Why This Emerging Trend Will Disrupt Immigration
Internet is the great equalizer of our times
I have an unpopular opinion:
Immigration loses its appeal if you know how to monetize the Internet
Before diving in, a few things I want to clarify:
- I’m not advocating for anyone to immigrate or not immigrate. That is their choice to make. After all, immigration is a highly personal decision that boils down to one’s life priorities. Plus there will always be perfectly valid reasons for immigration.
- The goal of writing this article is to share my observation on a trend that is too significant to ignore. Even for typical immigrants like me who haven’t fully capitalized on this opportunity. I also wanted to add a different perspective to the brain drain immigration from the East to the West.
There are 3 parts to this article.
Part 1 is about the factors contributing to this emerging trend that could change immigration patterns.
Part 2 is about the convergence of economies around the world to the point where your location matters less and less.
Part 3 is about why I call this disruptive trend ‘emerging’ and potential solutions to fast-track the process.
Go get a coffee and start reading. Seriously, it might just change your mind! Whether you agree or disagree, tell me in the comments.
So back to my unpopular opinion of how immigration seems less appealing if you can leverage the Internet. What the hell do I mean?
Rise of remote work, content creator economy, and running online businesses.
The Covid-19 pandemic accelerated these 3 trends, proving it’s possible to work from anywhere. More and more people want to pursue location independence and live like digital nomads.
Digital nomad visas are increasingly being offered by countries around the world to attract tourism dollars and top talent. Dubai, Estonia, Portugal, and Spain to name a few places following this model.
Why spend your life living in 1 country when you can work and travel through 4 different countries? Naturally, this is more feasible for younger Gen Z individuals like me who have no dependents and thus have the capacity to be geographically flexible.
But first, what made this possible? The Internet. The greatest invention of our time.
Access to the Internet is a great equalizer. Does it matter anymore which country we were born into?
It used to be that if you were born in a third-world country to a poor family, your future prospects were bleak.
Now I’m not sure if that’s the case anymore thanks to growing access to the internet and owning at least a smartphone.
Anyone from around the world (exceptions for countries with high censorship) can access the best knowledge and information at their fingertips. You can get a degree from prestigious universities through Coursera or EdX for a fraction of the cost and without ever leaving your home if that’s what you want. Nothing can stop a driven person from becoming a successful digital entrepreneur.
Obviously not an easy thing to do but there are tons of tools and resources to help you along. So it’s not outside the realm of possibility.
- Rise of remote work
Enough has been heard and written about how the pandemic catalyzed a massive shift in work culture by normalizing remote and/or hybrid work. Work From Home (WFH) became this new trendy term no one could stop talking about. It has clear benefits for commuters, caregivers, and mothers while also complicating the ever-elusive work-life balance.
Many tech companies jumped on the bandwagon to announce a permanent WFH policy. Some companies took this a step further by announcing a Work From Anywhere policy. Raising a very important question. What implications does this have for immigration?
In a podcast interview about his book ‘The Network State: How To Start A New Country’, author and former Coinbase CTO — Balaji Srinivasan said Indians today don’t need H-1B visas anymore (a popular class of immigrant visa for Indian tech talent trying to become American), they just need the TCP/IP protocol (the communication system powering the World Wide Web) to be successful.
Srinivasan said you can work remotely, raise money remotely and participate in the global economy from anywhere.
I can’t help but wonder whether it is worth it anymore to uproot your life to go through immigration hassles in the West. Why trade the prime years of your life for the inevitable loneliness that comes with being a first-generation immigrant? What if we could redirect that energy and resources toward finding remote jobs? building an e-commerce business? watering the grass on our side instead of draining talent to other countries?
The world is not like our parent’s time when they were forced to immigrate to make sacrifices for a better quality of life down the road. Unlike our ancestors, we have options. Thanks to the internet, the possibilities are endless.
2. Content Creator Economy
To be honest, I used to roll my eyes every time I heard the term “content creator”. I don’t know about you but in my mind, it had a negative connotation. Those cringe couple videos on YouTube, Instagram influencers indirectly encouraging unrealistic beauty standards, and TikTok dance videos used to come to my mind. If people want to do that, sure go ahead. I guess it fills an entertainment need after all.
However, my perception of ‘content creators’ changed when I discovered Twitter. Twitter is a goldmine of information. There are people freely sharing invaluable lessons about investing, personal finance, startups, leadership, fitness, and more. My suggestion is to mute the news and politics to avoid the rage machine that Twitter can be sometimes. And instead, focus on creating a positive echo chamber of people who spark your interest.
In fact, I learned more from Twitter in the past 2 months than I did from my 4-year undergrad degree that’s collecting dust in some corner of my room. LOL.
Not to say you should not pursue a degree, just that the Internet has democratized access to education. I’m not sure if the legacy education system will stand the test of time in the next 30–40 years if schools and universities don’t fundamentally reform their approach to teaching and the cost of attending school.
Twitter influencers have me convinced that it’s possible to be a content creator while being ethical and genuinely adding value to society. Whether it be helping people become more financially literate, start their own businesses, get fit, or simply how to write better to get ahead in their life.
The content creator economy is booming in contrast to traditional media. Distrust in government, big corporations, and mainstream media are at an all-time high. People want to connect with other people, not faceless entities who don’t have to suffer the full brunt of their actions.
Amid the Covid pandemic and fears of recession, people were confined to the 4 walls of their homes and were forced to think outside the box. How to convert their hobbies and interests into something monetizable?
YouTubers, bloggers, online writers, podcasters, influencers, and curators popped up and comprise a rapidly growing creator ecosystem. In fact, 50 million people around the world consider themselves creators. The barriers to entry are low.
On the internet, everyone is on the same level playing field. The internet doesn’t discriminate based on your nationality. The internet doesn’t require you to have a certain visa or passport to participate. Location doesn’t matter. What matters is your willingness to practice in public and engage with others.
3. Running online businesses
Internet entrepreneurship dovetails nicely with the content creator economy.
In a sense, all content creators are entrepreneurs because they’re taking the risk of showing their work publicly over a long period of time. In the process, they attract like-minded people, a percentage of whom convert into paid clients who buy the creator’s online products such as books/courses/consulting.
The content creator or rather I should say ‘solopreneur’ — a term popularized by LinkedIn influencer Justin Welsh are a new but growing breed of people taking back control of their lives. How? By building their audience. Generating their own opportunities and income on the internet. Escaping the rat race. The corporate hamster wheel. One content piece at a time.
The beauty of creating an online business is rooted in the flywheel effect where the business grows almost by itself. There is no single big event leading to success. It’s a system of different levers that drive growth.
In the case of online business — social media, email, and websites are the most popular vehicles of user growth on the Internet. You could publish content once and repurpose it across various distribution channels to reach wider audiences. Creating a flywheel where various online channels feed into each other to generate more traffic and growth for your business on autopilot.
The issue with Points #2 & #3 — the success rate is not that high.
You’ll likely fail more than succeed. It’s a trial and error process. But it’s not a waste of time. You’re testing the waters and figuring out what you don’t like. You’ll pick up on vital skills that will lead to the path you ultimately want to pursue.
Internet entrepreneurship is not for everyone but it’s an alternative worth exploring. It’s incredibly hard to do. But so is immigration. Immigration is crazy hard too and a very uncertain path with no guaranteed outcome. Pick your hard. After all, nothing meaningful in life comes easy.
Convergence of economies
Very recently, India overtook the UK as the world’s 5th largest economy. That is a big leap forward. There is also a rising trend of Indian cities flipping American cities. The rapid development of Indian cities contrasts with the decline of Western cities that are losing their allure.
My point is NOT that the West is doomed. My point is there is a global improvement in living standards. To the extent that immigrating to the West is NOT necessarily the golden ticket to upward social and economic mobility as it used it be once upon a time in the 1960s.
My theory is that if your basic needs are taken care of, your location doesn’t matter so much. Needs such as food, shelter, clothing, and safety. Once this is nailed down, focus on building. On creating a side hustle or a business. On creating your own experience that goes far beyond traditional credentials.
Leverage the internet. The internet can be a free marketing machine once you put out your work and continue to feed the system. Your content works for you 24/7 every single day attracting attention and dollars while you sleep.
You could live outside the West and have clients from around the world, including the United States, and get paid in $$$. Another tweet to get you thinking:
Why do I call this Internet trend ‘emerging’? Two reasons.
1.The unfortunate reality is that the digital divide is a very real issue. Both in developing countries and developed countries.
There is a big difference between high-income and low-income individuals when it comes to accessing high-speed Internet and owning digital devices. More than an access issue, the digital divide also refers to a lack of digital literacy skills.
A Pew Research Center study noted that 24% of American adults with household incomes below $30,000 a year don’t own a smartphone and 40% of those with lower incomes don’t have home broadband services or a computer.
2. We’re still early in the adoption cycle of the creator economy and WFH. It’s not as widespread as we’d like it to be.
Often called the ‘second-level digital divide’, there is a gap between producers and consumers of information on the Internet.
Most people mindlessly scroll and consume information. That information, however, is produced by a tiny portion of internet users.
This is a clear supply-demand issue. Tremendous demand for high-quality content but not enough supply of credible content creators.
What is the solution?
The statistics don’t look pretty. But I’m optimistic because of these promising developments:
1.Non-profits doing critical frontline work to bridge access to digital technologies. Community access centers and drop-in centers have popped up offering computers, computer assistance, and training.
2. Big tech companies like Google do outreach work in underrepresented communities and promote digital skills through their coding boot camps and educational courses.
3. There is a growing educational and economic emphasis on data literacy. Amplified by government grant programs and employers highlighting a talent gap in the tech industry. This is driving more people, especially the younger generations to take up STEM careers. Knowing how to use the internet and code could be your ticket out of poverty.
4. Thanks to social media influencers like Justin Welsh and Arvid Kahl, there is greater awareness and changing social attitudes toward being a content creator and solopreneur. The interesting thing about their work is that their online courses have attracted global audiences.
Someone living in Asia could implement their playbook to become a content creator on LinkedIn/Twitter and earn decent money if they play the game long enough to see the compounding effect kick in. In fact, I won’t be surprised if some of their cohort students have already accomplished this.
In a recent LinkedIn post, Justin Welsh introduced the ‘purchasing power parity’ (PPP) on his digital products. This means that anyone from around the world can access his products at a price that is relatively affordable in their local currency. Instead of paying in USD which is often the default standard when pricing services on the Internet.
PPP is a very promising idea to narrow the digital divide and democratize access to information for more than 80% of the world population residing outside North America and Europe.
A final thought — The internet can be very polarizing. This is a pitfall to avoid if you choose to build a following online and monetize your skills.
It is possible to use the Internet intentionally where it can be a force for good and unlock many growth opportunities. I suggest reading ‘Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World’ by Cal Newport for ideas on how to set constraints around internet use so you can get the benefits of technology while bypassing the addictive design of social media algorithms.
Knowing what I know now about the power of the Internet, I might have acted differently. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t regret immigrating and wouldn’t trade this experience for anything but perhaps there was a middle ground I could have explored.
Anyway, this is definitely going to guide my thinking as I make future decisions about where to live and work. And I hope you consider it too when moving places.
