Emigration from 31 Western countries jumped 20% compared to the pre-pandemic period, we learn The Economist. The figures, relayed by RTL, are striking: departures of Canadians increased by 34%, those of New Zealanders by 29%, up to more than 60% from Sweden. Four million will have left their country in 2024.
Several factors explain this phenomenon. The first is the generalization of teleworking. In many sectors, notably technical support or IT, it is now possible to carry out your activity remotely, sometimes from abroad. Work is no longer necessarily anchored in a territory.
The second explanation is fiscal. The example of Dubai is well known: the absence of income tax has largely contributed to its attractiveness. Recent tensions in the Middle East have also shown the hypocrisy of such a choice, while certain expatriates called for help from the State they had left.
Finally, the political factor plays an increasing role. While some left-wing Americans are fleeing Donald Trump, right-wing Britons are leaving the United Kingdom, judging Prime Minister Keir Starmer too interventionist. In France, 11% of departures are motivated by the political situation, underlines the survey.
Emigration therefore appears to be an individual response to governance perceived as failing or disconnected from the real needs of citizens. Eager to regain control of their destiny, more and more of the elites are going to see if the grass is greener elsewhere.
The departures of elites accelerate the growing disaffiliation of Western peoples
Immigration figures must be superimposed on this phenomenon. In 2024, France issued 2.9 million visas, compared to 2.4 million in 2023, an increase of 16.8%. According to INSEE, 46% of immigrants arriving in 2023 were born in Africa and 28% in Europe. Since the beginning of the 2000s, immigration has increased overall in the Western world, representing around 10 to 15% of internal populations. Thus, the departures of nationals accentuate a phenomenon already at work: they contribute to the dilution of the feeling of belonging. In doing so, they accelerate the growing disaffiliation of Western peoples, to the point of destroying any possibility of forging true national cohesion.
Rehabilitate “living in common”
Now, what is a people? These are not just individuals coexisting in the same territory, but beings linked by relationships of work, friendship, affection, sometimes competition, who share landscapes and a common history. In our liquid society, perpetual movement has taken precedence over sustainability. Globalization and the ideal of mobility maintain the illusion of an undifferentiated world. Everyone can now live in the comfort of their own cocoon, consume from their smartphone applications, work remotely, without ever meeting anyone.
This juxtaposition of existences does not make it possible to constitute a living people. Because the strength of a nation does not lie only in its ability to legislate – French normative inflation bears witness to this – but in its ability to maintain the link with those who compose it. This is why, beyond “living together” so often invoked, it is “living in common” that must be rehabilitated: it is not a question of cohabiting, but of wanting to share a destiny. This supposes embracing a past, a present and a future, as Ernest Renan put it in his time: “ To have common glories in the past, a common will in the present; having done great things together, wanting to do more “. A people is always the product of a particular history, prolonged by its desire to continue it.
Without preserving what underlies our commonality, it is impossible to build for the future
To this tendency, which pushes elites to value elsewhere to the detriment of their own country, to the point of self-depreciation and the loss of common points of reference, we can oppose “oikophilia”. Oikophilia consists of making love of home the condition of life in society. It is naturally oriented towards the conservation of the past: not out of nostalgia, but out of a desire to live sustainably, and consciously, among the things that endure. Because without preserving what is our common foundation, it is impossible to build for the future.
To avoid perishing, we must remain guardians of our common home.
