Some of them, but not nearly enough as you point out, plus it's really hard politically to get people to want to change to a different lifestyle. I left the US partly because I wanted to live a walkable lifestyle and the very few places in the US that offered that were too unaffordable (and had many other problems, such as the shitty healthcare system).
What an odd comment. You don't need to move out of the US in order to reduce how much you drive, or live somewhere your kids can walk to school (source: me). Expecting people to make such a drastic change for fairly minor lifestyle changes isn't realistic.
Also, I don't think it's fear that prevents Americans from moving across the world. I think it's more related to, they don't want to leave their family, friends, and life they've been building for the last 20-60 years.
The thing I don't understand is how few people in the US are willing to move to a different state, nevermind another country. There's plenty of work for those willing to seek it and be flexible.
I see that people are assuming that the ones who want to leave do so because they feel the government is insufficiently liberal. The truth is, I have met some people who wish they could leave to go somewhere more conservative. I think that everyone would want to leave the US if somewhere out there was a utopia that exactly implemented their political and social views. The main thing that tamps down that desire is the fact that such places rarely exist.
I would say it is dissatisfaction with the government's contract with the citizenry, combined with recent evidence suggesting that a good chunk, say half, of the population has no interest in progressing. So people who can leave for somewhere that more closely aligns with their values are doing just that.
I have family here and I love the United States, I'm staying, and I hope we can make some more progress, but I totally understand why some people don't want to wait that long.
Unrelated to the reason that was listed in the article, but I've spoken to numerous people over the last couple of years who've expressed they would like to leave due to the US's culture.
Although this is a beautiful, diverse, and free country (compared to the rest of the world), everything in the US revolves around work and money.
The hassle of moving to another country is not small. I gotta think there is a desire for personal change / lifestyle / even just seeing what it is like elsewhere, as much as just recent political stuff.
It's easy to tack on reasons that are convenient to say, you might even think that is the reason... but the trigger might be something else.
There's lots of reasons it isn't so simple for people.
1) Barriers to work and emigration
2) Language barriers - I know that learning a new language isn't impossible (I know a little Spanish but I'd hardly call myself fluent), but I speak only English fluently, which limits me to a handful of nations, many of which are nearly as bad as the United States (hey UK, how are those surveillance cameras?)
3) A lot of us have family support systems that aren't easy to give up - I happen to know who you are, and happen to know that the country to which you moved didn't have that problem. ;)
I know it's not impossible - I follow /r/IWantOut over on Reddit because I have my own fantasies about leaving the U.S. and maybe moving to a Spanish-speaking country with liberal emigration policies (perhaps Uruguay?). But it's not something I feel like I can put my family through at this time - it's definitely not what I'd call "extremely simple."
I think this hits the nail on the head. I don't like our healthcare system, daycare like school system, lack of mass transit, and defense spending. In theory, of course I'd like to move to another country that better serves its citizens. Will I? Very doubtful. But as long as the government fails its people, a lot of them are going to -want- to leave.
Ok, so maybe "extremely" was a bit much. In my defense I think leaving is much simpler at this point than hoping that the current course of politics and public sentiment in the US will change.
> 1) Barriers to work and emigration
While real, they can be overcome. Also, I'd wager there will be something of a domino effect -- once other countries begin to catch on that well educated, highly trained Americans are looking to leave, it will likely become easier to do so.
> 2) Language barriers
One, you'd be amazed how much you can get across non-verbally. Two, it might take years to become conversational in a language, but probably only a handful of months to get good enough to do the daily shopping. Three...what everyone else has said: if you know English, there are very few places in the world where you'll ever be completely unable to communicate with someone.
> 3) A lot of us have family support systems that aren't easy to give up
Yeah, I understand completely ;-)...
My mother was born in the same house in Switzerland where my grandfather and his brothers and sisters grew up. My great-uncle lived in that same house until the day he died, and my great-aunts still live in the same village to this day. I can only imagine how hard it was for my grandfather and grandmother to give all that up and move their three children to America in the '50s, but they truly believed, at the time, that it was worth it.
At the same time, while I do have family where I live now, I also had to leave behind a large family in the US. Airline tickets are expensive, but manageable for at least once yearly visits. Video chat is all but ubiquitous. Time zones differences are the hardest to manage, but still doable (http://everytimezone.com/ helps, even though they still don't have my time zone).
I don't like that I now feel like I had to leave, though I am very glad that I did leave.
Living in another country, even if only temporarily, is something I would recommend to anyone in any country. A friend is currently living abroad for a year with his two school-age kids, and he seems to be having a blast so far. It will certainly improve your ability to gain perspective. It may change your outlook on life. Certainly, when I left I still harbored the notion that at some future time I might return...I don't feel that way any longer.
So, in my spare time I help people become expats. The (precious few) studies of US expats show that most of them have moved to other countries for someone they love, followed by work or adventure (search for von Koppenfels' study). Very few of us expats have left for political reasons. However, when I talk to people today who want to leave, while adventure and love are still cited, it's the political crap in the US which is driving a lot of it. People are telling me that "the US isn't the country they grew up in." They're saying they can't fight the Koch Brothers, the Waltons, Big{Oil,Pharma,Banking}, Citizens United and so on.
Interestingly, when they talk to me about this, they're usually not looking for greener pastures: they aren't assuming the world is better somewhere else or that they can escape what's going on. Maybe that puts 'em back in the adventure category instead of moving for political reasons? (That being said, the demographics between actual expats and would-be expats could be radically different).
Note for the curious: I moved abroad for adventure, not political reasons. Five countries and counting.
TL;DR: Young people in the US are waking up from all of the bad news and wondering what it would be like to live somewhere else, but they think they don't have the money to leave the US.
FWIW As a US citizen I feel similarly. The switching cost feels too high to move, as I can't really see myself living somewhere other than the West Coast (family, friends etc)
It's a shame humans don't have more empathy and sympathy for each other, and that governments have been so obviously co-opted by the wealthy and powerful for their own benefit.
One of the things that does make me feel better is being more involved in my neighborhood and local politics, where occasionally things you do can have a real impact. (For example I got a stop sign installed on my street, people still speed but usually they'll stop at it, making the neighborhood a tiny bit safer)
I've been trying to move back abroad since I returned to the USA. It's not as easy as people think in the best of times to immigrate, let alone when you are in such bad shape all around. No place takes broken and relatively broke people. Believe me I'd have been gone years ago if I could have managed it. I've thought about extreme ideas like asylum but my research shows it's never granted to people from such countries as mine and for such reasons. The system is taxed enough with war refugees and people even worse off. I'd happily trade passports with anyone who thinks this is the place to be. There is just not a clear path to a sustainable life anywhere now.
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