Take The Money And Run: When Our Richest Colombians Move To The U.S.

-Analysis-

BOGOTÁ — It doesn’t seem like a mere statistical curiosity that the world’s rich migrate from their countries of origin to other countries. I think a different perspective than a strictly economic one is possible. After all, economics is a social science.

According to the radio program Primera Página, broadcast daily by the Javeriana University in Bogotá, this migration can be explained in geopolitical terms, with all that the word can mean and imply.

In the Colombian case, the program said, 150 wealthy Colombians will migrate and take the equivalent of $1 billion to other latitudes, probably the United States.

For specialized analysts, these two figures have very little relevance in the context of the national economy and its scale. The interesting point is that, when you think there are thousands of wealthy people in Colombia and only a small handful want — perfectly legitimately — to leave, what the agency reports are showing here is that there are many more who want to stay. 

I speak regularly with good friends who have lived in other countries for years and are not in the wealthy category, and some are considering returning for reasons that include — who would have thought it? — security. There is also of course the breakdown of that great illusion called globalization.

Help to row the boat

In other columns, I’ve drawn attention to what I believe is a discouraging social expectation placed on young people who have had access to a better education and who belong to the most privileged sectors of our society. They end up migrating (legitimately, I insist) to other countries — suspending or even cancelling the notion of giving something back for the privileges they enjoyed, in terms of helping build a better society for all.

Clearly not all students who emigrate are among the wealthy, but they could afford a basic education and high-quality university degrees, which not everyone can afford. That fact alone puts them in a small percentage of the population. And what society expects is an ethical, rather than economic, redistribution of their education.

I’m not saying they do not have a right to migrate, as everyone will decide for themselves where and how they live. Since the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948, everyone has the right to a nationality and to change it if they so choose. But I still think those who have received a better education have a certain obligation to help row the big boat they were born in.

Remember your roots

Obviously, there must be many more than 150 rich people in Colombia, thousands more, but only a handful will leave. Those who remain must be subject, I would say, more or less, to those same geopolitical reasons given as arguments by those who do leave. They could have left, but decided to stay, and for me, that is good news for everything it implies.

In my case, I would be incapable of living in another country, even if I had the money to do so (I did for many years when I was young), and have always wondered about one’s role as a citizen of the country in which one is born, without of course having chosen it.

There is a sense of roots and attachment that runs through life.

I believe, trapped in an idealistic romanticism of which I am not ashamed, that there is a sense of roots and attachment that runs through life. It is no coincidence that the word “country” derives from “landscape” (think of país and paisaje in Spanish, or pays and paysage in French). And I am not talking about nationalism or anything like that. God forbid. I’m just saying we are all, in parts, bird and tree.

We want to fly but also yearn for a home. So remember, the place that helped the restless rich make their fortunes, and the tree providing birds with a resting place at night, do not pop out of thin air.