The landscape has changed around the world. The global health crisis caused by covid-19 has modified the work preferences of the world population, with a significant decrease in the number of people willing to move abroad for work reasons.
In this sense, the countries that have best managed the pandemic are the biggest beneficiaries when it comes to being chosen as favorite work destinations. This is the case of Canada, which displaces the United States from the first place in the ranking, or Australia, which is in third place in the ranking, completing the podium.
This is confirmed by the results of a survey conducted by the Boston Consulting Group and The Network of almost 209,000 people in 190 countries. This study shows a very different set of attitudes towards mobility than the one that prevailed a few years ago.
Almost all the countries that have fallen further down the list or have disappeared from it (including the United States, France, Italy, and Spain), have struggled, at some point in 2020, to "flatten the curve". As far as Spain is concerned, is not present on this list, after being ranked number six in the previous publication of 2018.
In contrast, countries that have managed the coronavirus effectively have seen an increase in popularity, as is the case with several Asia-Pacific nations, notably Japan, which rose four positions. Singapore and New Zealand, which were not on the list in 2018, enter this time in eighth and tenth places, respectively.
When the first survey on people's willingness to move to another country for work was conducted in 2014, nearly two-thirds of respondents said they were attracted to the idea. The proportion has decreased by 13 percentage points and now stands at around 50%. Not only the management of the pandemic has caused this change in preferences, but also more restrictive immigration policies and social unrest.
Although the willingness to move abroad has diminished, a new model has emerged, related to remote international work. 57% of respondents say they are willing to work remotely for a job that does not have a physical presence in their home country, a level that is well above the proportion of people who are open to physical relocation.
