Americans Are Leaving the U.S. in Record Numbers
- I left over a decade ago, but I actually considered coming back around 2024, so I put some research into it. The result was grim.
- I'm now married to a non-American who is not white. We're not confident in the immigration process, to say the least
- Both of us are self-employed; the quote for decent (not good, I mean aggressively mediocre) insurance was very high
- Housing costs in any city we wanted to live in were very high; YMML on this obviously, but it covers a lot of cities
- Any social ill, irritation, etc that was annoying me around 2010 is unsolved with no signs of progress
- Extreme political polarization (actually a both sides thing)
- The rise of aggressive Christian nationalism (very much a one side thing)
- A horrifying pace of growth in political corruption
Everywhere has its bad points and none of these are necessarily worse than a randomly chosen second country. I think the final deciding factor is just vibes; I feel like America is declining, the culture I was born into is warping, and I don't particularly want to watch it happen from the inside, now that I'm already on the outside.
by hellosputnik
7 subcomments
- Maybe I'm becoming (or already cynical), but I'm increasingly tired of the genre of posts/reels/TikToks where someone moves to Vietnam, Portugal, Thailand, Mexico, etc. and comes back with profound observations about how "people there really know how to live" and how life is simply better there.
A lot of "I've discovered a better way of life abroad" stories seem to quietly assume continued access to US wages, US assets, US equity compensation, or US retirement savings.
- Europe gets romanticized way too much. Healthcare often means months of waiting and very hit-or-miss doctors. Bureaucracy is worse, salaries are lower, and there are plenty of stupid laws and corruption too.
It is probably better if you value slower life, more vacation, and working less. But it is not some obvious upgrade over the U.S. Just a different set of problems.
(I'm hungarian)
by VeilusDigital
0 subcomment
- Well I am not surprised, Look at who you have running the country. I have no interest In going to to visit ever again and I love the US but not with him or any of his cronies in charge.
by Schlagbohrer
0 subcomment
- Fantastic article.
I laughed at the couple who listed their reasons for leaving: healthcare costs, university costs, housing costs, school shootings threatening their kids, having to work so much they never saw their kids, having to own multiple cars, etc etc and then they say "But we aren't rejecting the American system" after listing all the parts of the american system they rejected.
by niemandhier
0 subcomment
- That is a problem for the counties they flock too.
Portuguese might not mind tourists that spend money in the country, but I know they do not like rich foreigners living there, driving up prices for housing and everything else.
People should consider migrating to other countries than Italy, Spain and Portugal:
Poland, Hungary and Romania are great places to live.
South Germany and Austria are also great and a bit easier to get by when only using English or consider Croatia if you are up for a bit more adventure.
by mahirsaid
1 subcomments
- Soon there will be restrictions on this. If the data ever gets presented and catches public opinion then i suspect the restrictions will start coming and salary caps based on expat workers will start to deter them from leaving. Quite the contradiction if you want people to stay. We all know this is the attitude of the admin ATM.
by Schlagbohrer
1 subcomments
- I hate it when americans use the false statistic of comparing waiting times for healthcare between the usa and another country. It's a false statistic because in the united states, there are a great many people who need healthcare but can't afford it so their waiting time is inifinity truncated only by the fact that they'll eventually die. If their wait times were averaged in with all the americans who are rich enough to see a doctor, the stats wouldn't look so rosy.
In a universal healthcare system the average wait times might be higher but every single person gets the healthcare they need.
- I was lucky enough to visit the US before Trump's 1st term back in 2015. I even considered working there. Sure, the customs and TSA were uncomfortable experiences, but that's nothing compared to what my dual-citizenship colleague had on a recent trip.
They were taken into a backroom for questioning at Houston airport for hours with no explanation and ultimately let go with no apologies, nothing. The "crime" was using their European passport, methinks. They are not going back to US after that experience.
- Lots of americans and others, show up here in Nova Scotia (and other places) and try and settle down, many are what I call "lifestyle refugees", and are often well off but traumatised by something or the other, but as the merry pranksters say, "wherever you go, there you are", then there are the "helpers" who are bringing some sort of idea that nobody is unaware of, another category is the wealthy , self centered, city type moving to a rural area and inevitibly trying to claim a shared right of way, or "common land" as there own, and loosing there fluffy minds when they are told that they cant even sue somebody, happens like clockwork.
Luckily there are also a good number of people who move for love, or true oportunity, or just to be in a quieter place, and they do just fine, and plenty of multigenerational dual citizenship familys, who move back and forth
- TLDR: First, deportation. Second: Americans realizing they lose nothing by moving abroad, enjoy cheap housing, cheap healthcare, cheap ... while still holding US jobs at US wages.
- [flagged]
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