TY  - JOUR
T1  - Exploring Migration Motivations from Developed to Developing Countries: A Study of American Emigrants to Developing Countries
AU  - Akın, Mustafa Şeref
PY  - 2024
DA  - December
Y2  - 2024
DO  - 10.26650/JECS2024-1436507
JF  - Journal of Economy Culture and Society
PB  - Istanbul University
WT  - DergiPark
SN  - 2645-8772
SP  - 78
EP  - 97
IS  - 70
LA  - en
AB  - This paper explores the motivations and challenges faced by American emigrants by focusing on the stories of 12 individuals who moved to developing countries. Through an in-depth analysis of social media videos produced by the CNBC Make It program and the migrants, the study provides firsthand insights into their decision-making processes and the factors influencing their choices. Our findings reveal that economic opportunities are not the primary driver of early decision-making. Instead, motivations for migration are deeply rooted in social and psychological aspects, such as detachment from home communities and personal growth and fulfillment. Economic considerations, including the ability to earn income from the U.S. (through online work, retirement, or passive income), become relevant for geographic arbitrage only after the decision to migrate has been made. Having an income from home country, combined with the lower cost of living in developing countries, enables Americans to achieve financial independence. Notably, tax benefits are a low priority, contrary to popular belief about tax avoidance as a motivation. Therefore, migration from developed to developing countries is primarily a personal decision driven by a desire for change, adventure, creativity, and self-discovery.
KW  - Sociopsychological Factors
KW  - Personal Growth
KW  - Geographic Arbitrage
KW  - U.S. Migration
KW  - Developing Countries
CR  - Abdullayev, I., Begishev, I., Yulia Limareva, Y., Hajiyev, H., Yumashev, A., & Natalia Prodanova, N. (2023). Impact of International Migration on the Internal Security of the State. Migration Letters, 20(S4), 424-433. google scholar
CR  - Arellano-Bover, J., & San, S. (2020). The role of firms in the assimilation of immigrants. SSRN 3594778, 2018. google scholar
CR  - Arif, I. (2020). The determinants of international migration: Unbundling the roles of economic, political and social institutions. The World Economy, 43(6), 1699-1729 google scholar
CR  - Balancemoney. (2022). California Taxes are the Highest in the Nation. Retrieved from https://www.balancemoney.com google scholar
CR  - Basch, L., Schiller, N. G., & Blanc, C. S. (2020). Nations unbound: Transnational projects, postcolonial predicaments, and territorialized nation-states. London: Routledge. google scholar
CR  - Bhabha, H. (1994). The Location of Culture. London: Routledge. google scholar
CR  - Bhandari, N. B. (2022). Homi K. Bhabha’s third space theory and cultural identity today: A critical review. Prithvi Academic Journal, 171-181. google scholar
CR  - Bengen, W. P. (1994). Determining withdrawal rates using historical data. Journal of Financial Planning, 7(1), 171-180. google scholar
CR  - Bengen, W. P. (1996). Asset allocation for a lifetime. Journal of Financial Planning, 9(3), 58-67. google scholar
CR  - Bengen, W. P. (1997). Conserving client portfolios during retirement, part III. Journal of Financial Planning, 10(5), 84-97. google scholar
CR  - Bengen, W. P. (2017). I’m Bill Bengen, and I first proposed the 4% safe withdrawal rate in 1994. Ask me anything! Retrieved from https: //www.reddit.com/r/financialindependence/comments/6vazih/im_bill_bengen_and_i_first_proposed_the_4_safe/ google scholar
CR  - Berry, J. W. (1997). Immigration, culturation, and Adaptation. Applied Psychology, 46(1), 5-34. google scholar
CR  - Berry, J. W. (2005). Acculturation: Successfully living in two cultures. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 29(6), 697-712. google scholar
CR  - Berry, J. W., & Hou, F. (2021). Immigrant acculturation and well-being across generations and settlement contexts in Canada. International Review of Psychiatry, 33(1-2), 140-153. google scholar
CR  - Bierwirth, L. (1994). Investing in retirement: using the past to model the future. Journal of Financial Planning, 7(1), 14-24. google scholar
CR  - Borjas, G. J. (1985). Assimilation, changes in cohort quality, and immigrants’ earnings. Journal of Labor Economics, 3(4), 463-489. google scholar
CR  - Bronfenbrenner, U. (1979). The ecology of human development: Experiments by nature and design. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. google scholar
CR  - Bueker, C. S. (2021). It’s Because You Don’t See Yourself as Unequal to Anybody: Exploring the Segmented Assimilation Model in the Experiences of 1.5- and 2nd Generation Females in an Elite Public High School. Journal of International Migration and Integration, 22(3), 791-807. google scholar
CR  - Caminero, L. M., & McGarrigle, J. (2022). Socio-spatial negotiations in Lisbon: Reflections of working-aged lifestyle migrants on place and privilege. Population, Space, and Place, 13, 1-10. google scholar
CR  - Chiswick, B. R. (2018). The effect of Americanization on the earnings of foreign-born men. In The New Immigrant in the American Economy (pp. 111-136). London: Routledge. google scholar
CR  - Cooley, P. L., & Hubbard, C. M. & Walz, D. T. (1998). Retirement spending: Select a sustainable withdrawal rate. Journal of the American Association of Individual Investors, 20(2), 16-21. google scholar
CR  - Crawford, M. (2020). Ecological Systems theory: Exploring the development of the theoretical framework as proposed by Bronfenbrenner. J Pub Health Issue Pract, 4(2), 170. google scholar
CR  - Dalmatian Report. (2023). Cost of Living Across Europe. https://linktr.ee/dalmatian.mapper. google scholar
CR  - Durham.Rent cafe. (2023). What is the average monthly rent in Manhattan? https://www.rentcafe.com/average-rent-market-trends/us/ny/ manhattan/ google scholar
CR  - Economist Intelligence Unit. (2022). Worldwide Cost of Living. www.wcol.com google scholar
CR  - EU Statistics. (2022). Population statistics. Retrieved from https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statisticsexplained/index.php?title=Population_ and_population_change_statistics#:$\sim$:text=Highlights&text=On%201%20January%202022%2C%20the,fewer%20than%20the% 20previous%20year.&text=The%20EU%20population%20decreased%20in, more%20deaths%20than%20in%202019 google scholar
CR  - Euronews. (2022). Bali’s new digital nomad visa enables foreigners to live and work in Indonesia tax-free. Retrieved from https://www.euronews. com/travel/2022/06/24/balis-new-digital-nomad-visa-means-foreigners-can-live-and-work-in-indonesia-tax-free google scholar
CR  - Ferriss, T. (2007). The 4-hour workweek: escape 9-5, live anywhere, and join the New Rich. New York: Crown Publishers. google scholar
CR  - Fieber J. (2018). 5 Steps To Retire In 5 Years. New York: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform. google scholar
CR  - Friedman, T. L. (2005). The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, google scholar
CR  - Gupta M, Shaheen M, Reddy KP. (2018). Qualitative Techniques for Workplace Data Analysis. Pennsylvania: IGI Global. google scholar
CR  - Hall, S. (2015). Cultural Identity and Diaspora. In Colonial discourse and postcolonial theory (pp. 392-403). London: Routledge. google scholar
CR  - Hayes, M. (2014). We gained a lot over what we would have had’: The geographic arbitrage of North American lifestyle migrants to Cuenca, Ecuador. Journal ofEthnic and Migration Studies, 40(12), 1953-1971. google scholar
CR  - Hennink M. and Kaiser B.N. (2022). Sample sizes for saturation in qualitative research: A systematic review of empirical tests. Soc Sci Med. Jan, 292: 114523. google scholar
CR  - Inditoday (2023). Major tech companies fired more than 50000 employees in January 2023. Retrieved from https://www.indiatoday.in/technology/ news/story/google-to-amazon-5-major-tech-companies-fired-more-than-50000-employees-in-january-2023-2332222-2023-02-08 google scholar
CR  - IRS. (2022). Federal tax rate. Retrieved from www.irs.org google scholar
CR  - Jafari, H. (2020). Resilience in the context of refugee youth’s adaptation to a new life in Canada. Retrieved from www.prism.ucalgary.ca google scholar
CR  - Jung, P. R., and Buhr, F. (2021). Channeling mobilities: Migrant-owned businesses as mobility infrastructures. Mobilities, 17(1), 119-135. google scholar
CR  - Karlgaard, R. (2004). Outsource yourself. Forbes Magazine, April 19. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2004/0419/033.html. Accessed on January 30, 2023. google scholar
CR  - Karlgaard, R. (2006). Special report: 150 cheap places to live. Forbes Magazine, May 5. http://www.forbes.com/2005/10/31/ karlgaardbroadbandtelecommuting_cz_rk_1101liverich.html. google scholar
CR  - Kelly, Philip F., Yeung, H., & Coe, N. (2019). Economic Geography: A Contemporary Introduction. 3rd Edition. New York: Wiley-Blackwell. google scholar
CR  - King, R., Cela, E., & Fokkema, T. (2021). New frontiers in international retirement migration. Aging & Society, 41(1), 1205-1220. google scholar
CR  - Koh, S. Y. (2021). Disrupted geographic arbitrage and differential capacities for later life: Anglo-Western teacher expatriates in Brunei. International Migration Review, 55(2), 322-346. google scholar
CR  - Lee, E. S. (1966). A Theory of Migration. Demography, 3(1), 47-57. google scholar
CR  - Lindert, J., von Ehrenstein, O. S., Priebe, S., Mielck, A., & Brahler, E. (2009). Depression and anxiety in labor migrants and refugees: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Social Science & Medicine, 69(2), 246-257. google scholar
CR  - Lindgren B-M, Lundman B., & Graneheim U.H. (2020). Abstraction and interpretation during the qualitative content analysis process. Int J Nurs Stud;108:103632. google scholar
CR  - Mancinelli, F. (2020). Digital nomads: freedom, responsibility and the neoliberal order. Information Technology and Tourism, 22, 417-437. google scholar
CR  - Morgan, D. F., R. T. Green, C. W. Shinn, K. S. Robinson, and M. E. (2021). Foundations of Public Service: E Pluribus Unum. London: Routledge. google scholar
CR  - Numbeo. (2022). Cost of living. Retrieved from https://www.numbeo.com/costofliving google scholar
CR  - Ong, A. (1999). Flexible citizenship: the cultural logics of transnationalism. Durham: Duke University Press. google scholar
CR  - Pfau, W. (2018). Trinity study and portfolio success rates. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/wadepfau/2018/01/16/ the-trinity-study-and-portfolio-success-rates-updated-to-2018/?sh=5c9bb7256860 google scholar
CR  - Portes, A., and M. Zhou (1993). The second generation: segmented assimilation and its variants. The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Sciences, 530(1), 74-96. google scholar
CR  - Portes, A., & Manning, R. D. (2019). The immigrant enclave: Theory and empirical examples. In Social Stratification, Class, Race, and Gender in Sociological Perspective, 2nd Edition (pp. 568-579). London: Routledge. google scholar
CR  - Putnam, R. D. (2007). E pluribus unum: Diversity and community in the twenty-first century the 2006 Johan Skytte Prize Lecture. Scandinavian political studies, 30(2), 137-174. google scholar
CR  - Robin, V., Dominguez, J. and Tilford, M. (2008). Your Money Or Your Life: 9 Steps to Transforming Your Relationship with Money and Achieving Financial Independence. New York: Penguin Books. google scholar
CR  - Ullah, A. A. (2024). Struggles in identity formation: second-generation South Asian diaspora overseas. South Asian Diaspora, 1-16. google scholar
CR  - Urbanski M. (2022). Comparing Push and Pull Factors Affecting Migration. Economies. 10(1):21. google scholar
CR  - Solano, G. & Huddleston, T. (2021). Beyond immigration: Moving from Western to Global Indexes of Migration Policy. Global politics, 12(3), 327-337. google scholar
CR  - Skeldon. R. (2021). Skilled Labor. Edited by Tanja Bastia, Ronald Skeldon, Routledge Handbook of Migration and Development. ISBN 9781315276908. google scholar
CR  - Tajfel, H., & Turner, J. C. (2004). The social identity theory of intergroup behavior. Political psychology. London: Psychology Press. google scholar
CR  - Tulumello, S., & Allegretti, G. (2021). Articulating urban change in Southern Europe: Gentrification, touristification, and financialization in Mouraria, Lisbon. European Urban and Regional Studies, 28(2), 111-132. google scholar
CR  - Van der Mensbrugghe, D., & Roland-Holst, D. (2009): Global economic prospects for increasing developing country migration into developed countries. Human Development Research Paper (HDRP) Series, 50. google scholar
CR  - Young, I. (2015). Practical Empathy: For Collaboration and Ceativity in Your Work. New York: Rosenfeld Media. google scholar
CR  - Young, I. (2022). Time to Listen: How Giving People Space to Speak Drives Invention and Inclusion (Assumptions Aside). (California: Indi Young Books. google scholar
CR  - Zhou, M., & Bankston, C. L. (1998). Growing up American: How Vietnamese children adapt to life in the United States. New York: Russell Sage Foundation. google scholar
UR  - https://doi.org/10.26650/JECS2024-1436507
L1  - https://dergipark.org.tr/en/download/article-file/3726724
ER  -