According to a Gallup poll released on Friday, if immigration was unchecked, more people would want to emigrate from China, Hong Kong and Taiwan than the number of people who would want to immigrate to any of the three places.
Taiwan would suffer the biggest net loss, at 21 percent of its adult population, while 6 percent would leave China and 12 percent would leave Hong Kong.
Of other Asian countries, the Japanese population would see a net increase of 1 percent, the population of Thailand would decrease by the same percentage and South Korea would lose 8 percent of its population.
Singapore, New Zealand and Saudi Arabia would see their populations triple if everyone who wants to move there were allowed to, the Gallup poll shows.
At the opposite end of the scale, the populations of Sierra Leone, Haiti and Zimbabwe would fall by more than half if migrants were allowed to leave at will, the poll found.
Gallup researchers interviewed nearly 350,000 adults in 148 countries between 2007 and this year to calculate each country’s potential net migration score — the number of adults who would like to leave a country minus the number who would like to move in — seen as a proportion of the total adult population.
They found that Singapore’s population of 4.8 million would increase by 219 percent, New Zealand’s population of 4 million would rise by 184 percent and Saudi Arabia’s population of 26 million would soar by 176 percent if everyone who wants to come in and wants to leave could do so.
Switzerland made it onto the list for the first time this year.
Some 800,000 of Switzerland’s 6 million citizens said they would like to permanently leave the country, while some 10 million foreigners said they would move there, given the chance.
The hefty influx of migrants to Switzerland versus the scant outflow from the Alpine country would mean its population would more than double, the Gallup poll showed.
The preferred destination of most would-be migrants is still the US, although the already large US population — 300 million inhabitants — means that the impact is less acutely felt, Gallup said.
The US is No. 14 on the net migration list. If everyone could come into the US who wanted to, and all those who wished to leave did, the US population would rise by about 60 percent.
At the other end of the list, many countries in Africa and Latin America showed net outflows of population — although four African countries would gain residents, the poll showed.
They are Botswana, which would see its population increase by 39 percent; South Africa, Zambia and Namibia, which would see rises of 13 percent, 5 percent and 2 percent, respectively.
Botswana, which ranked just after the US and just above Norway on the list, is the world’s top producer of diamonds and a leading destination for high-end tourism. It prides itself on being a model of successful democracy in Africa.
At rock-bottom on the Gallup list is the west African country of Sierra Leone. If everyone who wanted to move in or move out did so, the country’s population would plunge by 56 percent.
As China waged extensive military exercises off Taiwan, a group of US defense experts in Washington was focused on their own simulation of an eventual — but for now entirely hypothetical — US-China war over the nation. The unofficial what-if game is being conducted on the fifth floor of an office building not far from the White House, and it posits a US military response to a Chinese invasion in 2026. Even though the participants bring a US perspective, they are finding that a US-Taiwan victory, if there is one, could come at a huge cost. “The results are showing that under
WRONG TIMING: The delegation’s trip has not only disappointed Taiwanese, but could send a wrong message to the global community, Tsai Ing-wen said Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Vice Chairman Andrew Hsia (夏立言) yesterday left with a delegation for a trip to China, drawing fire for visiting at a time when Beijing has been conducting intensive military drills to pressure Taiwan. Before boarding, he told reporters that the delegation would be visiting Taiwanese communities and students in China, and possibly meet with Chinese officials. The Mainland Affairs Council on Tuesday night said that it was not the right time for political party members to visit China, as Beijing has been conducting military exercises since Thursday last week. President Tsai Ing- wen (蔡英文), chairperson of the Democratic
‘HONORED’: The DPP’s Lin Fei-fan said friends working in the foreign media, the diplomatic corps and at think tanks congratulated him for making the sanctions list The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday slammed China for sanctioning Representative to the US Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) and six other Taiwanese officials for being “diehard separatists,” saying its attempt to intimidate Taiwanese would backfire. China has no authority to dictate the actions of Taiwanese, because Taiwan is a democratic nation that upholds the rule of law, and would never yield to intimidation and threats from an authoritarian regime, ministry spokeswoman Joanne Ou (歐江安) told a news conference in Taipei. China’s state-run Xinhua news agency earlier yesterday reported that the Taiwan Work Office of the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee has imposed
ORDNANCE: Under a five-year plan, the Chungshan Institute would make about 200 Hsiung Feng II and III/IIIE, and Hsiung Sheng missiles, an official said The Ministry of National Defense plans to counter the Chinese navy by producing more than 1,000 anti-ship missiles over the next five years, a defense official familiar with the matter said yesterday. The comments came after China’s People’s Liberation Army Navy began a series of military drills in a simulated naval blockade of Taiwan proper following a visit to Taipei by US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Although China has in the past few years rapidly produced many warships and added them to its navy, these large vessels are more suited for warfare on the open sea than in the narrow