The Western exodus - A Blog from Freemont Group

The retiring baby boom generation and the economic recession in the Western world give rise to a significant population shift. Never before, or in case of Europe not since World War II, there are so many people leaving the Western world for the developing world.

Portugal has seen an exodus of over 500.000 people in the last 5 years, 150.000 of them left in 2011. Over 40.000 Irish left their home country last year. Unsurprisingly, Greeks are leaving their country in droves too. Greece’s immigrant workforce, mainly from Eastern Europe, has returned home. On the other side of the ocean, in the United States 10.000 baby boomers are retiring every day. Many of those choose to retire abroad, with Latin America topping the list.

Though numbers are hard to estimate, booming real estate markets and flourishing economies in other regions of the world speak for themselves. The African continent is booming, averaging 5.3% growth for 2012. The evidence can be found everywhere, from high-speed trains in Morocco, state of the art business centers in Uganda, to skyscrapers in Angola and shopping malls in Mozambique.

South and Central America is thriving too averaging 4.2% growth in 2011 and expected to grow 3.5% in 2012. Regional top performers are Panama (10.6%), Argentina (8%) and Chile (6.5%).

South East Asia, though initially affected by the banking crisis in the Western world, appears to have recovered and is showing growth again. Many of Asia´s poorer countries are showing impressive growth numbers, and most of its developing economies show no sign of fatigue. China boosted 9.2% growth in 2011, India 7.8% and Indonesia 6.4%. With the exception of Japan, pretty much all Asian nations demonstrate respectable growth numbers.

Going through a list of last years' economic growth ranking, it appears that only the US and Europe are in a recession, while the remainder of the world has recovered. The Western exodus makes perfect sense. When Europe lay in shambles after WW II, people migrated mainly to the economic power house of the day, the United States. Today, it´s everywhere but Europe and the US.