A survey from 2007 to 2009 in 135 countries by Gallups revealed that 16% of the worlds adult population would like to leave their home country for a country of their choice. This 16% converts to 700 million people and that is more than adult population of entire North & South America!

The most desired country was found to be US, Canada, UK, Germany, Saudi Arabia and Australia. Out of these 700 million majority would like to migrate to North america. Among the countries from where people would like to migrate, Africa tops the list along with other developing countries.

Why is this disparity between countries? Why does the grass on the other side seem to be greener always?

In this context we could say that the people from emerging nations aspire to live one day in a country as developed as US or UK. The IT/ITES revolution of this century have increased the awareness about what a developed country is all about. The standard of living, the ease of transportation and the predictability play major roles in setting a benchmark for choice of a country. People believe that sometime in future their country will emerge as a country of their dream. However, the waiting time for such transformation is huge in most of the cases. This urge of shortening the waiting time can be one of the reason for these 700 million to dream of switching the country.

Rogues

Jordan is a west Asian country sharing borders with Syria, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Isreal. Much of the land is covered by the Arabian desert except the North-Western part where the capital of the country Amman is located, thanks to the Jordan river.

Jordan is an emerging nation with per capita GDP of $5,547. Since 1999, the liberal economic policies have helped this country to become one of the freest and most competitive economies in the middle east(2009 Heritage foundation Index).

What made it happen?

It has a conservative banking sector which helped the country glide through the recent global financial crisis. With instability across other neighbouring countries, it is the in the making of the ‘Next Beirut’. Jordan has more free trade agreements than any other Arab country. Along with these, the country is following the strategy of privatization which India is also trying. It is concentrating on the concept of SEZs which helped China become what it is. These fundamentals mixed with the best from the other developing countries make a good platform for growth.

Icing in the cake:

Jordan experienced brain drain for a long time because of higher salaries in the neighbouring countries. Recently, it has been observed that the concept of ‘brain gain’ is gaining heat in this country. Violence hit Iraq is finding it difficult to refrain its highly skilled workforce from migrating to a peaceful Jordan. This brain gain is helping the country to capitalize on the intellectual capital for sustainable growth of the economy.

Who knows in the coming decade this Jordan’s popularity rating may overcede the human Jordan!

Rogues