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Relocation – Good, Bad, or Indifferent?
28 Sep 2011 by Bob Adams in Commentaries / 4 Comments
In today’s highly polarized, sometimes poisonous, social, economic, and political atmosphere in the US, there is a clear tendency to see anything and everything new as either a huge step forward or a looming disaster, more often than not the latter. It is no different with trends in American relocation outside the US.
One of the first things I noticed back in 2007 when I first wrote about our findings in an op-ed at Boston’s Christian Science Monitor and at Barron’s, Dow Jones’ weekly financial publication, followed by the CNBC interview with Erin Burnett, were the most common reactions. How could this be true? Why haven’t we heard about it before? Why would they want to live anywhere else? There was an almost automatic negative reaction to the idea that so many American households were considering or planning global relocation. That is what struck me most, this negative reaction. Somehow, it seems Americans are so negative in general that any new and surprising data is seen negatively as well. They were not analytical responses, they were emotional. And this was back in the summer of 2007 when today’s global financial crisis was still in the future. Whatever their reasons may have been, one thing was clear. No one saw this in a positive light. They all took it as bad news.
Well, is it? After all, we have found a rather dramatic rise in 2011, far above any prior results of the eight surveys we ran from 2005 through 2009. Indeed, the overall number planning to relocate was three times greater in 2011 than it was in 2009. Now, that is dramatic.
Like so many general trends, you can always find both good news and bad news. I can see both in the results.
The bad news is that the most dramatic growth in relocation planning and interest is found among young adults. No doubt about it in my mind, the lousy economy and lack of good jobs are the primary underlying factors in this growth. As I have said elsewhere, these statistics should be accepted as one more “wake-up call” to the American elite that it had better take care of business at home if it want its young, its future, to remain at home. I have absolutely no patience with people who seem to think that these young adults are somehow unpatriotic or selfish or anything along those lines. They each want a life and I sympathize completely. If they can’t find it at home, they will move, as humans have been doing for centuries. They do not mean to be a message, but they are a message. The question is whether anyone is listening.
And yet it is much more than that. As our 2007 and earlier surveys had shown, the 25-34 age group has always been a leader in relocation, with the 18-24 group very much partners. This is also no surprise. These are the adults most familiar with the Internet and far more likely to have traveled outside the US than their parents. The world that seemed still quite distant to those same parents is no longer distant, at least not in the minds of young adults. And rightly so. The same is happening globally. If you read the news on “emigration”, what I call relocation, you will find it underway in many nations today.
As I often point out to friends, it is not just a question of a communications revolution, but a transportation revolution. No, we are not traveling that much faster than we did two, three, or four decades ago, if at all, but we are traveling to more places. I’m 66 and have worked globally almost all my adult life. For much of that period, roughly a third of the planet was off-limits to me as an American. Today, I can get in a plane and fly to Prague or Beijing without concern. For most of my adult life, that was much, more more easily said than done, if it could be done at all. My citizenship alone made me persona non grata in those nations and many others. Not so today and it is the same for all Americans, as it is for western Europeans, the citizens of the former communist world, and many others.
This is the good news. In a rapidly shrinking world, Americans need to know it and know it well. If we are going to compete peacefully and successfully in this world and the world of the future, this is a critical component.
Relocators are not migrants in the traditional sense. They are not seeking to become citizens of another nation, but only to reside there for an indeterminate time. I once wrote that these relocators are the real “Voice of America”, no insult to the radio network intended! But they are indeed voices of America and they are heard globally. Thankfully, the great majority I have met are great representatives of a great nation. They do us proud.
And they, of all ages, will be the focus of my next commentary.
About the Author: Bob Adams
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4 Comments
Deutschland
I think that one point is not mentioned and that is the amount of Americans who are dissatisfied with the direction America is going. There seems to be no middle trend. There are only radical answers to the problems in the United States. Ignorance seems to be a virtue instead of a negative. Racial injustice is accepted. Poor health plans is also accepted. The idea of returning to the United States is almost impossible. I would like to see some reflection in that direction.
12 Dec 2011 09:12 am (@Twitter)
Bob Adams
We have looked at motivation in some detail in past surveys, although not in this one. It is an expensive endeavor and we were not expecting a major shift this time, so we stuck to the basics which only address motivation indirectly. Now that we see a major shift is truly underway, should we choose to survey again, motivation will be a major part of it. However, our work and that of others does indeed suggest that dissatisfaction with politicians is a factor for many people. That was the case four years ago and it appears to still be a significant factor. The same has been found in polling in Europe. It appears to be a serious problem throughout the North Atlantic. However, it is not the sole motivation, at least in the US. There are many motivations and they differ by age group and other variables. Still, you are correct in general. Politics is a genuine concern for many.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts.
Bob Adams
12 Dec 2011 04:12 pm
Victoria FERAUGE
Very interesting article and I agree very much with your conclusions. I am one of the 6 million Americans abroad (been outside the US nearly 1/2 my life) but whenever I talk about it with people in the homeland the reaction is one of astonishment and horror. There is an almost visceral reaction and then come the explanations: they are “temporary” or they are “tax evaders” or “young people who will comes to their senses and come home” and so on and so forth.
One part of you article I would disagree with is your statement that these Americans are not seeking citizenship in their host countries. I think you’re wrong and it’s quite simply what changed is that US accepts dual citizenship so there is no longer a real impediment to becoming a naturalized citizen. Granted there are fewer benefits to citizenship in any nation-state these days (not much difference between a citizen and a legal resident) but, for example if you became an EU citizen that gives you the right to work and live in 27 countries. That is a pretty powerful incentive to find that Irish parent or grand-parent and become a citizen…
Best regards,
Victoria
31 Jan 2012 12:01 pm (@Twitter)
Bob Adams
Hi Victoria, thank you for your comments. However, I didn't say that "Americans are not seeking citizenship...". I said, "Relocators are not migrants in the traditional sense. They are not seeking to become citizens of another nation...". I try to make the necessary distinction between relocators and emigrants. One of our greatest challenges is to clarify a distinction between emigrants and relocators. The former dominated for centuries. The latter are now far greater in number. I often find editors inserting "emigrant" or "emigration" where I originally used "relocator" and "relocation". Sometimes, they mix the two. In truth, we have pioneered the use of the new terms as they are necessary to understand what's happening. I use them when I can, trying not to lose comprehension on the part of readers. Those seeking to emigrate and apply for citizenship in another nation are a group in their own right, but tiny in comparison to relocators who have no intention of seeking citizenship or where citizenship is extremely difficult to gain (an understatement in dozens of nations).
As just one example, in Panama where I live, we may have one emigrant for every thousand relocators. Panama welcomes relocators and makes it very easy for them, but they have put up many expensive, multi-year obstacles to overcome if you want citizenship and with no guarantee of success in any case. If Panama made citizenship reasonably easy to gain, it might be a different story to an extent, but the relocators would very likely still outnumber emigrants.
Thus, we focus on the relocators. They are part of an emerging global community where nationality continues to be significant, but less so than in decades past. Relocators are the products of vastly increased mobility, combined with much improved and cheap communications technology. Without design, they are slowly changing the world. This will be noticed as a global factor in a decade or so. For now, it's enough just to get a little attention for the phenomenon.
Bob
31 Jan 2012 12:01 pm
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