More and more Americans are choosing to leave the United States and settle abroad with their families. “America, a land of immigration, is it becoming a country of migration?” questions The Wall Street Journal.
In 2025, for the first time since the Great Depression in 1929, the country recorded a negative migration balance: the number of departures exceeded arrivals and the population decreased by about 150,000 people – a figure likely underestimated.
“In the cobblestone streets of Lisbon, Americans are snapping up apartments to the point that newcomers complain of only hearing their own language and not Portuguese,” notes the daily. “In Dublin, in the trendy Grand Canal Dock neighborhood, one in fifteen residents is born in the United States, according to real estate agents. In Bali, Colombia, Thailand, difficulties in finding housing due to the presence of American telecommuters paid in dollars have prompted local populations to protest against gentrification.”
Not to mention the approximately 100,000 young Americans pursuing their studies abroad and the thousands of retirees in nursing homes “popping up like mushrooms” on the other side of the Mexican border.
No database precisely records the 4 to 9 million Americans already living outside the United States. One thing is certain: since the return to power of Donald Trump, the numbers are skyrocketing, to the point that some commentators have dubbed this migration wave the “Donald Dash.”
The American exception in question
Yet, everything indicates that the phenomenon goes back further. “The new American dream is to no longer live in the United States,” writes the Wall Street Journal. “In dozens of interviews, American expatriates describe their motivations as a mix of economic factors, lifestyle preferences, and disillusionment with America’s trajectory – they mention crime, the cost of living, and political instability.”
“Salaries are higher in the United States, but the quality of life is better in Europe,” explains an expat living in Berlin while working for a real estate investment company in Dallas.
In almost all of the 27 EU member states, the number of American residents continues to rise. In Portugal, their number has increased by over 500% since the start of the pandemic. The American population has almost doubled in Spain and the Netherlands, and more than doubled in the Czech Republic. “Europe offers affordable healthcare, cities where walking is pleasant, from bistros to coworking spaces where English has supplanted the local language. Housing remains relatively cheap, schools are affordable, safe, and (except universities) generally better rated than in the United States.”
“Americans move abroad and realize they prefer life there,” says Caitlin Joyce, a researcher at Temple University. A phenomenon that questions the “American exception,” “this myth of ‘we have the best quality of life, we are the best country in the world, everyone wants to come and settle here.'”
