Have you ever emerged from a weekend, distressed by the negativity of the news taking place in the U.S., and thought: Maybe it’s time to give up on America?
This past weekend we heard about more school closings and hospital shortages due to an ongoing pandemic. We witnessed acrimonious political rhetoric post Jan. 6. and a horrific hostage-taking at a Texas synagogue.
If you occasionally flirt with the idea of running to another country, you are not alone.
Americans are leaving the country or seeking foreign visas in record numbers, according to immigration lawyers and expatriate organizations. In the first six months of 2020, the number of Americans who gave up their citizenship soared to 5,816 — twice the number in all of 2019. But then embassies began to curtail the number of visas and residency permits being issued so many people put relocating on pause.
Living overseas is not a new phenomenon, but more and more Americans are looking to escape. Over the last five months, International Living magazine has seen a 1676 percent surge in traffic on the topic “How to Move Out of the U.S.” New websites and individual countries are offering all kinds of deals for dual citizenship and encouraging diaspora citizens to “come home.”
For some countries, it’s about luring tourism and investment. You can become a citizen of Grenada in just 60 days — if you invest a chunk of money. St. Lucia might make it happen in just two months with a bit of an investment.
Some countries are expressing a renewed desire to get people with ancestral ties to come back. According to Conde Nast, over 50 countries offer some version of citizenship by descent. But the process of obtaining the documents proving family connections can be laborious. The easiest countries to navigate dual citizenship seem to be Ireland, Germany, Poland, Israel, Ghana, India and Italy, but you still must produce tons of documents proving lineage.
Finances also come into play when Americans consider living outside the country. New Zealand sounds wonderful, especially given its low COVID-19 numbers. But it is expensive to get there and live there. There are less expensive options such as Costa Rica, Belize, Portugal and Uruguay. But then you start asking: How are the political, economic and social conditions in these countries? And will I discover it’s no better there than here?
The deeper question is why we feel like running away from America. For some, it is structural racism or anti-Semitism or anti-Asian sentiment. For others it is the sense of living in a parallel universe where issues like masking and vaccination have led to bitter bickering from state to state. Much of it is just fatigue with living in far-from-ordinary times, where moving about is limited, health care is being rationed and public services are diminishing.
But shouldn’t we be resilient enough to just ride out the storm?
Americans have lived through tumultuous times before, including World War I and II, the Vietnam and Korean Wars, 9/11, the 2008 Great Recession and other disruptive eras when conflict, terrorism, recession, oil shortages and other ills plagued us.
So why is this different?
For one, on the pandemic, the spirit of victory is not in sight. There is a lack of confidence that post-COVID life is in reach, although cases are peaking, and we might be coming down the other side of the mountain. But morale is low.
The second issue is that our elected officials seem incapable of bridging divides and intent on tearing people apart. Partisan polarization remains the dominant, seemingly unalterable condition of American politics. According to the Pew Research Center, Republicans and Democrats agree on very little. When they do, it is often in the shared belief that they have little in common and that dividing lines are hardening over race, size of government, taxes and basic concepts of freedom.
Lastly, the economics of America today have created such extremes, leaving a large swath of Americans falling into categories of neither wealth nor poverty but some muddled middle, with the stress of trying to navigate uncertain futures that lack steady income, retirement funds and fears of a bankrupt Social Security system. People are living longer but not necessarily stronger lives.
What can we do to address the problems here and avoid an exodus of Americans to other countries?
It starts with a belief in our neighbors. In most cases, the people who live on your street are worth the effort. If we can’t fix the nation in one fell swoop, let’s start with our block or street. No matter where we move, human beings will be in the equation unless you find a cave or take a space shuttle to the Moon. So why don’t we put aside all the rancor and realize that the world is very small, that we have limited time in it and that we must find a way to live long and well with others.
America needs a reboot. We need to press pause and imagine life without her. Think about Lady Liberty standing in New York Harbor, alone. It is time to rededicate ourselves to fixing the country and healing our wounds. If not, we will lose our country and find that no other one is better.
Tara D. Sonenshine is a former U.S. under-secretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs.