If People Could Vote With Their Feet…

[Alex Libman]

From one of my favorite blogs, Let A Thousand Nations Bloom -- If People Could Vote With Their Feet… by Mike Gibson --

There's some new poll data from Gallup on trends in potential migration.  Earlier data sets focused on whether people would like to emigrate - it turned out 700 million said yes.  This latest batch focuses on which nations would have the largest net percentage increase in population, assuming the barriers to immigration were eliminated.   All the usual caveats about surveys aside, I think it provides an interesting, if rough snapshot of how desirable it is to live in some places.

(Visit the story link if a large image table doesn't appear above.)

[Terror Australis]

Of the top ten most deadliest snakes in the world Australia has 6.Still want to come here?

[Sam Gunn (since nobody got Admiral Naismith)]

Why I find completely unamazing is that Israel rates far higher than Iran on this.  What I find interesting, yet not amazing is that Iraq rates higher than Iran also. 

What I do find amazing is that the US is not higher on the list and that Saudi Arabia is rated so highly.  I think the asterisk explains Saudi Arabia so high, and that Saudi Arabia is one of the nicer (comparatively speaking) Arab countries.

I figured NZ would definitely be up there, but I never guessed it would be so much higher than the US.  Same with Singapore.

I wonder how they calculated these figures, I'm skeptical, but not extremely skeptical.

[Terror Australis]

Why I find completely unamazing is that Israel rates far higher than Iran on this.  What I find interesting, yet not amazing is that Iraq rates higher than Iran also. 

What I do find amazing is that the US is not higher on the list and that Saudi Arabia is rated so highly.  I think the asterisk explains Saudi Arabia so high, and that Saudi Arabia is one of the nicer (comparatively speaking) Arab countries.

I figured NZ would definitely be up there, but I never guessed it would be so much higher than the US.  Same with Singapore.

I wonder how they calculated these figures, I'm skeptical, but not extremely skeptical.

Lord of the Rings FTW!

[libertylover]

I am skeptical.  The rankings of Panama, Costa Rica, Estonia, and Dominican Republic seem out of line to me.  I wonder who they were surveying.  Was it a random sample of people from around the world?  Or was this a sample of US citizens who have actually thought about expatriating?   Most people don't think about freedom as a criteria for a move.  They think about the money.  Or they have romantic notions of a place and think it will be nice to live there.  I know I had romantic notions of the UK until I actually lived there for a year.  I would love to migrate to another country if the barriers to entry were removed.  But I also understand the difficulty in becoming accepted by the native population.  I have lived in many different states and countries and world wide I have always encountered the, "you'ins ain't from around he're ares ya," mentality of the locals. 

[Alex Libman]

You have to remember that this list isn't sorted by the total number of people who'd want to move to a specific country (in which case USA would be #1).  It's sorted by its population percentage difference, so what it's saying is if we had universally open borders the population of Singapore would more than double.  That wouldn't happen in real life, because its already high real estate prices would skyrocket, creating natural economic barriers to entry.

It's also a matter of perception and other biases.  Muslims want to move to the best Muslim-majority country, not necessarily the best country overall.  A lot of Jews in America say "I really ought to move to Israel" just as a cultural thing (perhaps to alleviate some psychological guilt that was brainwashed into them) even though they have no intention of moving.  A lot of people hold up Sweden as the example of an "idyllic" "welfare" state, which overshadows less famous countries that are roughly on the same level.  Etc.

Probably the biggest mystery on that list is the under-performance of Chile.  It only started to top the lists of economic freedom a few years ago, so the full effect didn't sink in yet.  Being the best Latin American country still means a lot of people want to move to the USA.  It also has its share of socialists who think Venezuela would give them free lunch.  Things like perception of climate and earthquakes also play a role.

[davann]

I tried to vote with my feet once. Just couldn't reach the person's name I wanted to vote for with my toe. I said "fuck it" and walked away.