No modern subject in the world has such grave effective power with retrospective consequences as Economics. From 1945 onwards, the post–Second World War era witnessed a drastic change in the world political order, with which the world economy always goes hand in hand.
It was the complete decimation of the financial prowess of Europe, which had prevailed over the world for more than 200 years, and the emergence of the USA as a self-reliant, omnipotent economic power controlling no less than 60% of the world economy till 2000. Europe, Japan, South Korea, and Australia together shared 25% of the world economy, leaving only 15% for other nations to share.
However, this 25% economy of the developed nations was largely the tailwind benefit of the USA’s absolute hegemony in global economics and politics. This order was furthered by peerless and unprecedented technological breakthroughs—particularly in digital and electronics industries—led mostly by USA-based companies. These developments spurred a huge demand for migrant workers as well as technological talent, not only in the USA but also in its allied Western European nations, Australia, Japan, and Taiwan.
By 2025, nearly 95% of migration from poor third-world populous nations like India, China, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Laos, and several Central Asian nations had flowed into the USA, Europe, and Australia to fill the void of manual labour and technological talent. The economies of the USA, Western Europe, and Australia thrived largely on the immense contributions of these migrants.
At the same time, the sudden rise of the Gulf nations in the 1970s—due to the discovery of vast oil reserves—created a new cluster of wealthy nations. Their prosperity drew limitless migrants from poor countries and spurred massive outsourcing and imports of services, raw materials, minerals, natural products, and finished goods. In this period, China, India, Vietnam, Mexico, Indonesia, and Brazil emerged as leading exporters of such outsourced items.
From 2000 onwards, China became a monopolized supplier of goods and minerals, while India established itself as a leader in services, goods, and minerals—alongside its relentless export of manpower to the West and the Gulf. Together, they accounted for nearly 70% of total global migration to rich nations. Cheap labour and skilled workers from developing nations maximized exports of services, goods, and raw materials, while remittances from migrants dramatically changed the financial fate of countries such as China, India, Vietnam, Mexico, and Brazil.
On the other hand, Western companies experienced unprecedented profit margins, which benefited their governments through huge corporate taxes while galvanizing social welfare at home. However, from 2006 onwards, the rapid growth of indigenous populations in their homelands, coupled with the shifting of wealth-generation apparatus to the third world through imports and outsourcing, left many of their domestic citizens jobless and their governments trapped in mounting debt.
By 2025, these once-cozy nations now find themselves facing a vacuum: joblessness increasingly attributed to cheap migrants, and governments sinking into black holes of debt. This discontent propelled ultra-nationalist politics in the USA, bringing Republicans to power with the mission to reclaim drained wealth and prosperity for the homeland, and to pursue de-migration policies aimed at reducing unemployment among the native population. The same woes now afflict Europe, Australia, and the Gulf nations.
As a result, massive unrest and violence against migrants have erupted across the Western world, in line with USA policies of reshoring domestic industries and chasing out migrants to drastically cut unemployment.
The Million-Dollar Question
In this perspective, the million-dollar question is whether such overtures—mostly panicked, scattered, and externally incited—can truly bring back wealth, jobs, and debt-free prosperity to these nations. The answer is a big NO.
Reasons
Firstly, the USA government’s fight against its monumental national debt of $37.51 trillion (as of 24.09.2025), skyrocketing import bills, and mass unemployment mirrors the struggles of other Western nations. But in reality, it is a fight against their own domestic corporate world, whose sole aim is profit maximization in the face of stiff competition from highly industrialized nations such as China, India, Vietnam, Indonesia, the Philippines, Brazil, Mexico, and Canada. In today’s economic order, cheap labour remains pivotal despite automation and AI, which are still in a nascent stage. Western governments know this hard fact, yet continue to incite citizens against migrants for political survival—while the dream of regaining lost prosperity remains distant and unrealistic.
Secondly, all attempts to halt migration or force de-migration will only worsen financial woes. The result will be an accelerated flight of both capital and domestic industries to the third world, seeking greener pastures for survival.
Thirdly, the dramatic overtures of the USA president and allied Western leaders are nothing but political theatre. They aim to hoodwink unemployed citizens, distract from ground realities, and shield corporate masters from public anger by diverting it toward innocent and hapless migrants.
Fourthly, the current level of national and household debt in these nations is beyond any immediate relief.
Fifthly, the global economic order itself risks collapse within three months, due to drastic reductions in exports from third-world nations coupled with the possible repatriation of massive migrant populations—particularly from India. An indefinite Western recession, coupled with rising household debt, falling incomes, mass layoffs, and widening inequalities, has already shown alarming signs in Bangladesh and Nepal. India, with its low per capita income, is not in a much better position. Therefore, the Western corporate strategy of depending on cheap labour and outsourcing from the developing world is unlikely to work in the midst of fast-spreading global recession and deflation.
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