“Victims of globalization” was what a friend / interviewee of mine in Dubai joking-seriously called himself and other latter-day nomads when I interviewed him for a recent research project.  I told him I’m not so sure I agreed completely.

I wasn’t sure he was a victim per se. Perhaps more of an opportunist. I also wasn’t sure that globalization was to blame. If anything, it may have been byzantine and moribund socio-economic or political regimes in the home country/city.  Globalisation – if such a thing exists – was perhaps the facilitator, a third-party agent.

Granted, there are countless reasons (some of them not so nice), why one would wish to leave one’s home city / country for another.  But does it not all boil down to seeking a better life and home for one’s self and one’s loved ones?

Can we really call someone seeking new opportunities a “victim,” whatever their socio-economic or political circumstance might be?