US Remains Top Country For Global Workers

Nerval's Lobster writes The Boston Consulting Group and The Network recently surveyed 200,000 people in 189 countries to figure out the global willingness to work abroad. Their conclusion? People will indeed set down professional roots in another country—although younger workers seem far more willing to expatriate than their older peers. Where do the majority of global workers want to head? The United States, which 42 percent of respondents listed as their top potential work destination, followed by the U.K. (37 percent), Canada (35 percent), Germany (33 percent), Switzerland (29 percent), and France (29 percent). But citizens in the United States seemed a bit more reluctant to return the favor—less than 50 percent said they either lived abroad or would consider doing so for work. That's in sharp contrast to countries such as France, where a significant majority of citizens seemed willing to explore jobs in other nations. Of course, those who work in tech already know that globalization is a huge issue.

Comments

Diversity vs monoculture

[TWX]

It doesn't hurt the United States that just about every major culture in the world is represented here, and even American-specific culture is very diverse. With some research it wouldn't be difficult to find a community that appeals, even avoiding expensive places to live like New York and San Francisco. And as an American that's travelled fairly extensively in the United States and a little abroad, one can get many of the benefits of going abroad while remaining in one's own country. Boston is very different from Chicago or Hawaii or Miami or Portland. It's easy to move within the country to have an entirely different experience than where one was before, no residency issues or other international-lines problems.

Obviously some other countries have very diverse cultures and regions too; I'd think that India and China could feel much the same way, but there aren't necessarily the kinds of jobs that people look for in those more distinct regions either. That probably helps make America appeal. Don't like the cold? Move to Phoenix or Dallas or San Diego, all different cultures, all one country.

Re:Well yeah

[erikkemperman]

Wait, is this still about their refusal to support, much less join, the invasion of Iraq? Because they felt the reasons given were lies? Even though the U.S. threatened that when the time came for it spend Iraqi money on "reconstruction" they would exclusively source from fellow warmongers?

I'm not sure how you could've possibly missed this -- but it turned out they were right.