Although some people may feel uncomfortable about all this, the truth is that change is going to come, regardless if we like to see it happen or not.  As such, the trick is to embrace such changes, know what those change  are, and profit from them.  And in addition, these changes will force new immigration trends, whereby citizens from one set or group of countries will start to migrate to another.  In fact, this has already started.
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First, let us start off with the countries that will be knocked out of first place, or the top ten, if you prefer.  Just as with baseball or soccer, no one stays on top each and every year forever.  Some new team is going to rise up and take their place in the victory circle, and this applies to nations and economies as well.  And this is exactly one of the profound changes we are witnessing at the moment, which will play itself out over the coming decades.
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The most drastic and notable changes will occur (and are occurring) in the group of nations formally considered to be the wealthy, industrialized and advanced collection of countries in North America and Western Europe (and of course Japan can be added to this list as well).  All of these nations have already had a brewing storm of demographics and deteriorating economics working against them, and now of course the current economic crisis just adds even another layer on top of that.
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In terms of the first two items, all of these nations have a problem of an extremely large number of aging citizens who are now ready to retire and tap into the various social welfare programs that exist (government pension programs, such as social security, and government health care insurance for the elderly as well). The problem of course is that all of these programs exist as so-called pay-as-you -go financed plans, whereby current tax-payers putting money into the system were (are) supporting those currently taking benefits out.  Just like a Ponzi Scheme, this only works if you have more and more new people paying in, as compared to those taking money out.  The clear problem then is, the generation coming up behind the Baby-Boomers (that demographic group currently aging and retiring) who will now support the old folks drawing a check, is much, much smaller.  And as a result of that, the financial burden per worker paying in, much greater, per person as well.  In other words, the social welfare Ponzi Scheme is collapsing.
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However, you might think that a larger number of workers retiring with a much smaller number of workers to replace them would mean that the younger generation should experience full employment, with possibly higher wages due to demand – and under normal circumstances, you would be correct.  But, that is not the case for today's younger generation in these wealthy, modern countries because of the global outsourcing and off-shoring phenomenon.  Which is to explain, domestic companies in the US and Western Europe as well have been moving the factories and the jobs abroad to lower wage (and highly populated) emerging market countries.  This is not new news to you, but the result is, a young person in the United States graduating with a university degree in computer programing is not competing with one of his peers in another part of the US for his first job, but rather he is competing with a person from Bangalore, India with a Doctorate degree willing to work for half or less.  This is the reality of the current state of affairs and one reason why the unemployment rate in the US and Europe is so high (there are other factors as well).  Of course, just to backtrack a bit, all of this started with the manufacturing jobs being moved abroad and now that same thing is happening with white collar jobs or professions also.
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This leads to the economic problems or better said, revenue imbalances, that is occurring in such countries in terms of payroll tax and welfare benefit contribution taxes.  Which is to explain that a lower number of people in the working age population means higher tax burdens to support the same and ever increasing government social welfare expenditures, AND when we couple that with the fact that the jobs have gone abroad, this all results in higher unemployment as well.  In brief, what should be a boom time, employment wise, for today's younger generation (even though their taxes may be higher than their parents) is now a bust.  And with less government revenue coming in to pay for all the promises made, we are seeing governments foolishly borrowing money (usually from foreigners, with the exception of the Japanese) to cover the government revenue short-fall, which is already creating another set of problems.
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Now, to contrast all this, who are the up and coming nations and why?  Plainly stated, the so-called emerging or developing market nations (that were also previously called Third World in the past) that do not have such aging population imbalances, nor expensive and expansive government social welfare programs, nor any mortgage – housing industry problems either.  Of course this is not to say it is all sunshine and champagne in many of these developing countries either. Surely they have a number of problems of their own, and one of the major challenges going forward will be managing the GDP growth and also the employment situation for a very large and fairly young population.  However, with that said, we are generically speaking about nations that: have superior economic growth trends (5 to 12 percent annually), that are experiencing an exponential growth in their middle class (and this is why foreign companies are beating down the door to get in and open new stores), that are the recipients of many of the manufacturing and other kinds of jobs being outsourced from the so-called First World countries, and are countries that do not have real estate and or related consumer mortgage problems,  In addition, such developing nations are now also attracting well healed middle class migrants coming from North America and Europe (who are trying to escape the higher taxes, bankrupt social welfare nations they are leaving behind).  What this means is, aside from everything we just mentioned, these same countries are getting the best and brightest from the so-called First World countries, adding new talented people and entrepeuners to the local market.
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All of this leads us to answer the question: Who are the new immigrants or expatriates specifically and why are heading for the developing or emerging market countries? Well, there are two groups in fact that make up this cohort of new migrants leaving the supposedly wealthy nations (countries that are really not wealthy any more) and heading to the developing or emerging market countries.  One group is in fact the retired or near retired.  In other words, the Baby-Boomers who are trying to find someplace where their retirement income goes further, whereby cost of living is less expensive (not to mention private medical care as just one area), and otherwise to get away from the looming social problems back home.  But for the most part, this group is somewhat solvent and are not seeking employment or work (these are people that have some savings to invest, can probably purchase a home for cash in the new country, etcetera).
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The other group are the 25 to 45 year olds, looking for work or business opportunities, and otherwise, simply attempting to escape from the higher taxes and bankrupt welfare states they know they will witness before they reach retirement age.  In addition, such persons naturally are looking for lower cost of living, lower education costs for their children and better standard of living as well.  Of course, this group can be subdivided with the most at risk being the younger people who do not have any savings or assets to start off with that are merely looking for work or employment.  The other older segment in contrast would tend to be people that perhaps own their own small business, do have some savings and assets, and in fact might even be someone with an on-line or other kind of business that could be conducted anywhere.  Think on-line retailers, travel agents, other kinds of agents (talent agents for example), consultants, computer programmers, authors, etcetera.  In fact, simply by moving to another country, in terms of operating your business, could mean a substantial tax savings by that action alone (not to mention perhaps lower labor costs, etc.).
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In any event, the final point is that regardless of the age group or reason, it certainly is true that many people have found both economic and other kinds of freedom abroad, and particularly in many of the emerging or developing markets that have been  speaking about (and the Dominican Republic as well).  While making such a move is often a difficult decision, it really is no different from the grand-parents or great-grand parents of some people, that had made the choice to seek out a better life elsewhere perhaps 100 or so years ago.  The only differences today are the destinations. 
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