Is this the end for career-chasing expats?

Is the upcoming worldwide recession a reason to pack your bags and emigrate?

No-one knows exactly what the post-pandemic world will look like, nor how it’ll behave as regards jobs, salaries, house prices, rentals and many other aspects of moving overseas. Expatriation is very unlikely to be dead in the water, but it might well get soaking wet and very tricky to handle. Those living and working outside their countries of birth go by many names including immigrants, foreigners, migrant workers or even the overused ‘expatriate professional’, but what will these labels signify status-wise in an almost virus-free environment?

Sensationalist media outlets in the English language are all predicting an economic catastrophe as severe as that now referred to as the Great Depression. Should this happen, will it spur a mass exodus of talent from once world-leading countries to those with cheaper costs of living and at least the chance of finding some kind of job? Many people are forgetting the fact that, before the pandemic struck, a number of world countries were even then experiencing significant negative downturns in GDP as well as an upturn in the numbers leaving for fresh fields and pastures new.

Should post-pandemic unemployment stay high as seems likely due to the massive number of business closures, will Brits, Americans and Europeans be fighting for flights to other continents or will they just stay where they are and complain? It’s well-known that a good number of younger would-be expats in the USA are looking to ignore student debts and totally unaffordable healthcare in the homeland by taking a chance overseas. For those looking to improve their incomes, tech and finance are two of the only sectors where this was possible before the pandemic, and even these careers could be at risk.

Basically, for a large percentage of those who’re poorer due to the pandemic, a better life does lie in overseas lands where the local population live on half or less of the average UK or USA basic wage. Migration might become not so much a way of getting rich as a way to avoid being even poorer, with yesterday’s expat-aimed labels of no use in a post-coronavirus world.