Why Are People Leaving North America?
by Adam Ben-Aron (@MyCityLives)
So I’ve read a lot lately (the past few months) about people who had immigrated to America that are emigrating back to their original home country. Most of the cases I’ve seen have been people going back to China and India. I understand why someone might do this on the surface (these economies are ‘booming’), but when you actually think about it, personally I think it makes absolutely no sense. Let’s explore….
Never having immigrated somewhere in my life, I can only speculate; but I think that there are two main reasons why someone leaves their homeland. The first being they’re in eminent danger (i.e. war, the KGB, civil unrest, drug lords, etc.) and the second is to find somewhere with more opportunities to flourish. Now correct me if I’m wrong but over the past generation there hasn’t been so much more eminent danger in India or China than there is now, right? This leads me to believe that people leaving India and China to go to America because it was (is it still?) the land of opportunity and not because India and China were war torn countries. So, people left their homeland seeking opportunities and now feel that opportunities are better back home and are therefore heading back. (Let me say one thing before we go any further here, I am Canadian and have disliked most of what the US has done for the better part of a decade now, so this piece is not an emotional response, it’s purely subjective… I hope) I do not know why these people are doing this, well I think I do – opportunity, but it seems like an incredibly big gamble. I have done a bit of reading/research on China as of late and here’s why I think moving to China could pose a really big problem.
China’s economy has continued to grow even when everyone else’s was shrinking. Yet China relies on the world to buy products from them. So the world is not buying products, yet the product maker is still making lots of money, strange no? Well it is. The agree upon reason for this that I could find is that the Chinese government, for reasons of communism and dictatorships, is forcing banks to lend money to businesses and citizens at very low rates. This is essentially leaving the market open for very bad debt, not to different from the housing market in the states in the last few years. This inexpensive money is resulting in people investing other people’s money (in this case banks) into things they know nothing about, for example the Chinese Stock Market – which continues to rise strongly. But really how long can this cycle go on for? At what point in time will this all come falling down? If and when it falls, what’s going to happen to the people of China? Something tells me their government is not going to be as supportive as the American government was of its people (making sure companies don’t fail so people retain jobs – as much as they could that is).
With this potential bubble (see what Google has to say about it) not to mention Chinese living conditions, constant disease outbreaks, disastrous working conditions, lack of free speech and whatever other ridiculousness that people over there put up with on a constant bases. I can’t fathom why moving there with ones family (in the chance that China doesn’t catch on fire and blow up in the not too distant future) is even a consideration once you’re in America… or Canada.
Good Luck 
3 Comments
1 Avery wrote:
Perhaps these people want to return to their homeland to contribute to the development and prosperity of these countries. For all the problems these countries have, there is no place like home. And where’s the harm in using one’s time, energy and resources to improve the standard of living in a place with a relatively low standard?
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adam Reply:
August 24th, 2009 at 12:38 pm
avery, you’re totally right. If people are going home to aid in the development of their fellow man and they head “home” instead of somewhere else because it is “home” then all the more power to them. But from my understanding this has become a relatively new “thing”. i.e. it wasn’t news worth 10 years ago, but now its happening in such numbers that it is news worthy. I think humanitarianism might not be the biggest factor here.
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2 Vinita wrote:
I actually don’t think this is a ‘new’ thing. I’ve known many people from many different backgrounds who have returned to their country of birth because it is their ‘home’.
Maybe the numbers are bigger now because of two things: 1. Immigrants are financial well off enough here to have the freedom to return. 2. Their home country is more stable than it was before, and so there is less risk to return.
Also, people don’t return to China to work under poor living conditions in slave conditions, they return with capital to start businesses, and they can leave with the going gets rough.
As someone who’s parents have returned to their country of origin, I can say that life is better in different ways than what Canada has to offer – financially, professionally and emotionally.
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adam Reply:
September 28th, 2009 at 12:12 pm
An interesting point of view
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3 Jonathan wrote:
Adam, first of all I don’t think many people are rational. A lot of people buy into the hype, and will go to wherever they hear or feel that the opportunities are without really doing much research. Second, even if people are aware of an imminent bubble, you never know when it’s going to burst. It could take a long time, and sometimes you just have to take a risk instead of just standing on the sideline just so that you can say you’re ‘right’ all the meanwhile miss out on all the opportunities of rapid growth in that short time period.
But those two aren’t the points I want to focus on. I think a lot has to do with the fact that Canada or the States just don’t feel like home.
I guess it’s harder for you to understand because you have never emigrated. Imagine the reverse is true, that Canada has bad living conditions, has constant disease outbreaks, disastrous working conditions and lack of free speech (I’m not sure how bad it actually is over there). So you have to immigrate to China to seek a better life. How would you feel?
It’s probably the rational choice to go to China, but you will probably miss your family and friends here. You’ll miss the Canadian culture, the food, the hockey, etc. Sure there will be other westerners there and probably a lot of things built to cater to western people (maybe a CanadaTown?), but would you really feel truly comfortable living in a place where you didn’t grow up in and are surrounded mostly by people who don’t share the same cultural values as you, or by foreign media that you cannot relate to? (see Lost in Translation)
As many westerners there are or as many western cultural activities to do in China to help you ease in, it just isn’t the same as home. And I think a lot of Chinese people feel that way. I have personally known and seen a lot of my friends and acquaintances go back to China or Hong Kong as soon as they are done university or whenever they have a chance to. My brother is one example. He came here in grade 8, stayed for 10 years and got his undergrad, and immediately moved back to Hong Kong because he really just can’t stand Toronto. Even when he is here, he does ‘Hong Kong’ things with his friends, and there are such things to do here (Chinatown, karaoke, bubble tea), but they really just aren’t the same. You are still separated from the original culture by half a world. He decided to go back because that’s where he really feels comfortable at; that’s where he feels he belongs.
I guess this may not be the best example because Hong Kong doesn’t have bad living conditions, but I think the idea is still the same – people go back to where they feel like home. And it’s not like all of China is really that bad, big cities like Shanghai and Beijing for the most part really are just as developed. The pictures that you linked obviously show the more extreme side of China. If you perceive the whole of China from those pictures alone than you’d obviously think China is hell, but they certainly make China seem worse than it actually is. For the most part China isn’t that bad (at least the places I’ve been to). Pollution is bad, but I think that’s a small problem compared to being a cultural misfit. Also, not everyone who goes back will work in sweatshops. For those that actually work in sweatshops, they probably didn’t even get the chance to immigrate to a foreign country in the first place. I think many people who do are already somewhat well off to begin with.
For those that came over, it was probably because it looked A LOT better over here than in China, enough for them to sacrifice their culture or their relationships. But now that conditions are getting better, the gap between the two sides of the world isn’t as obvious anymore.
There are a lot of people that are flexible and can adapt to any places. But a lot aren’t, and the current economic boom in China probably gives them a great excuse to go back to where they call home and to where they really fit in.
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