What do expats want?

Do expatriate Americans have common interests as voters in US elections? Might there be things we care about as temporary foreigners that drive us to vote differently than we would if we were still living in the States?

As with any expatriate, my vote will be influenced by three things:

1. How I would have voted anyway, if I'd stayed in the US - my political orientation.
2. What I've learned and how I've changed as a result of being overseas.
3. How my interests are different as an expat than they were before.

To the first point, expats are quite varied, as are other Americans. But they are mostly richer (present company excepted) and better-educated. The first tends to push people toward a conservative orientation and the Republican party, the latter toward a liberal orientation and the Democrats. So perhaps expats are initially fairly representative of other Americans.

Expats do have different experiences than if they'd stayed at home. Hopefully they (we) become broader-minded, better informed of a wider range of views, and more tolerant. Though some will go the other way and become narrow-minded and intolerant, staying within "little America" bubbles and ignoring the locals. Hopefully the first effect will outweigh the second.

But what I'm really interested in is the third point - how expatriates have different interests than home-bound Americans. What do expatriates want and need as a result of being based overseas vs still at home?

As expatriates, we want to be liked and accepted by people in our host countries. (Come on, fellow expats, admit it.) So we tend to like policies that are popular with foreigners, whereas most Americans react negatively to anything urged on them from overseas. (I was the same way when I was a full-time Californian.) At the same time, we can see the foreigners' point of view, so in some cases we're agreeing with them because we have new information and a new perspective, in others because we're spineless and tired of being criticized down at the pub.

But also as expatriates, we need to do well economically, to have the very large financial and emotional investment we've made in moving and living overseas pay off. For this to happen, America has to do well economically. If it does, we become quite valuable for our flexibility, in the larger world and at home; if not, the effort is pointless.

Now however economically nationalistic one might be, the economy of the US is still becoming a gradually smaller share of the world economic pie as other countries (not the European ones, bless them) grow faster. So the needs of expatriates are in this way very well aligned with those of our country; we are canaries in the global coal mine, telling those of you still back home things you need, if not want, to know.

Of course, we - America and Americans - won't do well economically if we're too unpopular, let alone if the US seems unreasonable or irrational, so the things we as expatriates want America to do are often part of what we need our country to do as well.

So just what is it that we as expatriates want and need America to do? I think much of it can be summed up in five points:

1. To open up economically. Free(r) trade is the future. America can no longer think that free trade is a gift it offers others; it's a vital tool for America to keep from being frozen out of various blocs that otherwise will almost certainly develop, excluding us, beginning with the EU. Our economy is so dynamic that fair access to it is worth far more to poor countries than any aid we can give, while benefitting us as well. As it is, we have relatively freer trade with China, enriching the world's last Communists, than with Africa or Latin America, impoverishing and radicalizing many fragile democracies. We need to lead aggressively here, to the benefit of all.
2. To let Americans out. America is very poorly represented overseas. America needs to reform laws in a uniform manner to make moving abroad and back easier, most particularly with regards to taxation and voting. This means less complexity (which aids the rich who can work the system), not less total taxes paid. This also needs to be consistently handled across states, which will aid enforcement and collection for all concerned.
3. To let other people in. The worst single thing that America has done post-9/11 is to raise a wall of security and procedures that keeps people out. Foreigners resist attending meetings in America because it's very likely that, in a given group, someone's passport will be formatted incorrectly, a visa will not come through in time etc. - so they meet anywhere and everywhere else. Students, tourists, workers all miss out on the opportunity to experience the greatest country on Earth, and thus to be inspired to open up their own societies because of the way we're closing our own. We can maintain exactly the same standards as today, but we need to invest in processes that take the burden off the people who all concerned agree are not risks.
4. To address climate change. America generates twice as much CO2 impact per person as any other country. If the rest of the world comes up to anywhere near the American standard, as China and India, for instance, threaten to do, the planet will become a vast toxic waste dump. America must "take the lead" in climate change, but "taking the lead" just means managing our emissions down toward, say, Europe's. (Which are still above India's and China's for now.) This is just naked self-interest - a moderate amount of pain in the near term to avoid disaster in the medium and long term.
5. To inspire people. America's "soft capital" of goodwill is a tremendous enabler of trade and positive discussion overseas, but it's draining away fast. No one living in the UK, at least, will forget the pictures of prisoners on their way to Guantanamo Bay, bound up like Hannibal Lecter on the floor of a C-5A, splashed across the front pages of newspapers day after day, nor the ongoing headlines about complicity in extraordinary rendition. We can't always be popular, but we can follow our own long-standing principles, for our own sake as well as for the continued, invaluable respect of even those who disagree with us on specific issues.

I'm happy to say, looking it over, that most of this list is about freedom - free trade, free travel, and "selling" freedom itself. Just what America's supposed to be for. The climate change bit is just about not dying (and not having our children die) sooner than needed, so perhaps less uplifting than the other points.

Also, much of this is not about what we do - America must be free to act in its own interests - but how we do it, investing in systems to do things effectively or taking the time to explain a policy carefully. (An effort which might in itself lead some things to be changed on their way to implementation.)

How might this list affect how one votes in the Presidential elections now in process? Which candidates should win the "overseas primary", if there were one? That will be the topic of next week's entry.