Coastal views. Plentiful work visas. An airport that rivals Singapore Changi as the world’s least stressful. Such are Doha’s advantages that, when Israeli munitions struck there last week, it was with a heavy heart that I marked it down a few places on my list of potential havens. Haven from what? Well, you never know.
I wonder if the Americans sitting out Donald Trump’s second term in Hampstead and Ladbroke Grove are pioneers of what will become a 21st-century phenomenon. The western refugee. Since 1945, rich-world citizens have left their own countries to take a job or to have fun, but seldom to escape historical forces. As Russia menaces Europe and the temperature of US politics runs unbearably hot, expect this to change.
For one thing, the very tranquillity of the west means that not much has to happen to unnerve its people. If you have lived through decade after decade of civic order, if even your parents have known nothing scarier than Arthur Scargill, a small dose of chaos is not small at all. What matters here is not so much risk as risk tolerance.