The Smart Money..
| | 10,000 Millionaires Flee France
48 Walter Russell Mead's Blog by Gallagher
French millionaires fled the country in droves in 2016 in an attempt to escape taxes and terror, a new study shows. The International Business Times reports:
Rising tensions in France, especially in Paris following a series of Islamist terrorist attacks in 2015, have spurred an exodus of its super-wealthy citizens, a new report on migration trends of millionaires and high-net worth individuals across the world reveals. The report warns that other European countries, including the UK, Belgium, Germany and Sweden “where religious tensions are starting to emerge”, will also see similar trends.[..]
The report was compiled by New World Wealth, an agency that gives information on the global wealth sector. The report was based on data collected from investor visa programme statistics of each country; annual interviews with around 800 global high net worth individuals and with intermediaries like migration experts, second citizenship platforms, wealth managers and property agents; data from property registers and property sales statistics in each country; and by tracking millionaire movements in the media.[..]According to the report, Millionaire migration in 2015, France topped the list of countries with maximum millionaire outflows as it lost 10,000 millionaires, or 3% of its millionaire population. Among the cities that saw maximum millionaire outflow, Paris, was at the top – losing about 6% of its millionaire population or 7,000 millionaires in 2015 to the UK, the US, Canada, Australia and Israel. As we have noted before, polls have shown that about 50% of all French people 18-34 years old, not just the millionaires and billionaires, would leave France if they could for another country. Meanwhile, at the low extreme of the wealth scale, the migrants of Africa huddled in containers and lean-tos in Calais (until they were recently removed) in hopes of getting to England, rather than accept long-term residence in France. From top to bottom, the desire to get out is, it would seem, widespread.
And it is notable that for those with means—the millionaires cited in this study—Anglosphere nations top the list of destinations:As for inflows, Australia was the favourite destination with maximum inflows in 2015 – a total of 8,000 new millionaires. The US was ranked second with 7,000 inflows, followed by Canada, Israel, the UAE and New Zealand.
Australian cities Sydney, Melbourne and Perth saw a significant millionaire inflow in 2015 from China, Europe, the UK, the US and South Africa, with Sydney topping the chart with 4,000 new millionaires or 4% added to its existing millionaire population, according to the report. Melbourne and Perth had 3,000 and 1,000 new millionaires in 2015, respectively. Tel Aviv, Dubai, San Francisco, Vancouver and Seattle also featured among the top eight cities with millionaire inflows. This is nothing short of a cry for help. Blue model rot, deeply set in across Europe, is pervasive in France. When semi-literate refugees and the well-heeled and well-educated alike are scrambling to get out in these numbers, something is deeply wrong. And as France, for all the occasional lovers quarrels, is a deeply important ally to the U.S., we need to notice and be concerned.
Meanwhile, it’s a sign of health for the Anglosphere (and for Israel) that it continues to draw people from all over the world in search of a better life—even if the one they have is already pretty good. For all our troubles, English-speaking countries in the common-law tradition continue to be better situated than any others to meet the trials of the 21st century.
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