Everyone’s family was once an immigrant family. Even those who have never experienced migration themselves can trace their lineage to someone who did. Uprooting oneself in search of better opportunities is a tradition as old as humanity itself. The story of human migration is a story of resilience. It’s the story of people who adapt, rebuild, and thrive in unfamiliar places. It’s the story of innovation, cultural exchange, and progress, the very processes that created modern society.
Yet, alongside this restlessness is a deep desire for a place to call home forever. Being an immigrant means living in a perpetual state of in-between: not fully here, not fully there. It’s a pervasive sense of non-belonging that never fully fades. That’s why immigrants make the journey hoping their children can settle down, that they may belong—in a better place.
The 20th century saw two world wars, the rise and fall of communism and fascism, globalization, and the dawn of the digital age. These changes triggered massive migration flows: people fleeing war, famine, or oppression, or seeking better economic opportunities elsewhere. Cities were transformed overnight into thriving hubs of prosperity, while others faded into decline as industries disappeared. And new waves of immigrants helped propel the United States to become an unrivaled global superpower.
Now, in the 21st century, migration pressures are proving just as dynamic. Climate change is pushing people toward places with less extreme weather and fewer disasters. Wars, political unrest, and authoritarian regimes are displacing those with the means to escape. Shifts in economic power are pulling people away from dying regions and toward thriving ones. The United States is actively dismantling its own hegemony. And there will be future trends we can’t predict, triggered by events that haven’t yet unfolded.
The world is changing faster than ever before. Even the place that feels perfect today may already be past its prime, and we might not realize it until after we’ve planted roots. When we stop evolving with the world around us, we fall behind. And the farther behind we fall, the harder it is to catch up. In our fast-moving, ruthless, globally intertwined society, tying ourselves down to a dying place will not end well.
Change is like water. It will seep through the tiniest cracks and crevices. Many will try to seal themselves off from change and recreate a more prosperous past, but they will ultimately fail. The conditions that created that past prosperity are long gone, and the rest of the world has moved on without them. The only way to truly be at peace in a changing world is to live in harmony with change itself. And sometimes, that means uprooting your life to follow where opportunity leads. We have done it before, and when we need to, we will do it again. Our own sense of belonging is not worth sacrificing our children’s future for.