<span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"> </span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">L O W L A N D S - L - 11 April 2007 - Volume 04</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
<br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">=========================================================================</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">From: </span><span id="_user_altkehdinger@freenet.de" style="color: rgb(121, 6, 25); font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Jonny Meibohm <<a href="mailto:altkehdinger@freenet.de">
altkehdinger@freenet.de</a>></span><span style="font-weight: normal; font-family: arial,sans-serif;" class="lg"></span><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"> </span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
Subject: LL-L "Demographics" 2007.04.11 (02) [E]</span><br><br><div><span><font face="Courier">Beste
Ron,</font></span></div>
<div><span></span> </div>
<div><span><font face="Courier">Du
schreyvst:</font></span></div><span class="q">
<div><span></span> </div>
<div><span><font color="#008080" face="Arial">We are truly
becoming a 'global community'</font></span></div>
<div><span></span> </div></span>
<div><span><font face="Courier">According to your
message I found this today in my mails:</font></span></div>
<div><span></span> </div>
<div><span><font face="Courier"><em>quote:</em></font></span></div>
<div style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span>Steeds meer Nederlanders vestigen zich net
over de grens<br><br>DEN HAAG - Steeds meer Nederlanders woonden in 2006 net
over de <br>grens in Duitsland of België. Dat blijkt uit de cijfers die het
<br>Ruimtelijk Planbureau (RPB) vandaag voorstelde. Het planbureau <br>stelt dat
goedkopere huizen en fiscale redenen de belangrijkste <br>motivatie vormen om
naar het buitenland te gaan. In 2006 woonden <br>er 41.000 Nederlanders in
Duitsland, net over de grens bij Arnhem, <br>Nijmegen, Twente of Limburg. Vijf
jaar eerder waren dat er nog 28.000. <br><br>In de Belgische grensstreek wonen
ongeveer 59.000 Nederlanders. Dat <br>gebied is in trek door de gunstige ligging
ten opzichte van de Randstad <br>gecombineerd met een gunstig belastingklimaat
en goedkopere huizen. <br><br>De verhuisstroom naar het Duitse grensgebied kwam
vanaf 2001 op gang <br>toen het Nederlandse belastingstelsel het voor
Nederlanders mogelijk <br>maakte hun hypotheekrenteaftrek te behouden. De
gunstige <br>prijs-kwaliteitverhouding van woningen en kavels is de voornaamste
<br>reden waarom Nederlanders zich in de Duitse grensstreek vestigen, <br>aldus
het RPB. <br><br>Het aantal Belgen en Duitsers dat voor het Nederlandse
grensgebied heeft <br>gekozen, ligt beduidend lager: 10.000 Belgen wonen vooral
in <br>Zeeuws-Vlaanderen bij de Belgische grens en 18.000 Duitsers in de
<br>omgeving van de Duitse grens.
<br><br>***<br><br>Bron:<br>De Standaard, webeditie, 20
februari 2007<br><a href="http://www.standaard.be/" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">http://www.standaard.be</a></span></div>
<div style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span></span> </div>
<div><span><font face="Courier"><strong><em>unquote</em></strong></font></span></div>
<div><span></span> </div>
<div><span><font face="Courier">Allerbest</font></span></div>
<div><span></span> </div>
<div><span><font face="Courier">Jonny
Meibohm</font></span></div><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">----------</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
From: </span><span id="_user_bryans@lodging1.com" style="color: rgb(91, 16, 148); font-family: arial,sans-serif;">"Bryan E. Schulz" <<a href="mailto:bryans@lodging1.com">bryans@lodging1.com</a>></span><span style="font-weight: normal; font-family: arial,sans-serif;" class="lg">
</span><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"> </span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Subject: LL-L "Demographics" 2007.04.11 (02) [E]</span><br>
<br><div><font face="Georgia" size="2">Having a keen interest in migrations, I find the
information (numbers) a bit light in terms of evidence.</font></div>
<div> </div>
<div><font face="Georgia" size="2">The world is now seeing a larger number of
itinerate people that can quickly move from one economic center to
another. They can be fleeing to or from geopolitical situations.
What would be interesting in relation to this discussion group is how language
is effected by these new migrations. Many nations now have a structural
transition language like Genlish(German-English) or
Spanglish(Spanish-English). Do they survive the transition? When has
this happened in the past or is it just an accepted transition?</font></div>
<div> </div>
<div><font face="Georgia" size="2">Bryan E. Schulz</font></div><span></span>
<br><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
----------</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
<br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">From: </span><span style="color: rgb(0, 104, 28); font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
R. F. Hahn <<a href="mailto:sassisch@yahoo.com" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">sassisch@yahoo.com</a>></span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
Subject: Demographics</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
<p style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Leyve Jonny,<br><br>Du schreyvst:<br><br>><span> Beste
Ron,</span></p>
<div style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span></span> <span>> Du
schreyvst:</span></div>
<span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;" class="q">
<div><span></span> </div>
<div><span><font color="#008080">> We are truly
becoming a 'global community'</font></span></div></span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Ik </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
ziteer</span><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"> dat. Up mien Mist is 't nich wussen.</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
Bryan, I completely agree with your assessment about the blurb. However, such oversimplifications are to be expected from briefs of that sort, or in the more popular media in general.</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
<br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">I also share your curiosity about possible linguistic implications.</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Further on this, according to the US census, 922,819 US citizen lived abroad in 1990. I expect this to be a very conservative number, considering that many Americans abroad try to lie low, try to fly beneath the radar because they have illegal or semi-legal residence states abroad, have taken on other citizenships and are afraid they may forfeit their US citizenship, or are fugitives of various types.
</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Since 1990, a number of events have apparently caused more US citizens to emigrate. These events include the
<a href="http://dot.com">dot.com</a> crash and its aftermath. This caused sizeable communities of mostly younger Americans to spring up overseas, such as in Amsterdam, London, Sydney, Berlin and Prague, and India has begun recruiting well-trained Americans and other Westerners to train and supervise Indian staff in its international services industry.
<br><br>Furthermore, what has lately begun to hit the fan is the fact that most American baby-boomers will have inadequate old-age income and care, and the collapse of the </span><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
looming </span><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">social security system due to administrative incompetency is scaring middle-aged and older Americans into move abroad where they <span style="font-style: italic;">
can</span> survive on their income. </span><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Some countries are beginning to take advantage of this by more or less overtly enticing their shares of these large population sections. Some of the newer agreements between the US and Mexico (and Canada) now make it easy (or easier) for Americans to move to Mexico, not only large numbers of the grey or greying population but also people in their forties, even in their thirties and younger, and more and more apply for Mexican citizenship in addition to their US citizenhip. Many Americans choose other retirement destinations, such as Costa Rica, Australia, the Philippines, the West Indies or the Netherlands Antilles.
</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Apparently, worldwide negative reactions to the current US administration's foreign policies and actions have not made a terribly serious dent into this number. While many Americans are now afraid to travel abroad, more of them still do, and word is out that in most cases "anti-Bush" does not equal hatred of ordinary Americans.
</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">All this said, I expect the current number of Americans living abroad to be quite high and rapidly rising. Unfortunately, I have not been able to locate exact data. According to my personal experience, many Americans feel uncomfortable dealing with this subject matter. I assume it is too difficult for them to get their heads around the idea that some Americans would
</span><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: arial,sans-serif;">choose</span><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"> to live outside the country they were indoctrinated to mistakenly believe is the land of dreams for the rest of the world.
</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">I understand that many Americans living overseas are English instructors of various sorts, or they use English while teaching other subjects. This includes retired people, some of whom teach English and other skills to locals in their new communities, most of them as volunteers. This alone may have interesting long-term results.
</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">I believe we are currently only witnessing the beginning of a new era with regard to migration. Migration now takes place not only
<span style="font-style: italic;">to</span> the "New" World but also <span style="font-style: italic;">from</span> it. More and more people can be categorized as internationally itinerant, whereas this used to be rare in the past. I personally know quite a few people with more than one citizenship. There are worldwide legislative trends toward faciliating acquisition of multiple citizenships, as more and more countries realize that cutting off emigrants equals slamming the door behind people that have the potential of benefiting them in various ways (such as economically, educationally, technologically or in terms of prestige). Coupled with vastly more convenient modes of communication, I expect this to have dramatic long-term effects of all sorts, including cultural and linguistic ones. I hope that it may lead to a more peaceful climate due to international exposure and person-to-person contacts, which tend to take the wind out of the sails of warmongering which in large part depends on dehumanizing the enemy. The danger I can foresee is that of erosion of cultural and linguistic diversity. This is something we need to try to prevent by presenting this diversity in a positive light and not as by definition standing in the way of improved international communication.
</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">This was my $1.25's worth of <span style="font-style: italic;">Preestern</span>
.</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Regards,</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
Reonhard/Ron</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><br>