Last year the U.S. experienced something that hasn’t definitively occurred since the Great Depression: More people moved out than moved in. The Trump administration has hailed the exodus—negative net migration—as the fulfillment of its promise to ramp up deportations and restrict new visas. Beneath the stormy optics of that immigration crackdown, however, lies a less-noticed reversal: America’s own citizens are leaving in record numbers, replanting themselves and their families in lands they find more affordable and safe.
A recent bill in Canada restored Canadian citizenship to thousands of people living abroad. I’m helping my friend move to Canada and giving her a place to live after she claims her citizenship. After she stays here three years, all her children get the same opportunity to claim citizenship. Am I operating an Underground Railroad?!
I feel people tend to forget that Canada almost voted in a Trump clone.
Oh, we’ve commonly elected people just as evil as Trump. So have the Americans. Just not as stupid. Meanwhile, we threw away our pretense of “rule of law” at the Toronto G20 in 2010 just so Harper could impress China, and no following government ever did a damn thing about it.
But if you’re talking about the last election, it was not even close, there was no “almost” about it.
All according to plan. trump’s buddy elon will be bringing in south africans to replace them. God bless the usa breaking apart. Hide!
Rich muricans are leaving the US, most can barely leave the state.
Why would the rich leave? Don’t they benefit from Trumps policies like tax breaks and stuff? Or do you just mean the moderately ‘normal’ rich people with ‘only’ 6-figure incomes?
The super-rich are right at home, yeah.
Yeah, this isn’t cheap at all. It’s either a huge chunk of money up front or you have to uproot and move your family only taking what you can afford to the next country, a huge upheaval, with probably no support network at all where you move to. Ans that’s just residency, you’re not a citizen until you’ve put in years and meet whatever citizenship requirements.
Dislikes immigrants, and now emigrating. Lol
That’s why they call themselves “expats”
Rich + White = “Expat”
Otherwise you’re an immigrant
I think my plan B if I get laid off is to cash out everything and flee. Not too sure where, but I don’t have a lot of hope with the current administration or job market.
Americans are immigrating to other countries, they just like to call themselves X-Pats® because they think immigrant is a dirty word
Many said people are moving to avoid this type of narrow minded perspective from others in the US… Educated folks know anti-immigration is a tactic of emotional control by the ruling class.
No, no! They are “replanting themselves and their families”.
And yapping on twitter complaining about the locals and missing their life back home. #TakeMeBack
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My husband and I are moving to Mérida, Yucatán, México in April. We don’t feel safe in Los Angeles anymore. And despite all the stuff going on in Mexico, Mérida is one of the safest cities in all the Americas.
Beautiful place to nice to tbh, what would be your monthly total expenses be moving to Mexico vs America?
I think comparing those relatively their respective median wages makes the more sense
beyond that, mksg monthly expenses I see don’t ammortize the costs of buying stuff like phones and other consuemer eletronics and/or appliances which are unfortanely a necessity that one day will to be replaced
Personne peut me messager avec un boulot français au sud de la France (ou Paris). Je voudrais y évader toute suite. Chuis biologiste, et chevalier professionnellement.
They’re fleeing
Wish I could leave. This is going to get bad …
You got to have a way to do it though. You either have to have a job already lined up or you have to be under 30 so you could work some crappy job for 2 years or you have to be independently wealthy. The average Joe working at the Ford factory isn’t going to be going anywhere anytime soon.
I mean I would if my support system didn’t have serious roots here.
If I was single you bet I would.
But being married with children it’s a lot harder to do that.
I totally get that, but we are married with a child and living very far away from any traditional support system (in a different country than either of our families). It’s certainly tough, especially missing out on the free child care that everyone around us seems to be enjoying, but honestly it’s not that bad, and even has some of its own benefits.
I would go if anyone wanted me, but I’m not rich enough or smart enough, so I’ll have to take my chances with the MAGAs. Looks like being a Revolutionary is in my future.
not rich enough or smart enough
That’s most humans, just strive to learn the local language and culture and you’ll be fine.
You make it sound easy, but most countries are going to refuse American political refugees unless they have something substantial to contribute. Why should they allow all these refugees to overwhelm their health care system, housing, etc.?
We’re kicking people out of America for those same reasons, why would we think it will be any different for us in other countries?
US citizen who just finished immigrating to Japan 2 days ago. It took 8 months of planning and prep work, at least $50,000, and brought my wife and I to the edges of our sanity for the vast majority of those 8 months.
But we are finally free. Fuck ICE, fuck MAGA, and fuck Trump.
50k? Trips and ____?
Airplane tickets - $8k, Sending 2 boxes of things air freight (we lost 2 boxes doing sea freight to the US a few years back, so not trying that again) - $2.5k, Vet visits + vaccinations for dog to be allowed in Japan - $1.5k, Repairs on house to list it for sale - $11k, Short term apartment rental while house is on market - $12.5k, Giving away all our stuff because there’s not enough time to list everything for sale online and spend 1-2 hours per listing dealing with people trying to haggle… and then re-buying the essentials in Japan - $20k+ (honestly idek, could be much more. Haven’t sat down and added up how much value we gave away)
This doesn’t include the $50k we dropped our house sale price to make it sell faster, or the $100k+ per year less I’ll be making at work here.
So yeah, clearly our priority here was not maximizing our net worth. We’re significantly downsizing our lifestyle financially, and prioritizing our family’s safety and peace of mind instead. It was not an easy decision to make.
Congrats. Was reading about the apartment application process for foreigners (giving them gift money for considering your application is a thing?) - that’s daunting. Did you go for a large city or somewhere a bit off the main track?
Thank you. We’re on the outer edges of a major city, close to my wife’s family. Yeah, unfortunately this country has never been terribly welcoming to foreigners. I certainly wouldn’t want to live here long term if I wasn’t married to a citizen. I did it for 5 years in my 20s and got burned out.
Now you’ve moved to Japan, with its rising far right politics
This is a fair point, and one that I’m concerned about. But our only 2 choices were America and Japan, so we’re taking our chances with Japan for now.
Still better than living in a country with an active fascist government.
I mean, at least Japan’s fascist government would likely be a functioning one.
For ethnically Japanese people*
Japan’s just lagging behind, they recently elected a reaganite/thatcherite to implement austerity policies. Fascism will soon follow, and they’re no stranger to it.
Don’t forget she’s also a member of an insane cult that force it’s lower tier members to give up their life savings and adopt their children away to higher tier members !
Give Japan time.
Eh, that’s mostly sensationalization by Western media.
According to my Japanese friends, the new government is quite moderate and their stances on a lot of issues are a lot more nuanced than the headlines imply.
She just supports “traditional gender roles”, is against same sex marriage, etc. y’know the usual bigot red flags
tbf those are just standard asian people beliefs. yes many of them are bigots. but also yes that the far right has always been relatively popular in japan and last decade or so has become more and more powerful with abe et al
She has refused to acknowledge Japan’s war crimes during WW2 and wrote the preface for a book promoting Hitler’s election strategy.
Anti LGBTQ sentiment is undoubtedly not uncommon around the world. I live in the West and it was not even 15 years ago that insinuating homosexuality was a way men insulted each other and there are many that still do. If anything it’s gradually getting worse here, with more and more countries electing far right governments. We are a long way from acceptance.
But Takaichi is more than your everyday mild bigot.
Wow! Incredible, well done
Thank you <3
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Countries like New Zealand are absolutely falling over themselves to bring in trades and medical professionals. I nearly replanted myself there.
I advise anyone thinking about it to do your research on why that is. Sure if your only other option is the US, but the tourism ads are not the same as living in NZ. Record numbers of kiwis are leaving there too.
I have an ex co-worker that moved there a few years ago. I did a few on and off months of research. It’s isolated. You’re not getting concerts or going to amusement parks. Housing is expensive. Pay is marginal when you put it up against housing. Kids go through school and move to Australia or further for more opportunities. There’s a windy season that’s pretty insane if you’re on the windward side. The ozone hole affects them, summers can be brutal even when it’s not all that hot. Population is not diverse. It’s markedly low stress. English speaking, schools are good, people are generally friendly. Lots of walking to places, food is seasonal, cheap and good quality. There are lots of good views and nature spaces.
I’m living in NZ temporarily (a few years) with wife and kids, and I would agree on most parts. Housing, energy/petrol, and groceries can get expensive especially when things are out of season. Medical staff pay is low and it can be the same sucky job sometimes, but it’s in a beautiful country with a better work/life balance. We’ve found it’s quite family friendly with parks, playgrounds and walking tracks - and we don’t get dirty looks if bringing kids to a nicer restaurant. Also it’s easy to do a day trip to some beach or go for a walk.
We live in an Auckland suburb, but the city has some cool venues that bring in NZ and international bands. As a metal guy, I feel likes there’s always something to go to.
