A World Looking for the Exit

What makes a person stop imagining a future where they live-and start looking for a way out?

People leave for safety, work, education, dignity and the possibility of an ordinary life. Money can leave before they do. Others remain because they choose to, because someone needs them, or because the door is closed.

Drawing on decades of research into migration and the economic and social forces behind it, Dr Gil Feiler follows the choices that connect a suitcase, a bank account and a country's future. Historical testimony, economic research and clearly identified hypothetical households illuminate the costs of departure: divided families, lost professional standing, unequal access to mobility and the obligations that cross borders with us.

A World Looking for the Exit explores how people choose destinations, what happens when a welcome wears thin, and why returning is rarely a simple reversal. It also turns to the people and institutions left behind-and to the conditions that make staying a credible choice.

For readers interested in migration, economics and the meaning of belonging, this is a searching account of what movement can change, what it cannot resolve, and what it takes to build a life in a place.