In its 250th year, is America, land of immigration, becoming a country of emigration?
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.
Since the Eisenhower administration, the U.S. hasn’t collected comprehensive statistics on the number of citizens leaving. Yet data on residence permits, foreign home purchases, student enrollments and other metrics from more than 50 countries show that Americans are voting with their feet to an unprecedented degree. A millions-strong diaspora is studying, telecommuting and retiring overseas.
The new American dream, for some of its citizens, is to no longer live there.
Quotas for legal immigration and temporary work permits need to be updated. Asylum seekers should also have well thought out quotas.
Illegals are not welcome and should go home.
We had a bipartisan immigration bill under the Biden administration. Guess who killed it?
It is important to understand that there are multiple different types of illegal immigrants, all reacting to the situation in USA quite differently, but the reported numbers blur all these differences into one giant mess of a kindergarten finger painting, with a lot of paint on clothes and hair and neighbors of the painters.
For decades immigrant workers from my pueblo in central Mexico have crossed back and forth, overwhelmingly illegally, and getting good work overwhelmingly without incident. They are EXPERTS in this working quietly and profitably, and this year I have heard of only one guy who was caught and deported back home. He then employed a different more expensive “coyote” to smooth his passage and his mother tells me he is now successfully back at work in Wisconsin.
Each winter many of them come home (less work up in the snowy North and Christmas makes home and family dearer), and this year was no exception. However, as of yesterday, the last of the snowbird laborers known to me have successfully returned al Norte.
Somebody found my post which described the political allegiances of my family members offensive. Weird, as various family members support either side of the political spectrum. Oh well, perhaps I offended both sides of the spectrum!
I found your post to be interesting. My sons and grandchildren have all gotten their Estonian Passports (because I was born in Estonia) which make them eligible to live and work in any EU country.
Both my parents were born in the Republic of Ireland and I got my Irish passport more than 15 years ago for two reasons.
1)Lower visa fees, since Ireland is on better terms with most of the world than the US.
- Ability to live in any EU country if things deteriorate here.
intercst
Someone should tell all those employers hiring undocumented workers.
To be fair, not all of them are knowingly hiring undocumented workers. Some might even be good people. But…we’ve got to get a handle on those employers who are breaking the law.
Yes, the laws requiring employers to check for documents should be enforced. Those who get hired w borrowed or fake documents should be detected.
When George Clooney secured French citizenship last year and confirmed that his family’s main home is now a farm in Provence, it sent a strong message about the standing of the American Dream. Clooney has been unusually blunt about what the move represents: a bet that his children would have a “much better life” in a country where fame matters less, privacy laws are stronger, and childhood can be more ordinary than it would be in Los Angeles.
We now have our second instance of voluntary deportation. The first was about a year ago, now comes news that a friend’s son is leaving the US for Nova Scotia because “I can’t stand to be in a country ruled by that man.” So the family is leaving, correction, has left.
Don’t know a lot more about it because we’ve been conversing only in texts lately, but the message couldn’t be clearer. Self deportation works. This is a white, well educated Doctor’s son’s family, so not exactly the target for this “self deportation” scheme.
I’m not surprised that living on a farm in Provence could result on a “childhood more ordinary than in Los Angeles”. Of course, the same could be said for growing up (wealthy) on a farm in Iowa or Missouri or even Shasta county in California.
DB2
I have a friend and his wife moving to Ottawa on 1 Feb last year! However, he did not move away from the snow!
JimA