Corporate transferees, entrepreneurs, and digital nomads cheerfully move from country to country. But continents? Not so much.
We tend to believe we live in the first and only age of worker mobility, with the concept of the business expat being something that just percolated out of an increasingly intertwined post-war world.
Think again. The Dutch got there first in a big way in the 17th century, as a Commissceo Global blog indicates.
Ships and People
But they didn’t just send out an intrepid scout or missionary here or there. Back then, the United East Indian Company, the world’s first multinational corporation, managed the feat of relocating 1 million European expatriates on 4,800 ships between 1602 and 1796.
That should make the European banker on assignment in Singapore or Hong Kong feel just that bit less unique, as well as those privileged to trawl the continents of the earth in the 60s on DC-8s and then in the 70s on Boeing 747s as line managers for major consumer goods conglomerates bearing standardized, mass-manufactured soft drinks, coffee, detergent, and razors.
The New
But, still, some things have changed. The digital nomad who codes from the Caribbean is a new invention, as is the digitalized home office located inside an ocean-going yacht skipping from port to port. Both would have been utter impossibilities in the age of the typewriter, telex, and analog telephone.
But even though around 45 countries now offer visas for digital nomads, with family offices and ultra-high net worth parsing curated selections of residency-by-investment and financial hubs for the best fit, there are some unchanging paradigms.
Less Common
Most choose to stay very close to home, according to an email sent overnight by Our World in Data.
In other words, moving between continents is far less common than between neighboring countries, according to a table published by them using data from the United Nations Department of Social and Economic Affairs.
Asia to Asia
As an example, Asia, which had 115 million economic migrants in 2020, or 43 percent of the world’s total, saw 81 million, or 70 percent, move to somewhere else in guess where? Asia.
The were other significant movements to Europe, North America, or Oceania, albeit they were far lower, with practically none choosing Africa or South America.
Industrial Immobility
The same trend holds for the industrialized world, with 70 percent of Europeans choosing to stay in their region and 87 percent of North Americans doing the same.
The question is why − and here Our World in Data has an answer as well. According to them, some of the reasons potentially include affinity or understanding of language and culture, family, and the ability to return home quickly.
Continental Agreement
Beyond that, most continents have regional agreements in place that make it easier to move between the countries, the EU’s Schengen Area being a clear example of the latter.
When you put all that together, it means that almost half of economic migrants move less than 500 kilometers away from their original home.
Nearby Borders
About a quarter travel between countries that are more than 3,000 kilometers apart while only 4 percent move more than 10,000 kilometers.
«Even as the world becomes more interconnected, short-distance moves remain dominant around the world. Long-distance moves are becoming more common, but they’re still rare. For most people, international migration means crossing a nearby border, not an ocean,» Our World in Data indicates.
Feeling Special
There is one upside to all this. It should serve to make that expat banker based in Hong Kong or Singapore feel a bit more special again.
In many cases, they have not only managed the breach the maximum 10,000+ kilometer barrier but they have switched continents in the same breath.
