Migrant
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Audio Recording by George Hahn
Early on a Monday morning, 51 people assemble at a safe house in northern Mexico. A semi truck pulls up, and the man they’ve paid to shepherd them to America directs them into the trailer. Hours later, they are found dead of exposure, still in that trailer, on the outskirts of San Antonio.
Six hundred and fifty migrants died crossing into the U.S. in 2021. This happens all over the world. Fifty-eight Chinese immigrants were found dead in a trailer in Dover, England, in 2020, and 39 Vietnamese perished in a truck in Essex the year before. Last month, 76 Libyans hoping to get to Italy died when their boat sank. Six hundred other migrants have perished this year attempting to cross the Mediterranean.
They keep coming. Fleeing war and criminal violence, abandoning farms devastated by climate change, seeking more tolerant societies … looking for a better home. Thousands of migrants cross the U.S.-Mexico border every day. Last year 150,000 unaccompanied children made the journey. Think about that. Kids crossing borders into different countries, alone. In my house, it felt bold to let our kids walk into town with their friends. In Europe, 5 million Ukrainians have left their homeland since the Russian invasion, two-thirds of whom are not expected to return.
Migration is at the core of the human experience. Our ancestors were nomads. Their wandering led them out of the Rift Valley, across the Sinai, and eventually … everywhere. Eight thousand years after the first people reached Tierra del Fuego, another cohort “discovered” a New World populated by their distant cousins, and 2.5 million of them migrated across the Atlantic — with devastating consequences to those who’d gotten there first. In the middle of the 19th century, the discovery of gold in a mountain stream inspired 300,000 people — many of them prosperous at home, doctors and lawyers, landowners — to move to California in less than a decade.
I am the product of migrants. In the late 1950s, my 22-year-old mother emigrated from the U.K. to Toronto on the steamship Empress of England. Passage took seven days and cost 80 quid. She met my father, who’d made the same journey from Glasgow three years prior. They ended up in America’s Finest City (San Diego’s official nickname), where she worked as a court reporter (documenting trials by hand, no less) and my dad sold candles to department stores. My folks used to go to the beach and fly kites their first winter in California, just to marvel at the weather and their good fortune. Flying kites on the beach; dying of exposure in a tractor trailer. If you don’t know/recognize how much of your success/failure is/isn’t your fault, you lack awareness.
Pastures
People migrate for many reasons. Our earliest ancestors moved from place to place based on changing seasons, which determined the abundance of crops and the migration habits of animals. People didn’t go out to eat but went anywhere to find food. Home was where the food was. We moved to survive.
Once the original gangster of technology, agriculture, emerged in the Middle East 20,000 years ago, our movements were no longer just about survival, but prosperity, curiosity, and conquest. The first documented migrant to Britain (today we’d call him undocumented) was a Greek astronomer named Pytheas. In 325 B.C. he got on a boat and set sail, even though the ocean was filled with monsters and ruled by a temperamental Poseidon. Halfway around the world, Alexander was on his way to India — each compelled by curiosity and conquest.
The Draft
Similar to … everything, immigration has been weaponized for political purposes, and, depending on party affiliation, we’ve decided every immigrant will go on to found Google or become a criminal. What’s undeniable is the impact immigrants have had on the Fortune 500 and the startup sector. Almost half of Fortune 500 companies were founded by American immigrants or their children, and more than half of unicorns (private companies worth more than $1 billion) are founded by immigrants. Every year there’s a draft for human capital. And every year, the U.S. gets the top picks.
The Narrative
The most recent migration headlines concern Silicon Valley. The narrative: It sucks and everyone is leaving. Venture capitalists who built their fortunes in the Valley say they’re “over” it. The Bay Area is “crashing” and has become “unhinged” with wokeness. “San Francisco is Detroit and Miami is the future,” claimed a recent VC transplant. Elon Musk relocated Tesla from California to Texas, saying California state laws were “fascist.” Newspapers across the country report on a “tech exodus,” with quotes and anecdotes from aggrieved tech workers. California’s dead. (So is New York.) Tech’s moving to Texas and Florida, and the money will follow.
We’ve been to this movie before — it’s called bullshit. In 2005, Silicon Valley was losing its edge and hemorrhaging jobs. In 2009 it was shrinking, on the brink of death. In 2010 it was on the brink of death again. In 2012 the Golden Age of the Valley was over. In 2014, San Francisco was declared the next Detroit. However, the next Detroit has HQs within a 15 mile radius whose combined market caps rival the GDP of Germany and Japan combined. I know, apples/oranges … both are fruit. You get the idea.
Ninety-seven percent of startups stayed in the Bay Area in 2020. Of the 1.2% that moved, a fifth went somewhere else in California, and another fifth went to New York. The Valley still dominates the startup scene. Last year firms domiciled in the Bay Area received over a third of total U.S. venture capital funding. Austin and Miami received 1.5% and 1.4%, respectively — less than Seattle, Philadelphia, or D.C. I don’t believe a city can sustain a robust technology sector unless it has a world-class engineering school (e.g., Berkeley, Stanford, etc.). Also, declining quality of life and overwhelmed infrastructure is an apt descriptor of … Miami.
Miami’s population actually declined in 2021. Tech leaders’ disdain for the Bay Area and/or NYC is correlated with the size of their unrealized gains. (See above: California is “fascist.”) They should be more honest: “I made my money here but want to (not) pay taxes somewhere else.” And that’s their right. But don’t shitpost the state that stood by you all these years. “Yes, I’ve been having sex with my 25-year-old assistant, but your passive-aggressive nature is why I’m leaving you.” Fuck off.
The tech exodus narrative is a distraction. The real domestic migration trend is … less migration. Specifically, people aren’t moving. In 1948 roughly a fifth of Americans changed residences. That number has been steadily declining since. During the pandemic, we read opinion pieces about everyone quitting their job and moving to Maine. There was a feeling that migration habits were changing; in reality the song remains (increasingly) the same. In 2021 only 8.4% of Americans moved — an all-time low.
It’s been happening for several decades, though nobody can figure out why. An aging population and a younger cohort described as the “complacent generation” are factors, but there must be more. Lack of portable health care and a decline in the lifestyle once sought in the West could also be explainers. My theory is that, like everything else, mobility has become a luxury item costs can only be borne by college grads (who are themselves increasingly anchored by student loan debt).
American mobility has been halved in three decades. Contrast that with China, where over 370 million people live somewhere besides their home region. (Another contrast: A mere 1 million foreigners live in China, placing it 54th among nations by immigrant population.) Why does it matter? Because when capital is not allocated to its best use, growth declines. A lack of mobility also affects culture, resulting in less dynamism, increased aversion to risk, and suspicion of outsiders. Yes, Covid spurred some relocation, but, like the “renewed” labor movement, that’s a blip that likely won’t reverse the secular decline. The problem isn’t that a tech Karen is leaving the Bay Area, it’s that not enough people are leaving any area. “Remote Work” should be called “Work from Home” as it’s decreasingly remote, just at home. Six in 10 people who move stay within their county; eight in 10 stay in-state.
Movement in and out of cities is essential to economic vitality. Cities are the heart of our economy: the influx of young people, the moving out of oldsters to the suburbs, that’s their heartbeat. This too is subject to political forces taking over the narrative: One person’s urban renewal is another’s gentrification. These dueling and absolutist storylines are counterproductive, because the life of cities must be managed. Left to the market, a city eats itself. The Yoda of urban renewal, Richard Florida, admits to a profound realization that his celebration of the young urban creative class left out the “immiseration” of service workers when rents go up. New York City has been grappling with the price of success for decades — the creative class that made New York great can’t afford to live there now. And more and more of them don’t, otherwise we wouldn’t have an Austin that’s also becoming unaffordable for its creative class.
London Calling
The Galloways are doing their part to restore mobility — we’re moving to London. Last week I wrote about podcasting. But all the comments were questions about the move. Many people have posited that it likely has something to do with the polarization, gun violence, and attacks on rights that threaten our country. No, that’s not it. There’s nothing wrong with America that can’t be fixed with what’s right with America. And it’s not for work. Actually, the move makes no sense professionally. But neither did moving to NYC or Florida.
So … why? My parents crossed the Atlantic in seven days with nothing but two suitcases in search of something better. We’ll cross in seven hours with two dogs in search of something different, as we could never do better. The prosperity made possible by America’s freedoms and the opportunities afforded immigrants and their offspring have let me answer a calling to return to my parents’ first home. It doesn’t feel like leaving, but spending time at our best friend’s place, as the U.S.-U.K. alliance has deep roots. I am committed to helping that alliance flourish. At pubs, Premier League games, and dog parks, I will buttress Americans’ reputation as a generous, loving, and profane people. Mom, Dad … I’m home.
Life is so rich,
P.S. Missed yesterday’s AMA with me? You can rewatch it if you create a free Section4 account. Sign up, then look for it under Live Lectures.
Scott, I think the UK has very strict laws on bringing in pets (2 dogs). You may not be taking them to any dog park for at least 6 months, unless the UK laws have loosened. Enjoy London – we’ll miss you.
Another excellent post – I moved to London two years ago (my fifth city, third country) and love it – welcome!
I just got back from a European honeymoon, and I have fallen in love with Europe. I hope to build myself up enough so I can relocate myself, my wife, our two cats, and our dog away from the transcontinential strip mall to return to our ancestors’ home land.
Scott, always appreciate your narrative.
However, I believe your visit to the homeland will be relatively short lived and you’ll yearn to experince the Pacific Northwest. Considering that I just took a Beach walk at Cannon Beach, OR with “0” tide, friggin beach was at least a mile wide at one point. Given the time I would like to hear your perspective on the areas of our Country that are awe inspiring.
Good Luck,
James
Best of luck in London. Cheers. Have you had a chance to read “San Fransicko”? It does a fine job explaining why things are so f’d up in SF, LA, Portland and Seattle. It’s sad.
How about a tech startup to help gen-z pay rent in big cities?
Thank you for this!
Wonderful and wise letter, like many others you have written. Thanks Prof G.
I migrated to Europe and my daughter recently mentioned in a speech that we arrived with one hand in front and the other in the back and not much else. And things have progressed and they are better off. Her speech was an internal and very satisfying reward to me. We work hard and we are grateful to the country that received us
I love your writing. Thank you for your wit, honesty, and info. I am so envious of your ability to live where you wish.
I moved away from the US alone at 26 in the early 80’s. It was the best decision I ever made. I was able to travel some, met my husband, started a business, and raised our kids where we were the obvious minority. Evolution required us to return to the States after 16 yrs. Financial hardship had us try Mexico for a yr, but cartels forced us to return. We are now seniors and would love another adventure but no $. I would move to London in a heartbeat.
Thanks for a thoughtful article. I was hoping you would conclude your essay with a couple suggestions about how we as a country could try to come up with a common-sense solution to prevent 53 people dying in a trailer in Texas. A solution based upon your unique blend of an economic solution guided by a moral compass. Good luck across the pond!
Thank you for your columns. Hope you will continue this writing. Today’s moved me to tears. I’m a.migrant, female, STEM PHD from India and now a professor in a top 25 business school. There are very good reasons why people still want to.come to the USA. But the ultra nationalist tone is worrying. Anyways, best wishes to you! Your columns have been educational and entertaining. Cheers!
Interesting article, and fully agree with your perspective. I’m a child of parents, who left their families & lives in India, to work in the Middle East as doctors; I’m a grandchild of grandparents who became refugees at the end of 1947 and the British Raj in India, and ended up building lives for themselves and their kids in a new, yet familiar country & city; I’m the great-grandchild of my great-grand father who left his family & home to go work for a British Bank in East Africa in the late 1930s in search of a better future for his kids; I myself have lived and worked in 4 countries (UAE, Denmark, Germany and now the UK), was born in another which probably hasn’t survived as a functioning nation-state (Libya), and am a citizen of one which isn’t travelling anywhere good when it comes to opportunities for young people (India). I have seen how my privilege (a decent education & parents who provided a us with a world view bigger than we could afford or experience in person), has helped me transcend from being a “migrant” to an “expat” in the eyes of those who still think in these archaic terms, but I feel for how the world through narrow prisms of politics/race/nationalism, is failing so many those who may aspire to take a similar path, from India to Africa to the Philippines to China to South & Central America; wanting to create value in societies & cities & regions that should be welcoming them and providing them with opportunities to show their talents.
I’m jealous, where’s my 25 year-old assistant? Mankind has been on the move since the advent of people like Attilla the Hun and/or that greener pasture on that other hillside, following the herd. We been on the move since we evolved, it’s our nature to move.
Last August, after 22 years at a 170 year old Fortune 500 tech company I moved across the country to work for a 20 year old Fortune 500 tech company. It’s been a fascinating experience both for what stayed the same and what changed.
Beautiful ending, Scott. Life truly is rich. And couching this story in the broader context of human evolution and movement was a powerful writing choice. Best to you and yours in your homecoming.
Thank you for making space in Florida. So long…
We just moved to Las Vegas, NV, our 6th state. We love the adventures. Good luck!
Impossible as it seems…this will only sharpen your wit. Your synapses will go warp speed with all the new sounds and experiences. And the really good news… we all will be richer for it, literally and figuratively. One suggestion, spend a Saturday afternoon in Richmond Hill overlooking a pastoral expanse and the Thames. There is a great Pub with all the local color and your “new world” will feel just right. Cheerio and Cheers.
Please bring your same analysis to the structural failings of British society
Welcome hame son. But London isnae it. Yeh need tae get yersell tae Scotland. Gawn tae Glasgae if you want tae but Edinburgh is where you’ll love. Universities, Food, restaurants, beauty and countryside is were you can write the next chapter better than anywhere else.
And you make your point perfectly. Immigration created everything since we left the Rift Valley in Africa the human race has been constantly moving. The fact that the US, UK and most of Europe is now barring immigrants is to our cost. Can’t think of anybody who could prove that more than you.
Look forward to seeing you down the pub. I’ll buy you a pint
Welcome to London, let’s have lunch…
If you really want to experience a soccer game, you should come down to Madrid, nothing like a Champions League match at Bernabeu, that’s where things happen.
Welcome home! Come and if you would like to join me for a glass of wine or at Fox wine bar on London Wall (built by the Romans 2,000 years age) the wines not so old but there’s lots of choice from 400 plus bottles! Cheers to your adventures
This article is soooo true! I’ve seen the transition first-hand. When people are poor they love California and are hardcore Democrats! The great weather, beautiful cities, nice beaches, and great restaurants. As soon as they start making good money they see all the taxes that California starts taking and suddenly they are Republicans. They are pissed off because they can’t abuse their employees, pollute the environment, and every project has more eyes examining it. I had to leave California because I couldn’t afford to retire there but it’s a fantastic place if you can make it work.
This was one of my favorite column of yours. Thanks to my father’s job and his will to seek adventure and opportunity, I grew up Belgium, Germany and France. After high school, I moved to Canada then London then back to Canada for work. My dad passed away in February. I miss him terribly but one of the best things he and my mother taught us three kids is to migrate , move around, meet the world, seek others, and move somewhere even if we don’t know where it’s really going to lead us.
This will be fantastic for you children
*your children
I agree. Elon Musk called CA fascist when he was forced to lock-down the Fremont Tesla Plant during the first COVID wave when little was known about the disease and people were dying, especially factory workers.
He moved to Texas which really is fascist in many ways and hasn’t mentioned a thing about that state’s action against women and other non-white Texans. Like Scott said, it’s all about taxes and self-interest. Really obnoxious.
Absolutely on point Bob
”FANTASTIC!”
“Where we going, man? I don’t know, but we gotta go!”
On the Road, Jack Kerouac
Funny how people speculate on your motives for moving to London. If I were fleeing America’s f-d up politics, the UK is the last place on earth I’d go! (Ditto lower cost of living or taxes!) Best of luck. Give a cheer at Chelsea for me!
Loved this posting by Prof. Galloway. Timely in that I had just finished reading Bill Bryson’s The Road to Little Dribbling recounting his travel around England similar to a prior travel book on same subject. Older and crankier, he rails at stupid decisions and piss-pore customer service by shopkeepers in most small towns in England. But praises the town where shopkeepers put signs in store window welcoming visitors in to use their restroom even if they do not intend to buy merchandise there. The town’s shops are doing well. Our little tourist town is almost void of restrooms and yet shopkeepers are not recognizing the opportunity put a small sign in their window and expand the count of people who will comment positively about their store. And thank goodness for immigrants that some end up working the many ag fields in Washington state so our family can have local fresh veggies. Or work in the cafes doing jobs that not every high school graduate will do. Society needs all levels of workforce available as well as living wages for all levels of workforce. Washington State’s blue governance respects people of all types, colors, and immigration status (last month or last century). Glad to live here than the less tolerant areas of US.
Careful… we went to London for a year and stayed for a dozen. It’s wonderful and addicting…
The pachyderm in the antechamber is that you emigrate in the era of globalization—one much different than that of your folks. What was apparent to me after Brexit is that the populace of London has more in common socio-politically with San Francisco, or Miami for that matter, than a community 50 miles away from its center. When you finish with your London jaunt, might I suggest a stint in Middlesbrough, or perhaps the Florida panhandle? I would love to see how you bridge that divide. Perhaps you’ll discover why your parents wanted to emigrate in the first place.
One thing almost never mentioned in analyses of migration is the demographics of the receiving countries. The US is not at population replacement levels but in-migration keeps us somewhat balanced by providing workers at the bottom of the pay scale and doing jobs others Americans don’t want to do. Other nations have even lower childbirth rates. This includes most of Europe, including the primarily Catholic countries. Why do you think Angela Merkel was so open to receiving the first wave of immigrant Syrians? With her policy Germany received many professionals who were ready to share their skills with a country with a seriously aging population. We know about the serious repercussions of the Chinese one child policy but many people don’t know that Cuba is suffering from many young young couples choosing to not have children or at most one. On another tack, remember the US and the UK have different cultures that have evolved. over the centuries. Be prepared for many frustrations.
You have the views of an old, white upper class person on all of the topics you post – aka you believe nothing changes, whether that’s the feasibility of not going into offices or a migration of people out of overpriced cities. We’ll see who’s right in the long-run but I believe tax changes like California’s most recent one will have an impact, especially now that many more people have a level of location flexibility in work that was unheard of years ago.
Hi Scott,
I’m curious about your view on the migration to FL specifically. My partner and I manage 30 Airbnbs, and our experience says otherwise. Not sure about the Tech sector, but many, many people decided to move here in the last year or so. The rapid decrease in real estate inventory levels, and resulting insane price increase says the opposite. Yes, it also maybe happening in other areas in the US, but for a long time FL was the only game in town, and people living in cramped apartments decided they didn’t have to live that way anymore and came here to live, or at least to stay/work for a while, in a vacation rental.
During Q4 2021 and Q1 2022, 50% of the people staying in our vacation rentals we’re either waiting for their property to be ready, or looking for a place to purchase. That’s remarkable to me. When asked, they all pretty much agreed that they “had it” with life in CA or NY and that they could, for much less, live down here, and increase their quality of life.
In any case, I wanted to say that your views on Miami seemed at odds with our experience here. Not defending Miami, it can suck like anywhere else, but at least it’s nice knowing the beach is a few blocks away even if I never go there.
Alex
Alex, what about the future that Miami certainly faces with parts of the city under water on a more or less permanent basis?
Scott, San Francisco has seen a large exodus. Sure others will come, but mostly for “economic tourism” but its not a place you’ll raise your kids (the city having the least amount of kids for a city it’s size in the U.S. – or anywhere in fact). It’s not a narrative – it’s been a real live shit show in San Francisco over the pandemic. No bullshit about it.
Nicely said. I live in Australia, originally born in Kenya and then via Libya to England. After graduating I worked summer camps in the US, I never forgot this extraordinary exercise as it gave me the strength for my future. After time back in the UK I left for Hong Kong and then down to my new home Sydney. Travel changed me, gave me opportunities, tempered me and, I hope, gave me resilience and hope. Exploring should be part of everyone’s growth however near or far that takes you. Go well.
Good luck with the move!
Ive just moved over to LA with my family after spending 10 years living in London. I’m originally from Scotland and so find it interesting to contrast the culture and opportunities in Scotland, London, LA & The States in general.
Good one big dog.
The migrant tragedies you describe are a stark reminder that the world is not “flat” . Those who can migrate without endangering their lives are like us: the privileged few.
I have migrated for study and work several times over the last 40 years – a dozen countries – in Asia, the Americas and Europe. The graduate degree then the financial werewithal made it easy to get the visas, work and resident permits and now fast tracked citizenship as a privileged immigrant to Spain.
But I am rarity in Spain, a country looking down the barrel of a demographic shotgun and the economic stagnation inevitably ushered in by a declining population.
A beautiful and culturally rich former colonial power like Spain should be bursting at the seams with new people from former colonies – no matter how historically distant – but it has floundered under decades of contradictory immigration policies and a polite if not overt xenophobia.
Even with a declining population there is no social or political will to jump start the economy by letting people in…so kids are unemployed – 35% for the under 30 – or migrating to Latin America to seek their fortunes just like the conquistadores of the 16th century, making a bad situation worse for Spain but stoking the future of the Americas.
As a Londoner who’s just moved to Austin, this week’s blog made me feel weirdly emotional. Enjoy London – the weather’s not as miserable as people say it is. Oh and it’s ‘mum’ now, not ‘mom’…
Welcome to London! Very cool of you to be moving here.
Nice one; hope you and your family are East with the good guys 👌🏼
Bon Voyage Scott. Cheers.
Interesting write-up. Was shocked by your move to the UK but I get it. Sometimes I wish I had made a move to Japan in my 20’s but didn’t. Being in the UK will provide you with a new prospective that is priceless.
Welcome to London! As an American expat myself who moved here over 10 years ago, I wholeheartedly confirm that it’s a wonderful place to live. Which neighborhood? My partner and I are happy to show you around anytime.
Hopefully you’ll be joining us on the south side of The Thames?
Wow! Welcome! Just back from SF. London-Geneva.
Have a good one !! Ps happy to send any recommendations
Wow!!! What a move Scott. The best to you and your kids!!! By the way, I love your articles and your podcast!!! Cheers!
I love the clarity of vision you have as a result of your adventures in life. You call a spade a spade. And you give the data to prove it. Thanks for being this way, you inspire a lot of us!
As King George III sings to the breakaway Yanks in Hamilton, “You’ll be back!” Ethos in UK very different than in US even though we speak dialects of the same language. Maybe you could take our former POTUS with you?
Love what you do and continue to do with your musings. I too am a son of immigrants – parents from Taiwan to Canada where I was born and raised until we moved to America during my high school years. So technically I am an immigrant to America! Wishing you call the best in London where your children will need to learn to sign as I did as a child – God Save the Queen! instead of Let Freedom Ring…
and to be honest, the former still makes me tear particularly with the recent Platinum Jubilee in 2022. https://youtu.be/Xm7CZvvsC64
Did you ever visit the home before? Was it kept in the family. Nice story.
Not everyone can be atomized cosmopolitan corporate climber. Sadly, family and community rooted in shared purpose and history does not show up on a spreadsheet.
I very much enjoy your writing, and whilst I am sure you have lots of connections here in the UK, if you need a local for anything let me know.
With your fine use of the vernacular, you’re going to fit right in. I am looking forward to your commentary on the shit-show that counts as politics over here. Safe travels and a warm welcome.
I always feel better after reading your articles, particularly this one since I live in the Bay Area.
I second this. Always feel better about the world after a Prof G article. I am SOOOO sad you are leaving though. Obviously, I will never meet you but you always make me feel better about the differences between our citizens and the issues facing our economy. Feels weird you being in the UK but wish you the best. Thank you for all of your generous & honest thoughts.
Will you host economic migrants and illegal immigrants in your posh pad? If not stop virtue signaling. A refugee murdered little girls at an Ariana grande concert a few years ago in your new country, but of course you don’t care.