The Choice to Migrate - An American Abroad

This morning I was working in the lobby of the hostel where I am staying in Phnom Penh. I was not alone in turning this comfortable space into my own no cube office.

To my right sat a young man and a young woman, both around 30, conducting conference calls with colleagues somewhere else on the globe. The young man started off, welcoming everyone to his call and telling them they could follow his slides along on their screens. He explained he was in town for a conference essentially gathering intelligence on the market. It was a Friday, so of course he ended by wishing everyone a good weekend.

About an hour later, I overheard the young woman making a phone call asking for an update on an estimate she had requested. It hadn’t come through yet and she was upset. She ended with the passive aggressive office query, “And when can I be expecting that?” Momentarily satisfied, she clicked off the call and went back to work.

There is of course nothing remarkable about either of these short stories except the fact that they illustrate a new norm, particularly among younger people, who are not interested in desk jobs, but more interested on consuming as much life experience as possible. Often world travel is a lifestyle choice, but just as often it begins as an economic necessity.

On the road from Vietnam to Cambodia I met a man traveling to a border station to renew his work visa. He has been in Vietnam for four years teaching English and doesn’t see himself returning to England. Why I asked? He paused and said, “Because it’s England.”

When I pressed him further he said it is about work-life balance. In Vietnam he works three hours a day and lives like a king. Things are cheap in Vietnam. Although the dong is one of those odd currencies that force you to deal in hundreds of thousands and millions for routine daily transactions, the fact is things like meals can cost the equivalent of a dollar or less. Stays in nice hotels on the weekend can be $25 or less. You don’t need a car if you live close to work. You don’t need a house if you are willing to keep a smaller space.

The English teacher told me he returned briefly to England several years ago, but after living his old life for about four months, he decided to come back to Vietnam. He said he was working 14 hour days in England and barely making ends meet. He finds the lifestyle there too stressful and the people professionally insincere. Vietnam he finds comfortable and laid back. People want to learn English so his work has meaning. He is appreciated. He has put his own personal economics (and happiness) above family and country. He, like many younger people, simply won’t be trapped by the circumstances of their birth.

Later that same day I met a man of about 30 years old from Chile who was traveling southeast Asia for the second time in his life as he waited for his work visa to be renewed in Australia. It’s a routine he has gone through at least once before in his career. Why Australia? His answer was similar to the teacher from England. He has been living and working in Australia for three years and he has made much more money than he could ever make in Chile. In Chile, he had started his own business, which he said was successful, but the work was too hard and the return on his personal investment too small so he decided to leave.

He is a very smart guy. We talked about issues that spanned the globe as we discussed his travel plans and mine. He told me what was worth seeing in some of the countries I plan to visit, because he’d already been. He didn’t waste my time telling me which bars and restaurants I should visit, he knew the history and culture of each country and recommended significant sites that would hold meaning and expose me to important ideas.

He must be in information technology, or something like that, I thought. But when I asked him what he does in Australia he said, “any kind of hospitality work you can imagine” and the money is so much better than Chile. “I could never make as much as I have made in the last three years at home,” he said. “And now I’m going to take that money and go somewhere else next year, or maybe I’ll use the money and go home and buy a house, which I couldn’t have done without working in Australia.”

For the second time on this trip President Trump came up. The first time was during a conversation I had with a man from South Korea. When he found out I was from the U.S. he shrugged and looked away for a moment. Then he gathered some courage and turned back toward me and asked, “So you are from America. Do you like your president?” I answered no, and said I felt President Trump is an embarrassment. The South Korean traveler agreed with me.

The restaurant worker from Chile had a similar question. He asked, “Are the Americans really going to re-elect your president?” I told him that based on everything that has happened over the last three years - under normal circumstances - I would say the answer is “no.” We both agreed however that these are not normal times or normal circumstances. The same forces that helped elect Trump - the growing gap between the rich and everyone else - is driving politics around the world.

In Chile, just in the last few weeks, street protests have erupted like those in France, over proposed price hikes. “Chile is very expensive,” my young friend said. “The prices we pay are similar to prices paid for things in the United States, but we are a small country. Our economy does not support those prices.” In recent weeks Chileans have been demonstrating in the streets of almost every major city in the country.

He asked about President Trump for a reason. He would like to go somewhere else after one more year in Australia and he would like to come to the United States, but he feels he can’t under the current administration in Washington. “We’re Latin,” he said, referring to Chile. So there you have it. One very intended consequence of President Trump’s war on immigration. In this case, a talented resourceful young man, who would no doubt be a welcome addition to any American community he wanted to settle in deciding not to come to the United States because he feels unwelcome. And why is he unwelcome? Because his skin is brown and his first language is Spanish.

He also said, “You know, they way your president talks and behaves, gives your country a bad reputation. People see that and say ‘that’s America.’ I said I know. My opposition to Trump has always been about his lack of common decency and humanity before any discussion about policy. I have rarely been able to get to a conversation about policy under the Trump administration, because his behavior is so abhorrent. Now we are seeing why “being presidential” is so important, but even facing impeachment, Trump still doesn’t see.

“This I can tell you,” President Trump. Based on my conversation with him, this young man from Chile knows more about the world than you do and he proves that your immigration policies are cruel and costly to the United States.

There is a lot of talk in the popular press about the internet economy, the gig economy, the wonder of technology allowing us to work from anywhere as long as we have a connection. What we don’t hear a lot about is the fact that just as economics have driven mass migrations in the past, economic hardship in countries around the globe is forcing young people to combine technology with the idea of finding a better life somewhere else.

Given the chance they will pick up their tablet and go. They will go not where someone is building a new railroad, they will go not where farmers need cheap labor to pick their crops - they will go where it’s warm, they will go where prices are low, they will go where they can learn something new. They will go where they think they will find happiness. They are smart about it and they will go anywhere that affords them a fair chance at a better quality of life.

I am only one month into this five month exploration of the world and economic disparity - fairness - is clearly an emerging theme. Two months ago there were no street demonstrations in Chile and that country’s president was being held up as an example of an effective world leader. Now, there are calls for his resignation.

I observed in Vietnam that despite the gross differences between well to do travelers from overseas and the people of Vietnam I saw no signs of resentment over economic issues. Beginning most notably however with the first Brexit vote in England, protest over economic fairness has been a growing theme in country after country over the last four years. It is just beneath the surface almost everywhere and may end up being a major factor in technology assisted mass migration in the years to come.