South Asia Investor Review

The extensive news coverage of the loss of Pakistani migrants' lives in the recent Greece boat tragedy has linked it to "hunger" in Pakistan. The essence of these news stories is captured by a quote in a CNN headline: "We'll die of hunger anyway". It is attributed to a young man from the Pakistani town of Gujarat who is unfortunately believed to have drowned in the Mediterranean on his way to Greece.  These stories beg the following questions: Is it really true that Pakistani migrants are fleeing hunger and poverty? How can people suffering from hunger afford to pay thousands of dollars to human smugglers to leave for greener pastures?   Pakistan Per Capita GDP. Source: World Bank Pakistan's  GDP per capita  is about $1,600 The above questions are answered by two recent  studies  released by the Center for Global Development as follows:  As GDP per capita rises, so do emigration rates. Emigration is seen as an investment as migrants are better-edu...

The World Economic Forum forecasts that Pakistan will rise to become the world's 7th largest consumer market by 2030. Nearly 60 million Pakistanis will join the consumer class (consumers spending more than $11 per day) to raise the country's consumer market rank from 15 to 7 in the next 10 years. WEF forecasts the world's top 10 consumer markets of 2030 to be as follows: China, India, the United States, Indonesia, Russia, Brazil, Pakistan, Japan, Egypt and Mexico.  Global investors chasing bigger returns will almost certainly shift more of their attention and money to the biggest movers among the top 10 consumer markets, including Pakistan.  Already, the year 2021 has been a banner year for investments in Pakistani  technology startups .  Consumer Markets in 2030. Source: WEF Here's  Brookings Institution  overview of the top 5 movers in the next 10 years: 1. Bangladesh (+17 positions), from place 28 to 11; future consumer class: 85 million (+50 millio...

Does  Donald Trump , the anti-immigration Republican presidential candidate, know that  India is now the biggest source of illegal immigrants  entering the United States? US visa is the most sought after visa in India. Those who get it celebrate with billboards. Those who don't find human smugglers to smuggle them into the United States. The preferred routes for illegal entry from India are through the Caribbean and Central America. Many surveys conducted in India over the years indicate that millions of Indians want to leave India to settle abroad. A quick  Google search  for  "Escape from India"  produces nearly 100 million results.  Many Indians cite  lack of opportunity ,  poverty  and various forms of  discrimination  as the reasons for wanting to leave India. The number of unauthorized immigrants born in India grew by about 130,000 from 2009 to 2014, to an estimated 500,000. Many unauthorized immigrants...