Many countries suffer from emigration. Many of their most capable and productive people leave, after having been raised, fed, protected and educated by their mother countries. A young person with a completed academic education and ready to begin his working life, can easily have caused his country costs of several hundred thousands €, before he contributed even a penny as a return of investment to his mother country. This problem needs to be addressed, a suitable policy needs to be devised and implemented.
It could be argued that countries would do better to make themselves more attractive as a permanent home. Of course they should do their best, however, there are limits to it which can’t be transgressed. Different locations, different amounts and quality of land, different climate, different population base and a different position within the international community set different countries into different situations, which can’t be changed at will, at least not easily. For example, some countries have dangerous enemies and therefore must spend more on national defence. Other countries must spend more in order to cope with a difficult climate while other countries again abound in natural ressources. By course of history some countries ended up with a less capable and productive population than others. Coming from different points of departure a country can try hard to do its best and still be less attractive as a permanent home than others. Therefore another policy addressing the problem of emigration must be devised.
I suggest to understand society like a family, giving support in times of need, but demanding contribution in better times, too. Therefore people can’t be allowed to emigrate without settling their incurred debt to society first. The state should be understood as a all-encompassing social security system, which raises premiums according to everyone’s individual capability and productivity and which keeps a financial account for every citizen. Onto this account shall be booked all paid premiums, but also all benefits which were received by the citizen, such as:
- Due share of national defence
- Due share of police and court system
- Due share of a transport system
- Child benefit
- School education
- University education
- Welfare
- etc…
Membership in this all-encompassing social security system would be mandatory for every citizen and for every permanent resident in the country. Citizens who emigrated would still remain members of the social security system and would still have to pay premiums according to their individual capability and productivity. For determining their individual capability, taxes and charges of their host country have to be subtracted from and social benefits added to their premium. Thus, every citizen would still be free to emigrate and not be drawn on harder than citizens who did not emigrate, but at the same time, they could not escape their liability by emigrating to a country offering them better conditions.
People who emigrated and handed back their citizenship, would be allowed to resign from the system, but not before they adjusted all imbalances on their account. To demand them to hand back their citizenship is necessary because someone could emigrate to another country in good times and return back home in times of need, thus taking unfair advantage of his home country. A non-citizen can always be denied entry to the country while a citizen can’t.
