people moving to escape unemployment and take advantage of better job opportunities and higher wages.
Then there are the political and safety aspects, where people are fleeing war or conflict such as the many expats who in recent days and weeks have left Dubai or escape persecution.
And finally there are the family and social reasons , where emigrants join family members abroad, move abroad for love or simply, as typically digital nomads do, to take advantage of a different lifestyle or cultural experience.
Let’s then have a look in a bit more detail at the Americans and the Brits and their reasons for emigrating. The Americans mainly seem to be motivated by things they lack at home, such as better and cheaper health care (the US system is very expensive in comparison with countries which offer universal healthcare), lower costs of living in general and a better work-life balance (long hours as well as limited paid vacations and parental leave make the USA’s a rather unattractive proposition). So where do they move to?
Americans frequently relocate to Canada since culturally they are very similar (except the fact that part of Canada speaks French) and also to Britain because of the shared culture and history, access to public healthcare and job opportunities in finance, academia and media. The British weather probably isn’t one of the reasons.
The British on the other hand more often leave to seek out better opportunities abroad (not least post-Brexit) and a better lifestyle most likely in sunnier climes. There preferred destinations are Australia (familiar language and it’s sunny), Spain (again it is warmer and the lifestyle is more relaxed than in good old blighty) and until the start of the current troubles in the Middle East also the UAE and namely Dubai which offers high tax-free salaries, and of course, again, there is the weather. You notice it, sunshine is a big motivator for the Brits when deciding to up sticks.
Obviously the grass always looks greener across the fence, or the pond, or in general in a new place. But novelty wears off and soon expats realise that not everything is better let alone perfect in their adopted country. As a general rule, it seems that 30 to 40% of emigrants eventually return home. Americans apparently do so within 5 to 10 years.
Timing obviously matters a lot when looking at these return rates: particularly young people who move abroad to study or on a temporary work contract will have to return eventually (one might maybe more appropriately talking of temporary relocation rather than emigration in these cases), whereas long term settlers have much lower return rates.
Students by design have a return rate of up to 80%, while highly skilled workers return home at a rate of 30 to 50%, often after having gained experience abroad which lead back home to higher status jobs. Low skilled and temporary workers often move abroad for financial considerations to support their families back home (think of South Asian construction and service workers for example in the Middle East). But their ultimate objective almost always is to return home at some point.
And let’s not forget, any emigrant is an other country‘s immigrant. Some people may feel that there are already too many foreigners trying to settle. If you never toyed with the idea of making a living elsewhere, then clearly you’re not concerned. But if you have been or are, then just ponder for a minute as to whether you might actually be welcome in your chosen host country. After all: what goes around comes around…
The grumpy older man 