The latest report in the Barclays Wealth Insight Series – “The Rise of the Global Citzen?”, which surveyed individuals with more than $1.5 million in total net worth, has found that Asian entrepreneurs are planning to head to North America and Europe in the hope of finding stability and better business prospects in more developed markets. It is estimated that before 2019, over half of China’s wealthy are expected to migrate to the Western hemisphere, compared with 15% of the global rich. However, Liam Bailer, head of residential research at London-based broker, Knight Frank LLP, suggested that many Chinese entrepreneurs are still making substantial amounts of money in China and therefore may not feel the need to move further afield just yet.
There appears to be a trend of globetrotting amongst the entrepreneurs of today; just under 1000 of those who were interviewed for the Barclays Wealth survey reported that they had lived in more than one country. The English speaking market is beginning to boom, with entrepreneurs looking to Australia and the US as new potential markets. The reasons behind immigration varied from safer locations to high returns on investments.