It’s Your Move

Should I stay or should I go? It’s a question made famous by The Clash, but it’s also a question that is a key driver of politics across the globe. While the Clash’s question was focused on interpersonal relationships, the question facing millions of humans at any given moment is focused on broader issues such as climate, war, health, wealth, and political unrest. “The human species is on the move. Last year there were more people living outside of their birth countries than at any other time in modern history, according to the United Nations. It’s a sea change that will reshape politics, economics and civil societies for generations. It’s no coincidence that 2024 was also a year of defeat for incumbent political parties, as leader after leader was voted out of power in democracies at the center of the human storm.” The NYT (Gift Article) with a very interesting look at the data that underpins so many national and international stories. To Understand Global Migration, You Have to See It First. “Rapid shifts in migration are nearly always driven by an enormous shock, such as war, political upheaval, natural disaster or economic collapse. There is reason to believe such shocks will become more frequent as the world faces more geopolitical instability and ever-increasing climate risk.”

+ While the world’s populations are on the move, in America, things are historically stagnant. I touched on this back in February: The U-Haul of Mirrors. “Don’t move! Stay right where you are! That’s easy advice for me to take. I move so rarely from the couch indentation where I write NextDraft that my kids occasionally place a finger under my nose to see if I’m still breathing. But these days, more and more Americans are not moving; at least not from their communities. A country that was once defined by how often people moved has changed dramatically in recent decades—and the trend has left other core characteristics like entrepreneurship, innovation, growth, and social equality stuck in the mud.”