Red Pen Edit: The New Yorker on Americans fleeing Trump
It isn't just blogs making dishonest claims
Last May, I wrote a post titled, “Articles about Americans moving to Europe are not on the level.” The gist was that there are countless articles about Americans moving to Europe and loving it. What goes left unsaid, or buried in the middle of the article, is usually one of two things. Either 1) stories about Americans moving abroad cover Americans who have close familial ties to another country, and thus have a reason for moving there other than wanting to leave the US, or 2) the leavers are still dependent on the American economy. They are using an American income but paying European prices to inflate their wealth. People can live where they want, but it’s dishonest and mildly hypocritical to not mention this supposedly bad place you left is funding your adventures abroad, and your lifestyle wouldn’t be possible without said bad place’s economy.
Loyal Econ Soapbox reader Jim Wall had a good comment on that initial post:
Fair call-out, though let’s look at these articles for what they really are: not an actual comparison to use for decision-making, just a cheap way to get your clicks.
Better yet, let’s not look at them at all.
Fair enough. I linked to outlets like Business Insider, which isn’t exactly the pinnacle of journalism, to make my point. I believe Jim’s argument is that these are just clickbait pieces without any real quality control, so they should be ignored. Probably good advice…
…But then I came across an article in a recent issue of the New Yorker. “How to Leave the U.S.A.” by Atossa Araxia Abrahamian discusses how, “In the wake of President Trump’s reëlection, the number of aggrieved Americans seeking a new life abroad appears to be rising. The Netherlands offers one way out.” This piqued my interest. The New Yorker, in my opinion, is the top outlet for long-form journalism in the world. The writing is the best. The fact checking, legendary. The magazine does have a strong leftward bias, but its pieces are generally well-reasoned and informative. I knew, unlike many blog posts, the New Yorker wouldn’t talk about how happy all these Americans were living abroad without discussing their income. So, how were all these American expats doing abroad? Below in block quotes are excerpts from the New Yorker article, with my comments below.
On an overcast Saturday in September, a group of travellers gathered for dinner at Jopenkerk, a brewery inside a converted church in the Dutch city of Haarlem. They’d come from Texas, Iowa, and Pennsylvania, and they planned to spend the next week visiting the Netherlands. The purpose of their trip was neither business nor pleasure. These Americans were there because they wanted out of the U.S.A.
Unlike many other articles about Americans moving abroad, which usually focus on those moving to Southern Europe to take advantage of the lower cost of living, this article only looks at those considering the Netherlands. Since the 1950s, Americans have been able to get what’s known as a DAFT (Dutch-American Friendship Treaty) visa. The DAFT visa allows Americans to move their business overseas to the Netherlands, bring along a spouse and children, and even get citizenship after only five years. I’m surprised I’d never heard of this before. What an amazing way to move to Europe.
Inflation had also made it hard to save money, and the couple’s economic prospects seemed uncertain. Even though she was making six figures working for a large bank, things felt tight. Debi and Bane worried about retirement. They sold blood plasma to pad their bank accounts.
“The American Dream is something you’re told about to make you part of a system that clearly doesn’t work anymore,” Bane said during one of our conversations. “I want to be where the government cares about you and takes care of you and is you.” [emphasis in original]
I mean… if you’re making six figures and have no kids at home and money is tight it’s because you are bad with money.
As for Bane, I think he completely misunderstands what the American dream is. The American dream is that if you work hard, smart, and honestly, you will be successful. We can argue over whether America is living up to that promise, but the American dream is certainly not having a government that “cares about you and takes care of you and is you.” If that’s what you want, I highly recommend not living in the US. The whole approach to life sounds terrible to me. But hey, different strokes for different folks.
Next, Abrahamian (the author of the New Yorker article) raises the same complaint I had: people aren’t enjoying Europe because it’s foreign, they’re enjoying it because it allows them to be wealthier:
This ever-proliferating content often glosses over bureaucracy, crime, and the fact that Westerners tend to sequester themselves in spaces that locals can’t afford. Anywhere must be cheaper—and less stressful—than America is today. A recent survey by the Harris Poll, a research firm, found that nearly half of its respondents had considered leaving the U.S., citing politics and the cost of living as their main factors. There’s a historical irony to these responses. Americans are looking to emigrate for the same reasons that immigrants once came to America—for safety, economic security, better opportunities, and an over-all sense that their families would have a better future.
Yet even this still misses the obvious point. If Americans are relying on the American economy while living abroad, then America is still providing that better future.
The article next discusses Jana Sanchez and Bethany Quinn, two Americans who moved to Europe and started Get The Fuck Out (G.T.F.O.) Tours, a company that helps Americans relocate across the pond:
[Sanchez] describes her role with G.T.F.O. as an “escaping-fascism doula” and seemed a little hurt when I said I wasn’t making plans to leave the States. “Nobody thinks their great-grandparents left Germany too early,” she and Quinn reminded me on several occasions.
I’m sorry, what? Both the owners of this company are seriously comparing the Trump Administration’s policy to the literal Holocaust. I’m glad Abrahamian mentions it, but this needs a follow-up. Is this just a business owner using scare tactics to sell a few more tours, or do these two people really believe the Trump administration is going to systematically torture and murder millions of American citizens?
The other G.T.F.O. employee is also not totally in contact with reality:
An American musician in his fifties named Jeffrey Scott Pearson served as our guide. He’d left the U.S. back in 2017; not long after his move, he had a heart attack. “I was in the hospital for two, three weeks, and as an American I wondered what that would cost me,” he said, rolling up his left sleeve to reveal a long, skinny scar from where his surgeon had taken a blood vessel to graft. “But, when the bill came back, it was three hundred and twelve euros—and all of it was for parking and the pizza I ordered from the commissary.”
He added, “Even with health insurance, in the U.S., it would have cost me thirty-five thousand dollars.”
Actually no. There are a few exceptions that Americans can go out of their way to find, but any ACA-compliant health plan in the US has an out-of-pocket maximum. For an individual, the out-of-pocket max is $9,200. A hefty chunk of change, but nowhere near $35,000.
More on healthcare:
The Americans nodded in sober recognition. They all had conditions to manage—asthma, A.D.H.D., rheumatoid arthritis, various injuries—and had found medical care expensive and hard to navigate. According to a Harris poll, thirty-eight per cent of those surveyed cited health care as a reason for considering a move abroad.
Oh boy. Almost most of the tourists in this article are veterans. They are in for a world of pain (pun intended) if they think Europe is going to offer them better care than their VA benefits. Wait times to see doctors in Europe often reach months, sometimes over a year. There’s a reason you don’t hear much about Americans moving abroad for better healthcare. If you can afford it, and veterans can, it’s some of the best in the world.
Rita and Chris aren’t ideological. They like Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren’s economic positions but would have been O.K. with a Republican such as Mitt Romney or the late John McCain in office. They weren’t planning to leave during Trump’s first term, either. “Trump Derangement Syndrome” this is not. Rather, Rita and Chris have come to understand their experience as U.S. citizens as a form of moral injury, or the distress a person feels after witnessing an event that transgresses one’s deeply held values. Chris already struggled to square his own sense of what was right with the orders he received in Iraq, where the war is estimated to have killed more than two hundred thousand civilians.
Actually, this looks exactly like Trump Derangement Syndrome. You’re talking about an organization that repeatedly insinuates Trump is going to start a second Holocaust.
There’s also something Abrahamian at least mentions but mostly neglects: the Netherlands is not a friendly place to all immigrants. In fact, some of the discourse surrounding immigrants would be extreme even by American standards. Sure the Dutch welcome Westerners, but that openness does not extend to everyone. Consider the most famous (and infamous) Dutch politician, Geert Wilders. Mr. Wilders is a right-wing populist widely known for his hatred of Islam. He has advocated the banning of the Koran, referred to the Prophet Muhammad as “the devil”, and proposed a “head rag tax” on Muslim women who wear a Hijab. This is all disgusting behavior, and it would be easy to dismiss Geert Wilders as a gadfly or fringe crank. Many Dutch did for years, right up until his party came in first during the 2023 general election.
Amazingly, during the G.T.F.O. tour, a bystander points out to Sanchez, the company owner, that the Netherlands has many of the same problems as the US. Rather than engaging, she engages in a textbook case of whataboutism and says at least the right-wingers in the Netherlands aren’t religious. uh-huh.
G.T.F.O.’s participants are not refugees in the traditional sense—at least, not yet. None were in immediate danger. They could move to Vermont, Massachusetts, or California. They’d all thought about changing states, of course, but had concluded it wasn’t enough. These decisions, I think, say more about the U.S. than they do about the people making them.
No, it says more about the people making the decisions. That’s why millions of Americans move between states every year and this tour group only has five people in it. No American is a refugee in any sense, and it’s insulting to real refugees to make the comparison.
Finally, let’s address my main complaint about articles that pretend Americans moving abroad are doing so either solely or almost solely because of “push” factors (reasons to go) rather than “pull” factors (reasons to come). In reality, most Americans covered in these articles either have a strong pull factor or are using the American economy to fund their stay abroad. This article is no different. Let’s run down the list:
Debi: Income source not disclosed.
Bane: Will work remotely for American clients.
Sanjay: Income source not disclosed.
Jana Sanchez: Married to a Dutchman. Owns company that gives tours to Americans.
Bethany Quinn: Owns company that gives tours to Americans.
Rita: Saved large amounts of money while working in America.
Chris: Saved large amounts of money while working in America.
Jeffrey: Works for company that gives tours to Americans.
Other Chris: Provides transportation for Americans moving to Europe.
James: Works for psychology practice that treats Americans living abroad.
Itz Sky (YouTube nom de guerre): Works for an American TV network.
There isn’t a single American in the entire article who isn’t dependent, either currently, formerly, or via customers, on the American economy. Again, I want to stress there isn’t anything wrong with moving abroad and continuing to rely on America to fund your lifestyle. Those with pensions have earned it. I think G.T.F.O.’s Tours is innovative. It just needs to be loud and clear that all these people are still relying on a country so bad they moved 3,000 miles away, and this bad country is continuing to fund their international adventures.
Again, Abrahamian’s central claim:
There’s a historical irony to these responses. Americans are looking to emigrate for the same reasons that immigrants once came to America—for safety, economic security, better opportunities, and an over-all sense that their families would have a better future.
The reality isn’t ironic at all. There’s nothing new about Americans moving to cheaper countries while relying on American incomes. For over a century, Americans have moved to Europe to stretch their dollar further. An entire cohort of American writers moved to Paris in the first half of the 20th century for this reason. They are leveraging America’s economic strength to live a wealthier life abroad. Nothing more.