When we talk about the world being a global village we should then accept the fact that the concept of loyalty and patriotism towards the country we live in has now become rather blurred and secondary.

Nowadays, due to various factors, people are moving to other countries and those with money and skills are given a red carpet welcome while the poor economic migrants are either allowed in to do menial jobs or else they are chased away - this even by the US, a country of immigrants and so-called the most liberal.

The poor North and West Africans as well as the Central and Latin Americans will go anywhere for a better life. The rich Brits, Europeans, the Americans, the Germans, the Singaporeans and the Malaysians have also moved to other countries in search of greater fortune or inner peace.

The most intriguing is that many young people from homogenous nations like Japan are also not happy with their own countries and want to leave while many young educated Chinese Malaysian and Indians are also migrating for all sorts of reasons..

As for those who came to Malaysia from richer countries and made this country their so-called their home, it is for the simple reason that the purchasing power of their ‘nickel and dime’ can increase by a few hundred percent.

For instance, ten British pounds becomes RM55. Even better in Thailand, that 10 British pounds has becomes about 500 Baht. Just imagine things you can buy on the beach of Pattaya with 500 Baht.    

But what is already happening and will continue in the years to come is that the highly-skilled and educated overseas Indians, Chinese, former Eastern Europeans and Russians have already started to move back to their ‘motherlands’ either for nostalgic reasons or simply to take advantage of all the new economic activities.

One impact of this worldwide phenomenon is that Great Britain - which is now shivering due unusual snowfall - will suffer even more when thousands of doctors of Indian origin plan to return to their motherland.

Many skilled and moneyed overseas Chinese from Canada, the US and maybe even Malaysia have already returned to China or Taiwan. So also too that quite a few Indian Malaysians have either changed their domicile to India or made India their second home.

For that matter, some Malays too have also gone to live abroad, either temporarily or permanently. However, this trend does not seem to be happening among the overseas Japanese in the US and Latin America.

Is it because despite the fact they retain their Japanese names, they have fully become American, Brazilian, Peruvian, Argentinian, etc? Alberto Fujimori is perhaps an exception.