Expatriate lifestyle researchers at Expatsi published the results of their Expatsi Test for 2023, following two years of data collection from Americans who wish to move abroad. United States passport holders can take part in a survey that suggests ten suitable countries at its conclusion, based on participants’ input.
The past year’s statistics indicate that couples and families drive this exodus, with two-person and three-person groups making up the majority of migrators.
The diagnostic also uses parameters to measure other variables, such as professional status and the preferred method for reaching one’s chosen nation. Furthermore, the assessment was upgraded last year to include a connection between budget and motivation — very few people are choosing Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries, instead opting for cheaper alternatives.
Economic Relations
The Institute of Labor Economics (Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit — IZA) published international brain-drain rates in the world’s wealthiest economies and found that the number of foreign-born residents in OECD countries tripled between 1960 and 2010. The data shows a correlation between economic development in developing countries and the number of foreigners leaving. In the years since 2010, the level of migration to Western Europe and North America has jumped to tenuous levels.
Migration into America continues to grow, especially since President Biden’s election in 2020 — the past three years’ figures are unprecedented. The U.S. population absorbed migration across the Mexican border at record highs since its lowest rate of recorded encounters in April 2020, according to the Pew Research Center.
Fleeing the Nest
Now, American professionals are leaving America in record numbers to choose alternate lifestyles, and although data is murky, this trend shows no sign of slowing down. An October 2023 Wall Street Journal and Norc poll asked Americans whether they still believed the mantra “If you work hard, you’ll get ahead.” The response was negative: 45% of people admitted it “once held true but not anymore,” while 18% said it “never held true.”
The Brain Drain in Reverse?
The United States is a country still famous for enticing the world’s best professionals with handsome living standards and remuneration. However, it has also seen the outflux in the opposite direction double since the 2008 financial crisis, says The Economist; and the post-COVID-19 global reset makes living abroad accessible for the expanding digital nomad field. What makes people want to leave the world’s largest economy?
The Birth of a New Dream
While economic woe may be the expected prime reason for departure, Expatsi test responses reflect a more personal trend. The chief catalyst is “adventure and personal growth.” Maybe we are not witnessing the death of the American Dream but the birth of a new one, transported to other countries.
Third-Culture Kids
Steve, an associate principal at an international school, embodies this principle. He left America almost two decades ago to pursue an English-teaching career in South Korea. “I visited Europe in 2001 and decided I wanted to explore the world. Teaching was, at first, a means to that end,” says the Maryland-born educator. “Now I’m married, with third-culture kids, and I can’t see myself living in the U.S. or Korea long term.”
Steve currently lives in Casablanca, Morocco, with his South Korean wife and two children who were born in his wife’s home nation. His family’s next destination, following six years in Vietnam and two years in North Africa, is Colombia. He and his partner both signed new teaching contracts, and his children will receive a free private education as per most international school agreements — benefits inaccessible to them in the United States.
Choosing Foreign Soil
The international teaching circuit is an attractive method for young teaching graduates, former professionals, and older parents looking to see the world without the pressures of raising children. A recent Business Insider profile story uncovers another perspective on why some choose foreign soil over their American homeland.
Harley Smith writes that teaching in Shanghai, China, motivates her to stay abroad and says she cannot see herself returning. Her observations depict healthier, happier students, more respect for educators than in America, and seldom school campus violence — a contrast to many U.S. inner-city realities, including her own experiences. “When a car backfired next to my school building,” she says of her Chinese environment, “I was the only person who jumped in fear.”
Freedom, Division, and Conservatism
The subsequent reasons chosen in the Expatsi survey are political, with a need for “more or different freedoms” gaining almost 50% support. At the same time, questions about America’s division and conservative values have the next-most bearing on people’s plans to leave. America’s society has never been more divided, according to a 2023 YouGov poll that found 65% of U.S. residents believed the country was “more divided than usual.”
The Post-Pandemic Squeeze
Perhaps a surprise is how finance wasn’t the top scoring criterion, even though the post-pandemic wallet squeeze on living costs such as food, prescription medication, and utility bills is equally significant to political or societal influences. The much-documented rise in American living expenses continues to sting its middle and working classes, with inflation pushing many to dire straits.
Outrageous Expenses
Graham is a Ph.D. student and full-time associate director at an inner-city language school in Rhode Island. He lived abroad for over eight years and moved back to the States in 2020 for family reasons, though he sometimes regrets the decision. “My electricity bill in one month over winter was seven hundred fifty dollars,” Graham says. “I live alone in a two-bedroom condo — I can’t imagine what a poor family is going through right now.”
The Left-Leaning Exodus
Other less symbolic factors behind the foreign clime-seeking cohort include education, foreign family matters, or other work-related reasons. At the end of the scale, with less than 10% popularity, is America’s liberal nature. There is a “The U.S. is too liberal” question which scored lowest of all, showing that among those planning to vacate one day, liberals make up the largest portion of the demographic.
