The declining returns to emigration

We will give you the punchline quickly for those of you who will click on the headline but will not be able to read beyond the paywall since you do not want to pay: if you – like most Pakistanis – still believe that professional success means first and foremost being able to get out of the country, here is what you should know about the outside world.

• America is a tremendously rich country and will make you rich if you can somehow make it there, but is closed to the outside world for the foreseeable future.
• Canada and Australia are less lucrative, but easier to get to and still worth considering.
• The Middle Eastern countries are even easier to get to, will yield more financial wealth for you in the long run, are closer to home, but are not a permanent escape, since they will never give you citizenship (fine if you want to move back home).
• Migration to Europe, dear reader, is an objectively stupid decision in the long run, even if it seems easier to accomplish in the medium term. All those people going to masters programs in Germany, Ireland, Italy, and the UK? Making bad, uninformed choices.

Now that we have gotten the most provocative statements out of the way, let us explain what this article is about: it is a story of how Pakistanis have defined success, why it was defined that way, and why that definition needs to be revisited in light of recent trends in the relative economic and demographic health of countries around the world.