Streets of Gold in saner climes

Responses to any article intended to inject notion(s) of reality into any emigration debate are always predictable. The authors of such attempts at realities, are swiftly met with condemnation and accusations of attempting to dissuade others from emigrating. These misguided views and assertions are nourished and fueled by misdirected anger at folks “abroad”, who are somehow viewed as impediments to the upward progression of folks back home.

Ironically, the loudest, most vocal and sometimes vile, of these "attackers", tend to be individuals who are not doing particularly well in their own countries of birth. Strangely and somewhat inexplicable, they are so convinced their only chances of success are in some foreign land, where the streets are "paved with gold, and the avenues are lined with Money Trees", waiting to be picked by them. Anyone who dares to state the real facts is deemed an "enemy" that must be shouted down.

Things are not made any better by some people "abroad", who perpetuate, and parade photo ops of success, replete with luxury cars, large homes, and pies in the skies outlandish narratives of unimaginable adventures of bliss, and fortunes they have built – effortlessly, if we are to believe them.

The way these stories and facades are told, all anyone needs is a plane ticket to the "promised lands", to pluck their share(s) of golden apples in blissful paradises.Reading this, you may be tempted to assume, the people who engage in this are strangers; No!; you will be shocked to learn that your own family members do exactly the same thing. Even your own "loved ones", who know you, in and out, and are keenly aware that you have no reasons to mislead them, engage in same misrepresentation of realities.  They are sometimes more vocal than "strangers" in criticizing you!

The result of this anomaly is that blunt truths of realities are viewed with jaundiced perceptions, reinforcing a culture where blunt truths must be obfuscated to be acceptable. The tragic result of this parade of obfuscation is that many folks abandon promising endeavors, liquidate valuable assets in pursuit of pies in the sky, in far away lands.   On the other side of the coin, people who would want to tell the realities the way they are, abstain from doing so because they do not want to be seen as “discouraging” anyone..Amidst all this clamor for Rose colored glasses and streets paved with Gold  renditions of lullabies by folks back home, the realities are what they are; and they will not be changing soon.Here are a few realities and few Blunt Truths that are  rarely talked about.

1. The often stated claim of “folks abroad are detached…”; is simply a projection of inward anger at the very few who dare call the pies in the sky bullshit what it is.
2. Unknown to many, most folks abroad who are doing well, tend to be more attached and invested in where they emigrated from than where they reside.
3.  Many folks abroad, are NOT doing well. In fact, their existence is marginal at best, and, in the absence of social welfare and ease of credit availability; many are destitute.
4. Many folks abroad are stuck but are too embarrassed to talk about it, nor will they even admit it.
5. Many folks abroad have what we call “buyer’s remorse” syndrome; that is; knowing what they know now; they would not have emigrated.

6. Emigrating to any nation costs a lot of money. A careful observer would notice that folks that are emigrating are those that are already; relatively, doing well where they are emigrating from. What this means is that, they would still do ok, maybe even better in environments that enables them to excel in their new country just as they were where they left from.  In plain English, the probabilities of someone who is not doing well in their homelands,  suddenly doing well, baring winning the proverbial "lottery" are not as plentiful as  urban legends would have us believe.
If one is lazy and not success driven in their home country, their chances of transformation are limited; albeit, they may be forced by environmental factors beyond their controls to attempt to survive and live a marginal life.So, if one is lazy before emigrating, they may still be lazy after emigrating.

7. One overlooked factor before emigrating is what seems to be our general lack of understanding risks and risk analysis.The result of this has been that many folks abandon promising trajectory to chase diamonds in the sky, based on hearsay and unproven and non analyzed risk reward analysis.Reality is, a $20k equivalent job in AFRICA is better financially, (assuming money is the driving factor for the emigration) than $50k job here in US. Equally, a $10k job in Lagos is better than $30k job in Abuja; but most folks are swayed by large numbers rather than analyzing what’s hidden behind them. But, there are other reasons why people emigrate. We will look at those other factors in a follow-up piece.