LL-L "Demographics" 2007.04.11 (04) [D/E/LS]

Wed Apr 11 19:31:55 UTC 2007

L O W L A N D S - L  -  11 April 2007 - Volume 04

=========================================================================

From: Jonny Meibohm <altkehdinger at freenet.de>
Subject: LL-L "Demographics" 2007.04.11 (02) [E]

Beste Ron,

Du schreyvst:

We are truly becoming a 'global community'

According to your message I found this today in my mails:

*quote:*
Steeds meer Nederlanders vestigen zich net over de grens

DEN HAAG - Steeds meer Nederlanders woonden in 2006 net over de
grens in Duitsland of België. Dat blijkt uit de cijfers die het
Ruimtelijk Planbureau (RPB) vandaag voorstelde. Het planbureau
stelt dat goedkopere huizen en fiscale redenen de belangrijkste
motivatie vormen om naar het buitenland te gaan. In 2006 woonden
er 41.000 Nederlanders in Duitsland, net over de grens bij Arnhem,
Nijmegen, Twente of Limburg. Vijf jaar eerder waren dat er nog 28.000.

In de Belgische grensstreek wonen ongeveer 59.000 Nederlanders. Dat
gebied is in trek door de gunstige ligging ten opzichte van de Randstad
gecombineerd met een gunstig belastingklimaat en goedkopere huizen.

De verhuisstroom naar het Duitse grensgebied kwam vanaf 2001 op gang
toen het Nederlandse belastingstelsel het voor Nederlanders mogelijk
maakte hun hypotheekrenteaftrek te behouden. De gunstige
prijs-kwaliteitverhouding van woningen en kavels is de voornaamste
reden waarom Nederlanders zich in de Duitse grensstreek vestigen,
aldus het RPB.

Het aantal Belgen en Duitsers dat voor het Nederlandse grensgebied heeft
gekozen, ligt beduidend lager: 10.000 Belgen wonen vooral in
Zeeuws-Vlaanderen bij de Belgische grens en 18.000 Duitsers in de
omgeving van de Duitse grens.

***

Bron:
De Standaard, webeditie, 20 februari 2007
http://www.standaard.be

*unquote*

Allerbest

Jonny Meibohm

----------

From: "Bryan E. Schulz" <bryans at lodging1.com>
Subject: LL-L "Demographics" 2007.04.11 (02) [E]

Having a keen interest in migrations, I find the information (numbers) a bit
light in terms of evidence.

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?

Bryan E. Schulz

----------

From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: Demographics

Leyve Jonny,

Du schreyvst:

> Beste Ron,
 > Du schreyvst:

> We are truly becoming a 'global community'

Ik ziteer dat.  Up mien Mist is 't nich wussen.

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.

I also share your curiosity about possible linguistic implications.

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.

Since 1990, a number of events have apparently caused more US citizens to
emigrate. These events include the dot.com 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.

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 looming social security system due to administrative
incompetency is scaring middle-aged and older Americans into move abroad
where they can survive on their income.  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.

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.

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 choose to live outside the country they were indoctrinated to
mistakenly believe is the land of dreams for the rest of the world.

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.

I believe we are currently only witnessing the beginning of a new era with
regard to migration.  Migration now takes place not only to the "New" World
but also from 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.

This was my $1.25's worth of Preestern.

Regards,
Reonhard/Ron
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/lowlands-l/attachments/20070411/89abe423/attachment.htm>