"While the United States has always been an attractive destination for ambitious foreigners seeking opportunity, recent waves of migrants and asylum-seekers hope to escape their countries any way they can. This is particularly stark in Eurasia, where fully 15% of all Ukrainians and 25% of all Syrians fled their countries' respective wars. The "motherland," which once commanded the obligatory loyalty of entire populations, is now a vague "homeland" to wax nostalgic about after fleeing it. Relative winners of decolonization leveraged their western-educated elites to build up their state capacity and technological capabilities, but now the fervent dream of rising elites across the globe is to move wherever they can join their transnational peers. Relocating across the world for economic and cultural reasons, once the preserve of a narrow slice of radical dreamers, is now commonplace.

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Many in the west likewise think nothing of leaving their homeland to avoid punitive wealth taxes, as have been implemented in some parts of Europe and discussed in the United States. A small class sees citizenship as something to acquire for optionality, a hedge against dysfunction at home and a tool to streamline business and travel, rather than a solemn oath involving rights and responsibilities."