Americans Are Leaving the U.S. in Record Numbers

True. Side effect is probably that the usa sinks faster with each good person leaving. Still it's hard to blame them for leaving.

Interesting, one could also make this point for immigrants in/coming to America. Just wish more of us realized that before voting in 2024…even better in 2016.

Yeah, there are lots of really awesome Americans out there. 

Unfortunately there are some incredibly shitty ones who have managed to get control of everything. 

That's a very naive point of view. It's incredibly difficult to move countries and takes either a stable overseas job or lots of money.

Not necessarily. There are Americans moving to Mexico and causing problems there.

That's actually a quite condescending thing to say. And also not a surprise at all.

Now you've moved to Japan, with its rising far right politics

Wow! Incredible, well done

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?

50k? Trips and ____?

Definitely out of reach for most. So many are paycheck to paycheck as it is

I’m an American immigrant in Germany. It’s infuriating how many Germans complain to me about immigrants, then when hearing that I’m an immigrant, wave their hand and say I’m not like the others. I’m now a German teacher and married to a German, so they’ve always got plausible deniability that it’s about language or integration, but I wasn’t always good at German and I only met my husband after a few years here. It used to be much more fun to push back on why.

that he would not consider me “an immigrant” because I’m from the west.

I've lived in 7 countries - and still living in a foreign country now - and I've heard the same thing from many locals in all the countries I've lived in.

It's not because you're from the West that you'd be an acceptable immigrant, it's because you're white. From the way you're telling the same story I've heard a million times myself, I'm 99% certain you're as white as I am.

We just left the US at the beginning of the year, and so we've been thinking about this sort of thing a lot. The short answer is, before we thought about it, we were referring to ourselves as "expats." But just last week I saw someone online mention that, as a rule, people moving from rich countries are called "expats" while people moving to rich countries are called "immigrants."

That one did my head in a bit. Had to rethink some stuff.

They already do that in Mexico, they call themselves expats in their Facebook groups and complain about the locals

An expat is not an immigrant. An immigrant emigrates to a different country, like my mother who was born in Venezuela but earned her citizenship in the USA. An expat is somebody who moves to another country for work temporarily, and does NOT emigrate. Think of immigration as permanent and expat as temporary (think work visa for a few years then back home, or transfered somewhere else)

Your associate is racist. You should tell them.

It might be assumed that it is easier for people within Western countries to assimilate in another Western country? It's often not actually true, I imagine, and probably really comes down to the individual.

It depends on who.

For immigrants changing their mind, they are either going to approach it as moving back to their old country or being an immigrant in the new country.

For most native born Americans who I know who did or will, they will also likely self identify as immigrants.

It will be the elderly moving to Latin America to retire who will likely refer to themselves as "expats".

I moved to Germany from the US and make a point of calling myself an immigrant to tackle this very thing. Honestly I haven't heard expat used by anyone besides contractors looking to go back home after the duration, but that's anectodal.

I grew up in the USA and live in Australia. I think of and refer to myself as both 'expat' and 'immigrant'.

Which word I use depends on context. I'm an American expat (context: my relationship with USA), but I'm an immigrant in Australia (context: my relationship with Australia).

I guess I'm really just using "expat" to mean "emigrant". ¯_(ツ)_/¯

Colonial legacy. One has to remember Europeans spent the 1800s and much of the early 1900s dabbling in "were civilized, they're not" brainrot ie. phrenology, race "science", eugenics, forced sterilization and most Western education essentially ignores the cultural legacy of white supremacy. Some Western countries (including the US) continued race based apartheid into the mid to late 1900s. It's why Western countries can never seem to completely shake Nazism. To a degree it's imbued into their very foundations.

will call themselves “expats” instead of immigrants.

They do, all the time.

Lol wut.

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 agree. I'm in the same boat. I would make the point though that if you emigrate somewhere else, you're going to have to leave behind a lot of comfort. That includes your support systems. Without wads of cash you will have to endure living in conditions you don't want to. You will have to struggle more than you think is reasonable.

We are just not uncomfortable enough yet to take that leap.

I actually left the US because I have kids - I didn't want them growing up there, or with the trouble we saw coming years ago.

I'm about 2 lifetimes worth of labor short of having the money to leave.

Wish I could leave. This is going to get bad ...

MASSIVE EXODUS!

single digit change in migration patterns

It's pure hysterical clickbait. The far more newsworthy headline would be about people declining to immigrate to the US, as the Feds add more and more foreign nations to its shit list. Very obvious that Trump (by way of Steven Miller) wants the US to be Whites Only.

But they idea that people are leaving in droves requires you to believe that's a viable option for anyone.

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?

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.

I feel people tend to forget that Canada almost voted in a Trump clone.

The average Joe working at the Ford factory

That isn't the average Joe though, not by a long shot.

The average is the average Joan working as a cashier.

not rich enough or smart enough

That's most humans, just strive to learn the local language and culture and you'll be fine.

"Rich and privileged" is an overstatement. It is easier and cheaper to study in a good EU university than a US one, even for US citizens. Prospective students save money, and can stay after graduating.

For those for whom a study visa isn't an option it is indeed somewhat more difficult, but as long as you have some skill that is in demand, it's still far less difficult than Americans would imagine.

I remember hearing something like it's difficult to impossible for foreign doctors to get jobs in Canada. Is that why? The plan is to keep out or at least oppress Indians?

They changed their laws to be racist to Indian immigrants but they’ve basically just fucked up their ability to gain skilled workers.

Because Canada does not need more skilled workers. 1.35M indians live in Canada.

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.

Trump has deported fewer people than Biden (I think? Definitely fewer than Obama) so, even if it did include people being deported, it still wouldn't change the takeaway as far as I can see: Americans are willingly getting the fuck out in record numbers.

Unless you're focusing on the "all the way back to the Great Depression" part more than recent history.

Also mandatory "fuck Donald Trump" disclaimer, my point isn't that he's better than Biden or Obama. If anything my point is that they're all the same where it counts.

I'm in the PV area. Trust me "all the stuff going on in Mexico" was a brief temper tantrum that lasted a few hours and some cars were burned after the head guy was taken out. Despite what English media wants to tell you, Mexico is safer today than it was before the events of Sunday.

Beautiful place to nice to tbh, what would be your monthly total expenses be moving to Mexico vs America?

Same reason conservatives don't want conservative women.

They don't want something that fits their interests and opinions.

They want to beat and conquer something that thinks differently from them, and mold them into something that is subservient to their interest and opinions.

there's at least 200 other countries that are at least as shitty as christo-fascists wish this one were. WHY CANT THEY MOVE.

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.

I'm going to be a pedant and say they are emigrating to other countries.

E.g. Fewer people are immigrating to the US as it speed runs fascism. Many Americans, however, are emigrating to other countries.

Emigrate is to leave ones country to live in another, immigrate is to come to a country to live.

And yapping on twitter complaining about the locals and missing their life back home. #TakeMeBack

No, no! They are "replanting themselves and their families".

100k isn't that much money over here.

100k USD is barely anything in a big city.

Many Americans are, ironically, moving to Mexico.

And often (but of course not always) bringing gentrification and white supremacy bullshit with them.

emigrated to Spain in 23, took a remote job and was able to finangle a visa through their DNV

Where would I go if I migrated away? Most of the world is falling into authoritarianism as the child protection laws and the attempts to effectively ban OpenPGP encryption have proven. Not only that, most of us Americans only know English and a bit of Spanish (if even that).

So, even if I moved away and abandoned my friends and family to face the fascist wolves without me, then I'd only be delaying the inevitable. I'd only encourage you to move away if you're trans, but otherwise we must hold the line here no matter how tempting it is to move away from it.

Not if private equity keeps buying up the houses 🥲

Cuba seems good. Bring a hundred solar panels with you.

Keep half for yourself and give the rest to your neighbors.

That's why they call themselves "expats"

Rich + White = "Expat"

Otherwise you're an immigrant

What if I told you the ones leaving aren't the ones that dislike immigrants?

Neeeeeeooooooo, the matrix is more than one homogenous group Neo!

Yeah just like those other refugees fleeing repressive regimes across Eastern Europe and the southern hemisphere! Go back and fix the problems yourselves with your zero money or political power and total surveillance states.

/s in case it's not blindingly obvious.

The one's leaving are generally mostly the group of people who have been trying to fix it.

I don't think they owe anyone shit.

Do you say the same about Ukrainians? Iranians? Palestinians? Turks?

To be fair, the ones with the desire and means to leave probably don’t have much overlap with the morons causing the problems

As an American, so do I. Unfortunately, a lot of people are deciding it's not worth it. The good thing is, the more skilled labor that leaves the US, the less GDP the US will have in the long run. In other words, skilled labor leaving is a good way to speedrun the collapse of a shitty empire.

Anyone who has been following the liberals' hostile attitude towards the Russian exodus is laughing up their sleeves at this.

But also, the whole theory that you're a prisoner of your national origin and should... idk... Rambo your way to freedom, because the "Half a Genocide" party lost a few swing states to the "Full Genocide" party? Feels like we're echoing the same fascist talking points of the MAGA crowd.

Might as well tell a bunch of Jews to stick around Germany and fix the Holocaust.

I can only speak for myself, but I fought as hard as I could before making the tough decision to leave. I spoke up to friends, to my mostly republican family, spoke up at work (government contractor) which almost cost me my job, spoke up on social media, called my elected representatives and lawmakers, went to protests, and helped organize protests.

But after June/July 2025 I began to realize we were not getting the momentum we needed to stop the MAGA movement, and it was time to begin making a plan B (physical escape).

I’d like to think most others like me have also tried to make an impact, but at some point you have to jump ship. There’s no reason to go down with the others who refuse to wake up and smell the fascism.

Guess what, as a Chinese American, I had Americans telling me to "go back to my country" because they're xenophobic af. You're just a xenophobe like them.

Hard to fix decades of shitty education, racism, corruption and institutional collapse.

Good on you for having the spine here

They cause this themselves by refusing to vote or voting in lunatics for years and years, among the most pissweak of excuses for their fall.

They continue to blame every single institution for that fall.

Now, they want to run and leave it collapse. Will they run again when the US tries to do it in their new country? None of us got the opportunity to vote in that election.

Fuck the downvotes you get, they hate the mirror. They could still fix this and take their country back if they went through some hardship on a general strike but nup, see ya.

They can’t take responsibility though. You can see it through these replies.

Edit: second paragraph

That’s what I thought too. We don’t need Americans to make our country shitty. We have enough troubles with our own far right parties. Keep those people away from us and try to get your shit together.

Pretty harsh to want people you haven't met to suffer like that.

They might get a bit of a taste, I can't imagine locals are gonna like a bunch of Americans moving in.

You sound just like MAGA people talking about immigrants to The US.

You do realize not all Americans are assholes - and those who aren't are the ones leaving - right?