The global headcount of 230 million would make ‘emigrants’ the fifth most populous nation. With remittances of over $500 Billion, Emigrant Nation would be ranked the 22nd largest economy, just trailing Sweden. Emigrant Nation is not a contestant at #WC2014, but emigrants are! And they are not just the beautiful people playing beautiful football, they are re-defining the ideas of nationality and goalposts of globalisation.
Xherdan Shaqiri is a 22-year-old star being chased by clubs with chequebooks this summer. Also known as the Alpine Messi, he is the only player—apart from that German automation called Thomas Müller—to have scored a hat-trick in this World Cup. Shaqiri was born in Gjilan in eastern Kosovo in Yugoslavia to Albanian Kosovar parents. He represents Switzerland, plays for FC Bayern Munich and is being wooed by Liverpool. Shaqiri is one of the six migrants on the Swiss national team. Switzerland is one of the 26 teams with foreign-born players. Indeed, 78 players were born outside the countries they are representing in Brazil. Brazil may boast they have no foreign-born players, but 19 of the 23 players don’t play in Brazil. Of the 736 players in action in national colours in #WC2014, 476 players live and play outside the countries they represent (data ref: Knomad-World Bank/FIFA/Pew Research Center/qz.com).
There is another perspective worth a view. Twenty-four footballers who were born in France now represent Algeria, Argentina, Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana; 12 born in Germany represent Bosnia, Cameroon, Iran, Ghana, Greece and the US. Kevin-Prince Boateng infamous for sliding tackles was born in Berlin, represented Germany in under-15, under-17 and under-19 UEFA, lives and plays in Germany, and donned jersey no. 9 for Ghana in the World Cup. His brother Jerome, also born in Berlin, donned Germany’s colours in under-15 and under-21, plays for Bayern Munich and represents Germany in the World Cup. Indeed, the story of the stars
best illustrates globalisation—born in one place, living and playing in another, and representing a third. Germany’s most prolific scorer, Miroslav Klose, was born in Opole in Poland, lives and plays for Lazio in Rome and has represented Germany in four World Cups.
The picture has lessons for China and India who have the largest diaspora in the world. With billion-plus populations, the two countries are ranked 103 and 154, and account for nearly a third of human populace, $10-plus trillion global GDP, are projected as future super powers, are the biggest contributors to the migration rush, but yet cannot put together a team that can find a place in the top 100 ranked by FIFA. It isn’t enough to be big or claim to be complex. Costa Rica with barely 4.5 million people—a number that can be easily accommodated in south Mumbai—is ranked 28th and did better than Uruguay, Italy and England, all former world champs. It isn’t doing badly on the e-charts either, with per capita income of around $10,000.
There are lessons for globalisers too—particularly for the architects of the financial sector. The 2008 crisis, for instance, was propelled by hyper-competitive greed and born in the crevices of
regulatory fault lines. The emerging worries of eluding taxes and falling currency value is similarly a product of competitive beggar-thy-neighbour policies. The problem is that while money is truly globalised, regulation of taxes, investments, currencies and commodities is circumscribed by sovereign legitimacy. It is a bit like two teams playing each other with their own referees who are legit only on one-half of the field. Markets too need global regulation if capitalism is to avoid scoring own goals.
There is a delicious irony embedded in the stories unfolding on the fields in Brazil. Classical economics tells us that the idea of optimum growth demands that factors of production —capital, technology, land and labour—be liberated. Free market evangelists freed the movement of capital, technology and goods, but politics has detained the liberalisation of labour with a four-letter word. Namely, visa. A ‘migrant’ is often a pejorative epithet and resistance continues despite emerging demographic challenges. This pursuit of prismatic liberalisation, many economists believe, has resulted in countries exporting not just their goods but also their savings, jobs and growth. The visuals from Brazil tell us that the teams of countries which stubbornly resisted the idea of free movement of labour best illustrate the glory of emigrant power. Could the US or Switzerland have reached Brazil without emigrant talent?
If globalisation is a force for good—and if the objective is that it must succeed—the evangelists need to rewrite the hymns and commandments to truly liberate the factors of growth. Every team on the field has the right to its style—the Spanish tiki-taka, Dutch totaalvoetbal or Brazilian joga-bonito. But each team is also obliged to play by the same set of rules. Like the earth, the football is round. And the game has illustrative lessons for those who aspire to a flat world.
Shankkar Aiyar is the author of Accidental India: A History of the Nation’s Passage through Crisis and Change
shankkar.aiyar@gmail.com