Your assets belong offshore

Let me tell you one thing I believe: we're living at a time of unprecedented opportunity.  Never before has it been more possible to start a new life in another country.

Business will continue to press for the rules to be changed to allow more skilled people in, and local governments and, eventually, national governments will create systems that will better match skilled workers from abroad with available jobs.  So expect it to get easier to migrate to countries such as Australia, Canada and New Zealand - if you have skills that match the skills that are missing in these nations. There could be opportunities for anyone from truck drivers to IT specialists, to doctors, to tradespeople.  Wise potential migrants will keep an eye out for skills shortages and will get any visa and residency applications that are required in early. 

2.  Changes in the overseas property market.  As house prices in the UK continue to rise only slowly (and maybe even fall) and the US housing market comes to a shuddering halt, the market for second homes in popular destinations such as Spain and France will slow.  With people feeling less cash-rich than they were, they will look increasingly at the cheaper property-buying destinations.  Expect more opportunities in places such as the Balkans (Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia), Eastern Europe...maybe even Morocco as people search for bargains that simply cannot be had easily in France or Spain.  Property-owning foreigners will become an increasingly common sight in more far-flung (and traditionally unfashionable) places, leading to a rash of small business opportunities aimed at the local expatriate market.  Savvy potential migrants will get familiar with the languages of these destinations and be thinking of business opportunities for themselves there. 

3.  Eastern Europe becomes the hottestre-location destination.   As the housing market changes and the new Eastern Europe member states settle into life in the European Union, expect more foreigners to make a new life there.  The Business Process Outsourcing industry will boom in places such as Poland and maybe even Ukraine, leading to a requirement for native-English people to manage call centres and IT operations, as happened in India a year or two ago.  Nations such as the Baltic countries of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania will become increasingly popular places to live as they become some of the most modern, high- tech and trendy countries in Europe.  Smart potential migrants will get the skills and knowledge that will allow them to position themselves at the front of the queue when jobs are on offer in these places. 

4.  Budget airlines roulette.  Budget airlines are here to stay - but some people will have their lives turned upside down as destinations come and go.  People will continue to make destination choices based on budget airline flight patterns, reaping the benefit of flights around Europe that, if booked early enough, are cheaper than a train trip at home.  And more people will choose a commuting lifestyle - working in London (for example) and commuting each weekend to a more relaxing life in France, Spain or maybe places such as Slovenia and Latvia.  But budget airlines will from time to time pull out of various regional airports, leaving people who have invested in property stranded.  Savvy migrants will keep their options open, and not rely on the whims of one airline. 

5. People will create more of their own opportunities abroad.   A trend that has been growing slowly over the past 4 years will continue in 2007.  More and more people will turn their backs on the world of employment by big, faceless companies and will start their own businesses.  With the opportunities afforded by the internet and cheap, often free, telephone calls, more people will be able to work at home - even if that home is in another country.  Savvy potential migrants will start to think about businesses they can create at home...and then take with them when they move. They'll learn skills that will benefit them in business, no matter where they are. And they'll consider how the skills they have learned at work can be transformed into a business they can take abroad.  Opportunities will continue to open up in the fields of marketing, writing, design, consulting, coaching and international trading that will allow people to use their skills to make ends meet in a destination of their choice.  "Mini-preneurs" - people who start their own business on a shoestring thanks to the ease of entry afforded by the internet - will turn into "expat-preneurs" who start their own business abroad.  Watch this space for a the expat-preneur. You heard it here first.