By some estimates 3 million citizens become
expatriates a year, but most not for political reasons
Editor’s Note: I ran across
this article written in 2008 by Jay Tolson for US News &
World Report. I thought it was still relevant and wanted to share some things
with you.
Among other things, it was talking about the sizable number of Americans who
are moving to places like Panama and Mexico: “These Yankees, it turns out, are
part of a larger American phenomenon: a wave of native-born citizens who are
going abroad in search of new challenges, opportunities, and more congenial
ways of life.”
In his 2008 book Bad Money, political commentator Kevin Phillips
warns that “an unprecedented number of citizens, fed up with failed politics
and a souring economy, have already departed for other countries, with even
larger numbers planning to do so soon.” However, this article goes on to say
that this “may be putting too negative a reading on this little-noticed trend,”
because while some may be part of a lot of today's expats are not part of a new
Lost Generation, many more of “today’s expats are entrepreneurs, teachers, or
skilled knowledge workers in the globalized high-tech economy. Others are
members of a retirement bulge that is stretching pensions and IRAs by living
abroad.”
Southward trend. Europe still draws many of these American
emigrants, but even more have relocated in Canada
and Mexico.
Others are trying out Australia,
New Zealand, or one of the
new economies of Asia, while a growing stream flows southward to Central and South America. John Wennersten, author of Leaving America:
The New Expatriate Generation and a retired historian who has taught for
many years abroad, wrote a “thought-provoking book that fleshes in a compelling
picture of Americans abroad….If you've ever considered taking off for places
unknown--or were curious about why others might do so--Wennersten's book offers
fascinating and reasoned insights into this complex issue." Review by The Hill Rag
While the book doesn't tell you how to start a new life, …”in historical
perspective it does a nice job investigating why other people have done so, and
where they ended up, etc. While this account might not initially seem practical
to anyone looking at 'getting out', throughout the book there are tidbits of
interest to most people considering an international move.”
The article goes on to say, “Exactly how many people are part of this trend
is hard to say. Precise emigration figures have never been easy to come by in
the United States.
‘It's been an implicit assumption that people come here to stay, not to come
and go,’ says Mike Hoefer, head of the Office of Immigration Statistics at the
Department of Homeland Security. The government's last trial effort to count
Americans overseas, in 1999, was deemed inordinately expensive. Elizabeth
Grieco, chief of immigration statistics at the U.S. Census Bureau, puts it
bluntly: ‘We don't count U.S.
citizens living abroad.’”
However, even if the government is not counting, others are. “Estimates made
by organizations such as the Association of Americans Resident Overseas put the
number of non-government-employed Americans living abroad anywhere between 4
million and 7 million, a range whose low end is based loosely on the
government's trial count in 1999. Focusing on households rather than
individuals (and excluding households in which any member has been sent
overseas either by the government or private companies), a series of recent
Zogby polls commissioned by New Global Initiatives, a consulting firm, yielded
surprising results: 1.6 million U.S. households had already determined to
relocate abroad; an additional 1.8 million households were seriously
considering such a move, while 7.7 million more were "somewhat
seriously" contemplating it. If the data collected in the seven polls
conducted between 2005 and 2007 are fairly representative of the current
decade, then, by a modest estimate, at least 3 million U.S. citizens a
year are venturing abroad. More interesting, the biggest number of relocating
households is not those with people in or approaching retirement but those with
adults ranging from 25 to 34 years old.”
According to Robert Adams, the CEO of New Global Initiatives, the motives of
relocators are almost as hard to pin down as the numbers. "The only
Americans who understand what's going on are those living abroad," he
says. "There is no movement, no leader. It's just millions of people
making individual decisions to do it."
“…Adams finds that the reasons people give
for moving abroad often change, particularly among those who stay overseas for
any length of time. In fact, he says, those who claim they came for a specific
reason—for example, dissatisfaction with American politics—tend to be least
happy with what they find in the new settings. By and large, most successful
Americans abroad ‘are running to rather than running from,’ Adams stresses.
A new "West." “Today, moving from the States to a
place like Panama (or Mexico) is
almost tantamout to moving from the East Coast to the West Coast 50 years ago.
And the Internet, Skype, and satellite television make it easy for people to stay
in touch with the homeland. ‘While people are looking for something new,
they're not giving up their citizenship,’ says Adams, who prefers the word
relocation to emigration. "I can't imagine living in the American rat
race, even though I love Ameri-ca. I wouldn't leave here. I'm at the top of my
game."
Most who move feel that American attitudes and education prepare them well
for a successful life abroad. "I think perseverance is a distinctly
American quality."
It may not be much of a stretch to say that today one of America's
strongest exports is its skilled, energetic, and often idealistic relocators.
If America's
information-driven economy is the engine of globalization, it is fitting that
Americans are working in those parts of the world that are being transformed by
the process. They make up an entrepreneurial "peace corps"—establishing
businesses, employing, instructing, setting examples, and often currying
goodwill. It is a cliché, but still largely true, that many foreigners say that
they distrust America
but like Americans. These relocators have something to do with this.
And America
itself is also learning something from those Americans abroad. "We're
developing a breed of Americans who won't find it easy to go back home,"
says Adams, stating a truth that is not as
negative as it sounds. Two Americans who exemplify that breed are Coley and
Allison Hudgins, a couple with backgrounds in political and corporate
consulting who now live in a small Pacific coast community about two hours from
Panama City.
She and a partner run a small short-term rental agency, while he and an
associate head Latin American Venture Partners, locating investors for assorted
building proj-ects in the country.
Escaping "sameness." Doing most of their work out
of their condo, the Hudginses have two young children whose education at a
local Spanish-language Catholic school is supplemented with materials that
their mother downloads from the Internet. Describing themselves as
libertarians, the Hudginses went abroad out of discontent, not with American
politics but with a dull sameness they found in American suburban life. Even
though there have been challenges, both are quick to say that the rewards far
outweigh the difficulties. In addition to valuing the warm weather, the idyllic
setting, a close family life, and a busy social schedule, both are clearly
invigorated by days that that are demanding but not stressful in a culture that
blends the modern and the traditional in a comfortable way. They appreciate the
irony that American know-how and technology (largely the Internet) make it
possible for them to enjoy what is in many ways a very un-American lifestyle.
But they are doubtful whether they can go home again. "We may decide to
pack up and move on one day," Allison says. "But it's more likely
that we'd find some new port of call than move back to the States."
Source: excerpted from US
News & World Report