James
Since I happen to be one of the people who made the decision to relocate overseas I hope have a useful take on the topic.
Other than people who have a direct familial connection with the place they are planning to relocate to I generally am against overseas relocation. The only exception that I would consider is New Zealand but that is only if you have a skill that they are in need of right now and you fit their criteria.
Leaving your familiar surroundings, culture, and language is very difficult even if you have the money to smooth the path. Without family that feels responsibility for you you can become really cut off especially outside the Anglosphere. Expect that to be much worse in tough times if you are the foreigner taking away relief resources.
Israel is a very special exception which is only open to Jews. I highly recommend that Jewish readers at least consider this move since history seems to indicate all minorities including Jews end up on the bottom during economic hard times. Remembering recent hard times there was a cutoff in the 1930s where Jews were no longer allowed to escape to Israel, the last escape for Jews in Europe. Right now there are very nice assistance programs to help new Jewish immigrants both financially and with getting settled. See this site for the largest of these Israel
assistance programs.
For other minorities I wish there was good advice to give them. I seem to remember that in the 1930s white unemployment was over 50% but black unemployment was around 98%. I urge all SurvivalBlog readers to remember your brothers and sisters of different appearance or ethnicity and to take this into account both when hiring and and giving charity. – David in Israel
[JWR Adds: David is SurvivalBlog’s correspondent in Israel, currently a Torah student. He and his wife were American born, but emigrated to Israel as adults.]