The Great American Departure Gains Speed During U.S.'s 250th Anniversary

By Stacy M. Brown Senior Global Correspondent

Americans are leaving the United States in record numbers, and the surge is no longer anecdotal as the nation observes its 250th year. European government data show rising residency approvals for U.S. citizens in France, Portugal, and Ireland, while relocation firms report sustained demand driven by political instability, gun violence, healthcare costs, and economic anxiety. “Five years ago, talking about leaving felt dramatic,” said Deidra Henderson, 39, a translator, told the Informer. “Now it feels like a practical conversation.”

The Wall Street Journal reports that more people moved out of the country last year than moved in, the first time that has happened since the Great Depression. The Trump administration has pointed to negative net migration as proof that its deportation push and visa restrictions are working. But the Journal’s reporting identifies another development that has received far less attention. American citizens are leaving in record numbers.

The federal government has not tracked comprehensive exit data since the Eisenhower administration. Still, researchers at the Journal analyzed residence permits, foreign property purchases, university enrollments, and related data from more than 50 countries and found that Americans are relocating abroad at unprecedented levels. Additionally, a growing U.S. diaspora is studying, telecommuting, investing, and retiring overseas.

In Lisbon, Americans are buying so many apartments that new arrivals say they hear more English than Portuguese in some neighborhoods. In Dublin’s Grand Canal Dock district, real estate agents estimate that one of every 15 residents was born in the United States. That share exceeds the percentage of Americans born in Ireland during the 19th century influx following the Potato Famine. In Bali, Colombia, and Thailand, an influx of remote workers paid in U.S. dollars has reportedly driven up housing costs and triggered protests over gentrification.

More than 100,000 American students are now enrolled in foreign universities seeking more affordable degrees. Along the Mexican border, nursing homes catering to U.S. retirees are expanding as seniors look for lower-cost long-term care. Interest continues to surge. Nearly 400 Americans joined a recent conference call hosted by Expatsi, a relocation company, to learn how to move to Albania, according to the Journal. The country offers U.S. citizens a visa that allows them to live and work there for a year without paying taxes on foreign income.

“Previously, the Americans leaving were super-adventurous and well-credentialed,” Expatsi founder Jen Barnett, a 54-year-old Alabama native who moved to Mexico’s Yucatán region in 2024, noted in the report. “Now they’re ordinary people, like me,” Barnett said. Her company organized three scouting trips in 2024 and expects to run 57 this year. “Our goal is to move one million Americans,” she remarked. Some commentators have labeled the trend the “Donald Dash,” citing increased departures during President Trump’s second term. Many said the movement has been building for years, driven by remote work flexibility, rising living costs, and the growing accessibility of life abroad.

For a nation built on arrivals, departures are now reshaping the story. Residency approvals in Portugal have climbed significantly since the pandemic. France continues to process increasing applications from Americans. Ireland has recorded steady gains in U.S. citizens securing Irish passports through ancestry. The trend has been building and accelerating. In the nation’s capital, those numbers translate into real departures. Kimora Swain, 28, a public relations specialist, told the Informer that she has watched colleagues quietly prepare exit plans.

“It’s not about making a political statement,” Swain said. “It’s about stability.” Victor Ayres, 31, an auto mechanic in Northeast, D.C., said the conversations are no longer hypothetical. “People are comparing health care systems and school systems,” Ayres said. “That’s new.” Washingtonian magazine also recently documented the local exodus, with one longtime global-health professional who had lived in D.C. for 50 years—and who declined to give her name—saying she left for Europe in early August.

“Everything about this administration reminds me of what my parents told me about what happened to them in the 1930s in Austria,” she said. The same unnamed resident said, “I love my community, my neighbors, my friends . . . [but] I was filled with terror before I left.”Another District resident — also unnamed in the magazine’s reporting — who relocated to Mexico said, “I honestly don’t think the country today is the country he came to,” referring to her father, who fled Cuba for the United States. Yet while some Americans are heading abroad, the District of Columbia remains one jurisdiction that’s powered by immigrants who are not leaving.

According to a report from the American Immigration Council, immigrants make up 13.8 percent of the District’s population, totaling 93,800 residents. They contribute $2.5 billion in taxes and hold $5.1 billion in spending power. Immigrants account for 16.7 percent of the District’s labor force and represent 20.2 percent of health care and social assistance workers and 13.8 percent of STEM workers. Further, the organization noted that immigrant households earn $7.6 billion and pay $1.6 billion in federal taxes and $886.4 million in state and local taxes. Even undocumented immigrants contribute $194.5 million in taxes and generate $523.1 million in spending power. More than half of immigrants in the District are naturalized citizens.

So as Americans explore exit visas and overseas residency permits, D.C. remains a city where immigrants continue to anchor the economy and workforce. “I don’t hate this country,” Henderson said. “I just want to know it’s going somewhere steady.”