mytest
Hi Blog. As a Saturday Tangent, let’s take a peek at at flows of international migration. According to a Gallup Poll (details below), these are the countries that people most want to immigrate to:
And these are the countries that people most want to emigrate from:
No real surprises to me here. Just that, as Gallup says below, “Gallup finds about 16% of the world’s adults would like to move to another country permanently if they had the chance. This translates to roughly 700 million worldwide — more than the entire adult population of North and South America combined,” that’s quite a figure. Seems people ought to get used to the fact that migration of peoples is no longer just a domestic thing, or even all that unusual anymore. Arudou Debito in Sapporo
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Gallup.com November 2, 2009
700 Million Worldwide Desire to Migrate Permanently
U.S. tops desired destination countries
by Neli Esipova and Julie Ray
http://www.gallup.com/poll/124028/700-million-worldwide-desire-migrate-permanently.aspx
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Every day, migrants leave their homelands behind for new lives in other countries. Reflecting this desire, rather than the reality of the numbers that actually migrate, Gallup finds about 16% of the world’s adults would like to move to another country permanently if they had the chance. This translates to roughly 700 million worldwide — more than the entire adult population of North and South America combined.
From its surveys in 135 countries between 2007 and 2009, Gallup finds residents of sub-Saharan African countries are most likely to express a desire to move abroad permanently. Thirty-eight percent of the adult population in the region — or an estimated 165 million — say they would like to do this if the opportunity arises. Residents in Asian countries are the least likely to say they would like to move — with 10% of the adult population, or roughly 250 million, expressing a desire to migrate permanently.
United States Tops Desired Destination Countries
The United States is the top desired destination country for the 700 million adults who would like to relocate permanently to another country. Nearly one-quarter (24%) of these respondents, which translates to more than 165 million adults worldwide, name the United States as their desired future residence. With an additional estimated 45 million saying they would like to move to Canada, Northern America is one of the two most desired regions.
The rest of the top desired destination countries (those where an estimated 25 million or more adults would like to go) are predominantly European. Forty-five million adults who would like to move name the United Kingdom or France as their desired destination, while 35 million would like to go to Spain and 25 million would like to relocate to Germany. Thirty million name Saudi Arabia and 25 million name Australia.
Roughly 210 million adults around the world would like to move to a country in the European Union, which is similar to the estimated number who would like to move to Northern America. However, about half of the estimated 80 million adults who live in the EU and would like to move permanently to another country would like to move to another country within the EU — the highest desired intra-regional migration rate in the world.
Most of the world’s international immigrants, according to the 2009 United Nations’ Human Development Report, move from one developing country to another developing country or between developed countries. Gallup’s data would suggest then that the countries people desire to migrate to permanently do not necessarily reflect reality — especially in regard to developing countries. Eighty percent of those in developing countries who would like to move permanently to another country would like to move to a developed country, while 13% of respondents in developed countries would like to move to a developing country.
Rest of article at
http://www.gallup.com/poll/124028/700-million-worldwide-desire-migrate-permanently.aspx
ENDS
6 comments on “Saturday Tangent: Gallup Poll says 700 million desire to migrate permanently”
It’s interesting to note that Japan isn’t anywhere on the “desired countries” list for possible immigrants. I can only speak for Europe, but I’ve noticed a high East -> West migration (a lot of people from developing countries in the East choose to live and work in Central or Western Europe).
It’s also interesting how media in developed European countries can be just as biased as in Japan when it comes to immigrants. As someone who follows several major European newspapers, I can say that there is at least one article on foreigner crimes every few days, and nothing to make up for it (I’m sure there are a lot of hard-working immigrants who make a good living and are active in their communities, too).
As a tangent, a lot of my friends (from both Europe and the US) say they’d like to visit Japan, but very few say they want to live here. Three guesses why…
OK, I’m going to drop my sarcastic alter-ego, and talk directly here.
How would you feel if borders were erected between prefectures?
…and you had to ask permission for the privilege of visiting Chiba?
…and you had to ask permission for the privilege of living in Chiba?
The apologists would say, “Well, we need to protect Chiba’s interests.”
“We need to erect borders, to prevent mass immigration into Chiba!!!”
The obvious answer is: Humans have the right to travel within a country.
And the forgotten truth is: Humans have the right to travel within a Planet.
As long as you don’t hurt anybody, you have the right to do what you want.
As long as you pay the taxes, you have the right to live wherever you want.
Supporting walls, and borders, and visas, between cities or states is silly.
Supporting such “nation” divisions between humans is absolutely the same.
The whole basis of nations is “Defending Our Group”, that’s why borders exist.
Everyone should open their minds to the new idea that Our Group is All Humans.
Debito, you don’t defend the idea of Japan defining “our group” by race, right?
Well, people also shouldn’t defend the practice of nations defining “our group”.
Can we drop the illogical idea of nations defining “our group” by visa system?
Can we drop the illogical idea of nations defining “our group” by passports?
Can we drop the illogical idea of nations defining “our group” by borders?
Can we accept the idea of all Humans being allowed to travel this planet freely?
Can we accept the idea of all Humans being stopped only if they hurt someone?
Can we accept the idea of all Humans voting Directly About Laws = no leaders?
Not a republic in which we’re “free” to choose masters, instead: Pure Democracy.
Do you think that Pure Democracy, in which All Humans Vote on Laws, is wrong?
The leaders have convinced us that “average people” can’t handle voting on Laws.
The leaders have convinced us that divisions between groups is good for Humans.
Wouldn’t uniting as Earth Citizens produce more cooperation, food, and free-time?
Family members don’t compete, they cooperate, and this benefits the entire family.
Our family is almost 7 billion members strong, we deserve to Live and Move Freely.
— Kum Ba Yah.
Steve,
Ironically, that was how Japan used to be back in the Edo period. People’s right to travel was extremely limited, and borders did exist between regions within the country.
People here like to paint the Edo period as some sort of a golden age (no wars for 250 years does sound sweet), but the governmental system back doesn’t come anywhere near “ideal” in terms of modern-day democratic values and human rights. I wouldn’t want to live in that age, even if I was Japanese.
Perhaps its closed-border policy also has to do something with the Edo period being seen as Japan’s golden age. Especially by people on one side of the political spectrum…
Interesting point about the Edo period’s unfairness Graham.
Now back to the Present, what do you think about migration?
Do people on this board think that preventing a Human from
moving wherever he or she wants to move is a rational law?
On what grounds should a Human be prevented from moving to
a land area which he or she didn’t happen to be born on?
Can a law-abiding, tax-paying, Human be denied the right to
move just because they were born on a land mass that is “poor” ?
Can a law-abiding, tax-paying, Human be denied the right to
move just because they didn’t attend an institution of “learning” ?
This thead is about migration, so let’s hear everyone’s opinions:
Do nations have the right to say, “No, you can’t move here.” ?
Do nations have the right to prevent Humans from moving freely?
If you really think nations have that right, please explain why?
Instead of just one article, let’s openly discuss the big picture.
What bad thing would happen if Humans were allowed to move freely?
What good thing is happening now by denying Humans’ right to move?
Hopefully you have the courage, and honesty, to share your answers. 🙂
A lot of the points raised at #2 make sense to me because I am an anarchist. Anarchism challenges the nation state’s right to exist and that means challenging all the main components that make up the nation state: its territoriality with the accompanying notion of frontiers; its sovereignty, implying exclusive jurisdiction over all people and property within those frontiers; its monopolistic control of the major means of physical force by which it upholds that sovereignty, both internally and externally; its system of positive law which overrides all other law and custom, and which implies that rights exist only if sanctioned by the state and the idea of the nation as the paramount political community. Anyone truly fighting racism, bigotry and chauvinism must realise that we have no ally in the state and that it must go if we are to advance very far. As the world population increases and resources get scarcer states will become more belligerent and also more guarding of ‘their’ populations and borders. We will also have to start thinking about people forced to migrate because of climate change. For example The Guardian Weekly{Dec.11~17th}writes “Bangladesh may lose 20% of its land to sea level rise in the next 80 years”. The population of Bangladesh is expected to rise by between 50 and 100 million in the next 50 years{from the same article}.
The migrants of the near future won’t be the well off hopping between developed countries trying to maximise their already huge advantages but poor people desperately trying to save their skins. In the not too distant future each of us will have to decide which side s/he is on. The rich and powerful state and its lackeys or the poor and struggling mass of humankind.
http://www.noborders.org.uk/
http://noii.org.uk/ {No One Is Illegal}
Wow, thank you for those links D.B. Cooper, very intelligent articles!
And thank you for having the courage to honestly share your opinion.
I think the word Anarchism has been sullied: people are prejudiced against it.
“Freedom to do what you want,” makes some worry about becoming a victim.
So let’s just add the qualification, “as long as you don’t hurt anyone.”
If someone is hurt, they should call the local sheriff office of course.
And then the victim and the suspect state their cases in a local court.
When there is no victim, no Human should be prevented from moving freely.
Whether you’re moving across town or across continents, no victim = no crime.
[invective deleted]
— We get the point. Let’s move on.