Part 1: The myth that Americans can just move abroad for a better life

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A common meme in the U.S. media is that Americans can easily pack up and move to any country, usually Europe.

Reality check: unless you fit into specific categories, you cannot easily move to Europe – or to most any other country.

Only those with the right skills, or who are young (and have the right skills) or are elite, or who have an immigration privilege by birth, ancestry, or marriage can readily move elsewhere.

In the real world, few Americans move overseas. Obtaining a residency visa or citizenship in most countries is difficult or impossible unless you have special skills or the right ancestry.

Contrary to numerous media stories about Americans moving abroad, only about 1% of U.S. retirees move abroad (and many do so because they had right of descent immigration privilege or were already a dual citizen), and few working Americans move abroad permanently. At any given time, perhaps 2-3% of Americans are living abroad. No one knows the exact number as Americans moving out are not counted or registered anywhere.

Continue on to Part 2 after reading this.

In these two posts (this is Part 1, plus Part 2 – this series has been extended to Part 3 and Part 4) I practice factulness and review recent stories on CNN, CNBC and Business Insider about Americans “who moved abroad”.

Most of these articles can be summarized as:

  • America is awful.
  • So this couple moved to country X.
  • Where everything is idyllic.
  • In 2 out of 3 stories, the Americans had immigration privileges that you probably do not have.

About 1/3d of the subjects were already pre-existing dual citizens or had a right of descent ancestry privilege (recent ancestor was a citizen of the country) – or, in another 1/3d of stories, the subject is an attractive, well educated, young American woman, typically working as a writer or content creator, who married a foreigner (marriage is the single largest category accounting for about one-third of all U.S. emigrants – and 90% of those in the stories are young women).

Those with immigration privilege can move abroad – most of the rest of us cannot do so or can only do so under limited circumstances. That is the truth.

About this list and how it came to be and updated for so long– I had a lot of downtime in 2023 and 2024 due to injuries. In late 2022, I twisted my ankle and unknowingly broke a bone and tore a tendon. I thought it was my usual sprained ankle. It would start to get better and then boom – massive pain and a few months healing again. In the fall of 2023, the injuries escalated – including a hip injury and a 2nd torn tendon in the ankle which would take months to heal (was in constant pain). By early 2024, the hip injury turned into 5 months of painful hip bursitis (update – continued into late 2025), and the foot just kept hurting. I was unable to do much of anything – even walking on the level was difficult.

At that point, I was referred to a podiatrist who discovered the past fracture, and that the 2022 tendon tear never fully re-attached to the bone. All this down time led to knee problems (past sports injuries and osteoarthritis) to the point I basically could not walk. 5 months of podiatry treatment and physical therapy have got me back to walking a few miles each day and gradually rebuilding strength in the hip and the tendons. Anyway, with a lot of down time, unable to do much, I’ve spent a lot of time reading and updating pages like this on on this blog. There wasn’t a lot else I could do – for more than a year.

Thus, I created this series – Part 1 through Part 4 – as an annotated bibliography summarizing the “I moved abroad stories” that appeared in my news feeds (Google, News.Yahoo.com, MSN Start, mostly).

How Did They Get a Residency Visa?

Many, if not most of the pop media stories about moving abroad leave out details of how the subject of the story obtained a residency visa.

Researching those who appear in the stories, here’s what typically happens.

  • Some do not have residency visas and commute to and from the U.S. – they have not really moved abroad, in spite of the media spin.
  • Many had prior dual citizenship due to where they were born
  • Many married a foreigner, and through marriage, were able to obtain residency or citizenship
  • Many had a right of descent via ancestry or other immigration privilege. Basically, they have an ancestor from a country that provides immigration privileges to offspring. For example, my wife’s Dad was born in Canada and due to Canada’s revised immigration laws, she can apply for and obtain “right of descent” citizenship even though she was born in the U.S.
  • Some moved abroad via a work visa, and then often end up with marriage and permanent residency afterward.
  • In Part 2 is a summary and chart showing what types of visas were used by those who moved abroad – about 2/3ds were by marriage, prior dual citizenship, or right of descent ancestry. Most are not regular Americans who packed up and moved abroad.

Bottom line – most of those who moved abroad permanently had an immigration privilege that you likely do not have: They had prior dual citizenship, or a right of descent privilege, or they married someone. Unless you fall into those 3 categories, most of you will not be able to move abroad.

I also collected a small number of stories of those who emigrated to America. My interest in both the emigrants and immigrants is how they qualified for residency or citizenship in their destination country.

There are places where Americans with large passive incomes or the ability to make a large investment in the local economy, can purchase a residency visa – but most of those featured in these fluffy click-bait stories had immigration privileges or they commute to and from the U.S. and have not moved full time.

In many of these “we moved abroad” stories, one or both parties are writers. This is because it’s a white collar job that can be done remotely, and partly because writers mostly know about writing and so, write stories about other writers (seriously) – literally writing about their own lifestyle.

Rarely, one or both work in paper pushing services – legal services, marketing, travel consultant, software development – or are independently wealthy.

None are blue collar workers who build things. None have been engineers. A small number have been academic scientists who took a academic or research position abroad. Positions that most of you will not qualify for.

I began collecting these stories in the summer of 2023 – and what an eye opener. Almost all stories follow the same formula – “America is awful, so this solo woman/couple/family moved to country X where everything is better, even idyllic!”

A second oddity, made obvious in Part 2, is most stories feature a solo woman traveler (who is a writer, often of European-American or European heritage), or Black or Asian (including but not limited to Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Thai), Hispanic, Indigenous heritage, gay and lesbian couples, and a small number of trad-families. After summarizing 350+ stories, almost all involve solo women travelers, plus a handful of gay and lesbian couples and several transgender individuals.

Only a handful involve straight white male solo travelers; this group does not exist in the pop media stories about moving abroad! (The media knows this too: Solo travel: Almost no male solo travelers – Coldstreams Travel and Global Thinking)

With that out of the way, here are short summaries – and where possible, some comments on how they obtained a residency visa.

Categories

Identified as

  • Individual
  • Family or couple (not gay)
  • Gay or lesbian
  • Single female (not gay)
  • Single male (not gay)
  • BIPOC
  • White (I tagged some as white in Part 2, to distinguish from BIPOC)

Story subjects can be in more than one category. If the story began as a single person who eventually married, this is indicated as, for example, “Single female -> marriage” to distinguish from a “family” moved abroad.

CNN: This American family opened a restaurant in Italy | CNN

VISA: Dual citizenship

Category: Family

Dalip, who is originally from the UK but has lived in the US for nearly 30 years, was able to obtain Italian residency (the sale went through before Brexit was finalized), which would allow the family to stay in Italy for extended periods of time.

One of the two already had EU citizenship via UK citizenship when the UK was part of the EU. They still live in the U.S. and visit Italy on a part time basis because they do not all have long term stay visas. Details matter!

CNN: This family is moving to Italy because they’ve had enough of the US | CNN

Visa: None yet, but will be right of descent ancestry

Category: Family

Starts off with the headline – America is awful!!!!!

But details matter – she has Italian ancestry which, if they can document it, may make her eligible for Italian citizenship. In the interim, they haven’t really moved to Italy – they go part time, due to the 90 day visa limit restriction.

“But one American family has done it to start a new life far from the United States.

In 2019, the Dawkins family – Nadine, 59, her husband, Kim, 61, and their children Lorenzo, 29, and DeNae, 27 – bought a charming home in the town of Latronico. In the southern region of Basilicata, the town of 4,000 inhabitants is located within the pristine Pollino National Park and surrounded by hot springs.”

Nadine’s great-great grandfather was from Italy and due to Italy’s expansive “right of descent” program, she may qualify for citizenship. For now, the couple are abiding by the maximum of 90 days out of 180 days that a U.S. citizen can stay in the EU, and are splitting their time with their home …. in Panama. Panama is one of very few countries that encourage Americans to move there: Panama introduces attractive retiree visa program for immigration – Coldstreams Travel and Global Thinking

CNN: This couple bought a rundown farmhouse in Portugal. Here’s what happened next | CNN

Visa: Dual citizenship, marriage

Category: Gay couple

They were originally looking for a vacation home, but Alan Andrew, originally from Pennsylvania, and his Belgian husband Vincent Proost found themselves relocating to Portugal full time after purchasing an abandoned farmhouse in the region of Alentejo.

The couple, who met on a blind date in London in 2006, had been living in the UK together for around two decades when they began searching for a new home in Europe.

They had immigration privilege that you probably do not have since one already had EU citizenship.

Insider: Family Moved From US to Portugal so Kids Could Be Safer in School

Visa: D7 passive income visa

Category: Family

America is awful, so this family moved to Portugal. You can find out more about him (he’s from Chile) and her here. NOTE – the story in Insider is a bit misleading, saying “the family” had only ever lived in Austin, which may be true – but her own web page says she had lived in both Mexico and Chile, previously, and he was born in and grew up in Chile. She did extensive global travels before this. They have a Portugal D7 visa which requires a minimum passive income (pensions, investments, etc, not income from working).

CNN: This family bought a cheap house in Italy because the US is too expensive

Visa: Tourist visa, but eventually right of descent

Category: Family

Right out the starting gate: America is awful!!!!!

The headline and first part of this story imply anyone fed up in the U.S. can move to Europe. But the reality is that visas are hard to get – unless you have immigration privilege:

Being able to reconnect with his Italian heritage was also a trigger for change for Chris, whose great-grandfather migrated to the US at the end of the 1800s from a village near Latronico.

Once that ancestry is documented and Chris learns Italian, he will qualify for Italian citizenship.

But for now, they don’t have visas:

He’s recently embarked on a search to prove his Basilicata origins, with the help of Castellano, in order to apply for Italian citizenship by descent.

They acknowledge that they thought they could get long term stay visas easily but discovered – after buying a house – that they could not do that, so for now, they live in both the U.S. and Italy, commuting back and forth to avoid exceeding the 90-day limit in the EU.

CNN: “This US couple bought a house in France for $36,000 and it completely changed their lives“

Visa: Tourist visa, does not have residency visas

Category: Family

They retired in their 50s, and bought a house in France. But their visa limits them to 180 days per year in France, so they commute between their other home in California and France. They also “both spent time in France during their younger years” – and since 95% of their new friends are French, they likely spoke French already. Just your everyday American couple. But again – reality check – they do not have residency visas and their domicile of residence is California.

CNN: They bought a house in France for $20,000 without seeing it. Here’s what happened

Visa: “long stay” 12-month visa

Category: Family

Practically the same story as all the others: They still have their homes in California and New York. She had extensive experience traveling in France, for decades, before they chose to move to France using a “long stay” visa. A long-stay visa for the purpose of retiring in France requires you demonstrate sufficient assets – the more assets and passive income you have, the greater the chances of having your 12 month visa approved. Once settled in France, after one year you can apply for a residency permit.

The story headline is also FALSE – US$20,000 was the original asking price, but they paid about US$14,000.

A comment to that story is SPOT ON:

Once again we have aspirational nonsense short on critical details for people who are not wealthy. Many countries to which Americans are trying to escape now see them as a source of hard currency, and there are minimum requirements for liquid assets and other impediments that CNN and similar outfits should mention in these articles. Some countries such as New Zealand are making it impossible for people with less than a $1 million in income to live there as permanent residents, and there are also age requirements, meaning that if you’re not filthy rich and/or young you can forget it.

The comment is true and correct, a point the media misinformation complex always omits.

CNN: ‘My money goes a lot further here’: This woman moved to Italy because the US was too expensive“

Visa: Elective Residency Visa (via having sufficient assets)

Category: Single Female

As always, the U.S. is an awful country, says CNN. She has an Elective Residence Visa, good for 1 year, but renewable for 2 years. This visa is available to those who have purchased a home in Italy, or have a long term lease agreement, and are not working but are self supporting, financially (such as a retiree). As the link explains, this visa is for those with a stable passive income, or a retirement pension. This visa does not permit remote work but opens access to benefits of living in Italy including their health care system. After ten years, the visa holder can apply for citizenship. The woman who did this has visited Italy frequently since the 1980s.

Note that her “money goes a lot further” due to the strong U.S. dollar and currency conversions. Americans who make their money in the U.S. economy and in dollars find everything cheaper in many countries – most things are not really less expensive in the local currency and at local wages. It’s the currency exchange that makes these options cheaper for Americans.

CNN: “Italy’s Ponza island and its cave homes are drawing Americans to live in them“

Visa: Right of descent ancestry

Category: Family

This story has only limited U.S. bashing, unlike others about Americans “fleeing” the U.S. A family that is descended from recent immigrants from Italy, has returned to ancestor owned properties in Italy. They have traveled between the U.S. and Italy for many years. Obviously, they have right of descent residency or dual citizenship in Italy.

CNN: Two strangers moved into an apartment in Prague. Then they fell in love | CNN

Visa: EU citizen, marriage

Category: Single Female -> family

Another fluffy romance story but without the America-bashing. Young woman from Texas moves to Prague to teach an English class, falls in love with her Finnish roommate, and a few years later, they get married and move to Helsinki. Anyone can do this, of course. Marriage to a European resolved the immigration visa problem. Of course, her degree is in communications/media (journalism aka writer) and she works as an online “community manager” which is a blend of marketing and …. writing.

The above article, like most on CNN, is written by Francesca Street, CNN’s UK based romance writer (all of her stories are 15-20 page romance short stories) – always told from the woman’s point of view. All she writes is romance stories – every story is literally the same romantic nonsense.

CNN: These Los Angeles-based lawyers renovated a 16th-century Tuscan farmhouse into a luxury villa. Here’s how they did it | CNN

Visa: Right of descent ancestry

Category: Gay, Family

He has right of descent citizenship immigration privilege in Italy: “For Scali, whose grandfather is originally from Reggio Calabria in Italy, the idea to buy a property in his family’s homeland had been percolating for a while….. But in early 2020, the pandemic put a dent in their plans, since Lewis — who was not an Italian citizen — wasn’t allowed to enter” the country to join Scali, who in 2019 was granted citizenship through his family (i.e. right of descent via ancestry). This is also one of the many stories that involve a gay couple.

CNBC: Why Americans are relocating to Mexico City for a better life (cnbc.com)

Visa: Unknown

Category: Single female

America is awful – everything is better in Mexico.

When Aborisade lived in Texas, she had a 3,623-square-foot house and a $2,612-a-month mortgage. Rent for her 861-square-foot apartment in Mexico City’s Narvarte neighborhood costs 13,000 pesos a month, or about $728.

At the time of this writing, there are numerous very nice, luxury 2-4 bedroom apartments available in Austin, TX for less than $900. Leaving the U.S. for a smaller apartment in Mexico is not the only way to reduce housing costs in the U.S.! She could have just downsized in the U.S.!

Now in Mexico she says she is no longer fixated on “having stuff”. It’s possible to reach that same point in the U.S., and I get what she is saying – the week I wrote this was the insanely promoted Amazon Prime Days, matched by other vendors, pushing you to acquire stuff you probably don’t really need. The U.S. culture pushes many to buy over-sized homes, large SUVs, and the latest “stuff”, which needs to be upgraded to the next model, every year. The U.S. has a consumerism culture that acquires excess stuff – where I used to live, on Saturday, garage doors would be open, while people were home, and often, those garages were stuffed with junk stored on shelves and in stacked boxes – because people had acquired so much stuff and couldn’t bear to part with it.

There is an issue about Americans, who have money (one of the examples in the article is someone day trading investments) to live in lower cost parts of the world – an opportunity that most of the world does not itself have, to move somewhere cheaper. A side effect of Americans and Europeans moving to less expensive countries (in terms of the US $ or the Euro) is to drive up the costs of living in these countries, making life more difficult for those who are natives of the country.

Historically, it has been relatively easy for Americans to obtain virtual residency in Mexico via a renewable temporary visa. However, in 2022, the rules changed and it is now up to the discretion of the border and immigration officials as to whether they will approve or deny one’s stay.

CNN: Why this US couple swapped California for Spain | CNN

Visa: Dual citizenship

Category: Family

America is awful. This couple visited Spain, fell in love with the country over two days and decided to move there because, you know, everyone does that – never mind this little fact:

As Luban has dual US-German citizenship, he didn’t need a visa to live in Spain. However, Medlen was required to obtain a residence permit.

Everyone in America can pack up and move to Europe because everyone in America has dual citizenship or right of descent ancestry or married a citizen of the destination country – didn’t you know that?

Business Insider: Disillusioned by the American Dream, I Bought a House in Italy (businessinsider.com)

Visa: Potentially dual citizenship, but likely a work visa for now

Category: Single female

The subject of the story was born outside the U.S. and began traveling when young. Italy is a popular destination, in part, because Italy’s fertility rate has collapsed and the population is shrinking. Italy is actively recruiting young adults to immigrate to Italy and makes residency easy for many, plus Italy has a generous “right of descent” immigration program that enables people to qualify for citizenship by virtue of having an ancestor born in Italy from the late 19th century onward.

Business Insider left out that the young woman has a law degree and now runs a business assisting in purchasing homes in the EU (good for her!) Many countries, and especially Italy, actively seek inbound immigrants who are young, with advanced degrees or specialized “in demand” training (think health care)

Business Insider: I moved from the US to Germany 11 years ago. A lot of things have surprised me about living here with my kids. (msn.com)

Visa: Married an EU citizen

Category: Single female -> marriage

America is awful, unsafe, healthcare is expensive, blah blah blah. She moved to Germany. As usual, she is a freelance writer (isn’t everyone?) and oh, left out of her many stories on this and related topics – from the U.S., she attended NYU but married a Czech (EU citizen) husband, giving her visa options in Europe. Details matter.

CNN: What it’s like to be an American living in Paris (msn.com)

Visa: Dual citizenship

Category: Single female -> marriage

Of course she could move there, just like everyone else from the U.S.: “Already a Polish (and therefore European Union) passport-holder, Dietz had easy entry into France, and then received her residency by marrying her Italian [boyfriend].”

and: “For Tramuta, swapping Philadelphia for Paris wasn’t so much following a dream as a natural progression. Having studied French from the age of 12, at 21, she crossed the Atlantic to study there. A student visa allowed her to stay until she met and married her French husband, becoming a naturalized citizen in 2014.”

and: ““I didn’t know how to [move back to Paris] on my own, so I married a man with a French passport, had kids and only moved when my husband’s company finally transferred him here,” she says.”

Immigration privilege that you probably do not have.

CNBC: 30 year old teacher packs up and moves to Denmark for a better life

Visa: Marriage to an EU citizen

Category: Single female -> marriage

30-year-old American teacher moved to Denmark and pays $2,100/month for this luxury apartment—look inside (cnbc.com)

America is a terrible country – Denmark is way better. The general meme of all these fluff pieces. Oddly, she had a privileged life in the U.S., attended Vanderbilt University, and did a study abroad in Denmark in college. After working her first year in the U.S., as a teacher, she took advantage of having 3 month vacation privilege (just like everyone in the U.S. has!) and traveled in Denmark. There, she met her future husband – who happens to be (surprise!) Danish. She had immigration privileges most do not have. This is not journalism, but content mill garbage lifted from her social media posts.

CNBC runs the same story multiple times, often over many years:

There was yet another version of this story – you too should move to Denmark but it now goes to a dead link: ‘You pay a lot of tax, but you get so much back’: This Texas native says she’s ‘much happier’ living in Copenhagen than in Dallas — here’s why cost of living isn’t everything.

Like many of these stories, a highly privileged American leaves the U.S. and then bashes the U.S. – hypocritically bashing the country that gave her this privilege.

CNN recycles old stories too – this one, below, is republished on Thanksgiving 2023 – but was originally published on Thanksgiving 2021: A British guy crashed her Thanksgiving dinner. They’ve been married for 20 years | CNN. Its not an America-is-awful story, surprisingly. He works for the UN, they’ve lived in Australia, Cyprus, New York, Denmark, now Berlin, Germany, and who knows where else. She’s a writer. A common attribute.

CNBC: Mom who left US for Denmark: Why tipping is different here (cnbc.com)

Visa: Married to an EU citizen

Category: Single female -> marriage

Another writer moved to Denmark, from Los Angeles. She’s married to a native of Denmark. Duh.

Brooke Black is a storyteller with a journalism degree who has had a long career in entertainment and tech PR. After many years spent in New York, London, and Los Angeles, she relocated to the idyllic Danish countryside, where she lived in a 1722 farmhouse in a tight-knit community surrounded by Scottish Highland cows. She currently resides in Copenhagen with her Danish husband and two young daughters, and shares about her experiences living abroad on Instagram and TikTok.

Yes, you too can pack up and move to Denmark – assuming you marry a Dane. She’s happy to pay 48% of her income in taxes (says so right in the story).

And she’s back with the same story, again: Insider: I’m an American living in Denmark. Kids learn to read and write later than in the US because there’s more emphasis on playtime.

America is awful, so she just packed up and moved to Denmark. Oh, wait, she had immigration privilege: “We packed two weeks’ worth of things and went to visit my husband’s family in Denmark.”

CNN: This US couple sold their house and moved to Italy for good | CNN

Visa: Right of descent ancestry

Category: Family

Italy’s right of descent: “Randy Tuminello, a former consulting manager in architecture, had a further ancestry lure: his grandparents migrated to the US from the Sicilian fishing village of Cefalù in the early 1900s, settling in Louisiana.” (so he has right of descent access to Italy). They currently use an “elective residence visa” based on meeting passive income requirements.

Insider: I left the US to move to Vienna, the world’s most livable city. Living here has been delightful and filled with surprises.

Visa: Dual citizenship

Category: Single female

America is awful, blah blah blah. Rent is cheaper, they have lots of cafes, public transport is better, lots of cultural events…. and like so many of these folkx, she’s a writer, poet and Yoga teacher. How did she get an EU residency visa? That is not explained. However, from Linkedin, she has native language proficiency in Polish. Her parents immigrated to the U.S. from Poland and she was born in the U.S., but as a child of a Polish parent, regardless of where born, she was entitled to Polish citizenship. More here – growing up she spent six weeks every summer in Poland. It seems highly likely she has dual US/Polish citizenship, which grants full right to live anywhere in the EU. This seems an important fact for a story suggesting everyone should move to Vienna. (She appears again in Part 2.)

Oh, and again in April 2024: I moved from the US to Vienna, the world’s most livable city. Here’s what it actually costs me to live here. – once again, the story leaves out that she has dual citizenship in the EU.

CNBC: 41-year-old mom bought a house in Italy for $62,000 (cnbc.com)

Visa: Unknown

Category: Single female, family

Everything in the U.S. was awful so she flew to Sicily, fell in love with the place and moved there. Except not exactly. Like many of these stories, she commutes back and forth between Atlanta and Sicily and visits at least every 3 months. She now runs a business selling loose leaf teas; like most of these stories, her background was originally with a degree in journalism/content/writing but she ventured out into entrepreneurial businesses.

CNBC: This former NYC teacher moved to Mexico to live on $2,000 a month (cnbc.com)

Visa: Unknown

Category: Single male

He was a teacher, where he taught poetry writing, before moving to Mexico. He now works as a stock day trader. Of course, he left because America is awful. They ran parts of this story twice on CNBC.

CNN: Miami got too expensive so she moved to Colombia | CNN

Visa: Digital nomad visa, then investment visa

Category: Single female

America is awful, so a 60-year-old moved from Miami to Columbia – she arrived on a 90-day tourist visa but then applied for a Digital Nomad visa which she received. She went ahead and applied for an investment visa, which enables those with financial resources (about US $160,000) to make an investment (including in real estate so buying a place to live counts) in the local economy. She was already fluent in Spanish and had been visiting Columbia on business, regularly for the prior 8 years. She was a former Peace Corps volunteer, living in Costa Rica for almost 3 years. She is of Italian-American ancestry and likely qualifies for Italian citizenship privilege as well, but she was already fluent in Spanish owing to her Peace Corps experience when she was in her mid-20s.

Daily Mail: I left ‘aggressive’ Miami for a country notorious for crime and drug issues – and I’ve never been happier (msn.com)

Same person, same story as the CNN story above. She has a publicist, obviously. (Original link here)

CNN: This US-based couple bought a cheap apartment in France to give their kids a different upbringing | CNN

Visa: Visitor visa, not permanent residency. If under 35, and because he’s from Canada, he may have been able to get a Youth Mobility Visa.

Category: Family

But, as usual, they were already international: “Eric Freeze, originally from Canada, and his wife Rixa, from the US, spent several summers in the region as part of a study abroad program when they were in their 20s, and always felt a strong attachment to Nice.” and they are only there temporarily because VISAs: “…the couple, who have visitor visas and do not work in France, had worked out a routine that saw the family spend seven months of the year in France and five in their US base near Indianapolis in Indiana.” He’s a tenured professor of writing and she has a PhD in American Studies/history. They seem to have employment options and flexibility most others lack. But again note, like all these stories, it’s the writers who move overseas and assume that everyone else can do this too.

Insider: I left the US to move to a charming French town sight unseen. It was the best decision I’ve ever made.

Visa: None yet, but she is eligible for EU citizenship by right of descent

Category: Single female

Except they do not yet have permanent residency visas. And surprise – she is a writer (aren’t they all?) BS journalism, MA Special Education, MS Journalism (Northwestern University). She is fluent in Polish (her parents were immigrants from Poland which qualifies her for EU citizenship) and has traveled all over the world, having visited over 30 countries.

CNN: This US woman traveled to Paris over 20 years ago and ended up staying for good | CNN

Visa: Married an EU citizen

Category: Single female -> marriage

Pretty American woman, who had traveled to France, twice, including a yearlong study abroad for her International MBA, which led to an internship in France, then fell in love and married a Frenchman (hence, immigration privilege to then live in France full time and now eligible to apply for citizenship). Also the usual, France is wonderful and America sucks. Surprisingly, she is not a writer but runs a real estate re-location business to help others move internationally.

Insider: We moved to Mexico from Texas and have never been happier. We’re saving $2,000 a month and can even afford to go to the dentist.

Visa: Unknown

Category: Family

America is a terrible, awful, disgusting country. They’ve taken out $200,000 in student loans for degrees in social media. Hmmmm. And spent $10,000 on their wedding.

Another version of the story: Moving to Mexico From the US: This Couple Is Happier, Healthier, and Richer (businessinsider.com)

Robb Report: Americans Are Taking Advantage of the Strong Dollar and Moving Abroad – Robb Report

Visa: Residency by investment

That story is about the ultra-rich moving overseas. With sufficient funds, you can buy your way to residency and even citizenship in some countries.

21 Ninety: Op-Ed: Why I Don’t Plan to Raise My Black Children in the US

Visa: She moved to the UK. Visa is unknown.

Category: Single female, family

America is awful, with gun violence and racism, and is oppressive – says she will be leaving for someplace else. The author has a BA in government and politics and works in writing/journalism. Not clear how she and her family will get residency visas elsewhere unless they already have unstated immigration privilege. Update: 7 months later, as of May 2024, she is now working in the UK (visa unknown).

WSJ: Retiring in Cornwall, England: Two Minnesotan Expats’ Perspective – WSJ

Visa: Used old UK immigration category that is no longer available

Category: Gay, Lesbian, family

Another one of those “we found paradise” stories, by moving overseas. But – you can’t do this: “We were lucky enough to fit into a narrow British immigration category (now closed) that allowed us to stay.” A writer, semi-retired, of course.

Insider: We moved to Canada from the US to start fresh. It’s not perfect, but it seems like they’re trying to make our lives better.

Visa unknown.

Category: Gay, family couple

The usual: America is awful, so this gay couple moved to Canada.

CNN: This [American] couple bought and renovated a 14th-century Italian home | CNN

Visa: Tourist.

Category: Family

They commute to and from Italy as they only have a 90 day visa.

CNN: ‘We bought a cheap Italian home and added an elevator’ | CNN

Typical Americans. He’s got a PhD in finance and previously worked in Europe. He now works remotely as a senior economist. Does not disclose where he did his undergraduate work (which can indicate earlier country of residence.)

Insider: I’m an American Who Moved to Canada, Here’s Why I’m Not Moving Back (insider.com)

Visa: Likely via marriage.

Category: Single female -> marriage

… cause America is awful, as usual. And she’s a writer. And seems there was a romantic relationship involved to get the visa.

Insider: The Most Surprising Things About Moving From the US to the UK (insider.com)

Visa: Unknown

Category: Single female

Of course, she’s a writer – and America is stunningly awful. Blah blah blah. Apparently everyone with a humanities degree working as a writer hates America.

Insider: American Who Moved to Paris Finds It More Affordable Than She Expected (businessinsider.com)

Visa: Work-based visa.

Category: Single female

Her Mom was a French language teacher, she had been visiting France since age 11, she did a study abroad in France, did a college minor in French also did a work internship in Paris. She works in marketing, at a French company that needed a native English speaker to help with marketing programs to Americans, which means she has a work-related visa. Seems a legitimate story, not involving immigration privileges such as dual citizenship or right of descent ancestry – but a lot of advance work in French language and French cultural experiences prior to her move. Like many content creators, she runs a TikTok channel – salaries are low but France is wonderful, America is too expensive, etc.

Opinion: Right now, I’d rather raise my child in Taiwan than America. I’m not the only one (yahoo.com)

Visa: Dual citizen

Category: Family, BIPOC

Her parents were immigrants from Taiwan to the U.S.; while she was born in the U.S., under the Taiwan Nationality Law, she is automatically a Taiwan citizen. And indeed is a dual citizen. She also previously lived and worked in southeast Asia. Thus, she had immigration privilege that you probably do not have. The rest of the story is the usual – she works as a writer and bashes America because the U.S. is the worst country in world history. Sigh. The story is predictable and full of bull shit.

Insider: Surprising Things About Moving to Madrid As an American (insider.com)

Visa: Work visa

Category: Single female

Surprise – America is pretty awful!

After graduating college, I moved to Madrid, Spain, to teach English and decided to stay long-term.
I couldn’t believe how accessible public transport is, and I loved the culture of eating long meals.
I was happy to feel accepted and safe as a queer person in Madrid.

Madrid is wonderful. The author had attended the private Kingswood Oxford School ($41,600 to $48,000 per year), and private Wesleyan College (at about $40,000/year in non-subsidized prices and then moved to Madrid. She now works for CIEE College Study Abroad, out of Madrid. She apparently had a privileged upbringing – it seems a lot of young people with privileged upbringings in the U.S., think the U.S. is an awful place.

Her access to a residency visa was presumably through her CIEE job, but the visa is not explained.

CNBC: 28-year-old in Norway who gets 5 weeks PTO on wellbeing and work (cnbc.com)

Visa: Is already a citizen of Norway

Category: Single female

This story is weird, bashes America for not having benefits as generous as oil rich Norway – the subject is portrayed as an American. She’s not: she is, in fact, Norwegian. And this is the second time they’ve run a story on her: How a Norway 28-year-old prepares for required 3-week summer vacation (cnbc.com) (which also implies she is an American). While she is not a writer, per se, she is a social media manager who does social media marketing. Neither story mentions she is a native Norwegian – but uses her as a hook to bash America. Of course. America is awful, worst country in the world, as always. The story does not mention that it is extremely difficult for Americans to move to Norway for residency or citizenship, and immigration is primarily limited to young with the right skills, or by marriage. (Note – I am part Norwegian, – Jeg snakke litt Norsk – and have been to Norway but I would not qualify for a residency visa except through investment. One survey ranks Norway as the 52nd most difficult country to move to, out of 53 countries. Details matter.)

Insider: We Moved to Texas From France. It’s Pricier but Lacks a ‘Small-Town’ Feel.

Visa: Marriage to EU citizen

Category: Single male, Family

This story is the reverse – American marries a French woman and they lived in France, for years, then they moved to Texas. Has some of the usual, America is too expensive, weird culture issues, blah blah. But not as bad as the above. But note the immigration privilege – there was marriage involved.

Insider: I moved back to the US when I was 14. After years of living abroad, it was a culture shock to come back

Visa: Unknown.

Category: Single female

Living an exquisitely privileged life, she went to private international schools in Japan and Luxembourg, before her family returned to the U.S. for her to start public high school. Abroad, she took field trips to other countries, had multi-cultural teachers and fellow students from countries all over the world. She was so much better educated and smarter than American students, that AP courses in her U.S. high school were her only salvation. America is an awful place for privileged elite like herself. Today she is a globally educated story teller who travels the world as an activist, telling other people what to do. Another writer and an elitist.

Insider: I went to school in the US and in Spain. My learning felt stagnant in the US, but my social life was fun. (msn.com)

Visa: Unknown, grew up in Spain for 8 years.

Category: Single female

U.S. schools are terrible, blah blah blah – and of course, what does she do for a living? She’s a writer. Getting the perspective that writers only write about themselves, and when they need to get quotes, they call other people who are writers and reporters.

My family lived in Spain from the time I was 6 years old until I was 14. My brothers and I went to an international school in Madrid that followed a British curriculum. The K-12 school had a total of 300 students, which meant my entire grade comprised 22 people.

When my family moved back to the US, I started my freshman year of high school. My school outside Atlanta had about 2,000 students at the time, and I had almost 600 in my graduating class.

Business Insider really thinks America Sucks – it’s all Henry Blodgett Publishes?

Henry Blodgett was accused of financial fraud and settled with a ban for life from working again in the financial industry. He founded Business Insider and is still it’s Publisher. Just saw this group of stories on Insider – apparently Blodgett likes bashing the U.S.

Insider: We moved from the US to Sweden. After-school care was basically free, but my kid barely learned any math.

Visa: Work visa

Category: family

Oops. After idolizing Scandinavia and moving to Sweden, family discovers school was not up to expected standards of educational achievement for kids – and they moved back to the U.S. Oops – how did this article get published? Oh, he’s a writer. Said they moved because of his wife’s work, but the visa scenario is not explained.

CNN: She broke up with her boyfriend and moved in with a man she’d known for 3 weeks. Here’s what happened | CNN

Visa: Dual residency or citizenship

Category: Single female -> marriage

As usual, she’s an author and freelance writer, originally from Belgium. They are almost always writers, sometimes teachers, sometimes both. He has an MS in computer science but now works occasional, unrelated, random jobs. She apparently has a residency visa/work permit or dual citizenship in the U.S. but that is not explained. Not connected to physical location jobs, they travel. Suspect there were prior stock options involved.

And a publicist – this story was handled through a friend who is a publicist (the Erin Carey tagged in the comments).

Insider: I left Russia and moved to Florida. These were the 5 biggest culture shocks.

Visa: Highly Talented visa, at first, then via marriage

Category: Single female -> marriage

She is Russian and applied for a O-1 visa (highly talented visa), then met her future husband, who has a Ph.D. and was already teaching at Florida State University and had residency. She got residency through marriage to him (he is also from Russia), and then began studying for a Ph.D. in psychology at FSU and founded a data consulting business. Her husband has since left FSU and now works for Amazon.

After 11 years abroad, Canadian explains why she moved back | Canada (dailyhive.com)

Visa: Dual citizenship

Category: Single female -> marriage

As always – she’s a writer who has dual citizenship: “A couple of things also worked in Ivanescu’s favour: she speaks French, and since she has dual citizenship (thanks to her Polish mom), work permits and visas weren’t an issue.” She also studied for a Ph.D. and married a guy from Brazil. Immigration privileges galore.

Insider: People are moving to Canada dreaming of a utopia with free healthcare and more tolerance. But the reality is Canada has its own set of problems. (msn.com)

Heh. Who knew? Everywhere is wonderful, it says in the AP style guide. How did this story get published?

CNBC: 67-year-old American living in Mexico: I’m happily retired—but I regret doing these 3 things in my 20s (cnbc.com)

Visa: Unknown

Category: Single female

Like so many of these stories, the subject is another writer – who also wrote the story. She retired to Mexico. She does not bash the U.S. (but does complain about U.S. living costs in other permutations of this story.) She writes similar stories about her relocation for multiple outlets (all basically the same story) – that is how she makes her living, so it makes sense:

She writes the same story for CNBC month after month. One gets the feeling she is not happy and feels compelled to repeatedly justify her life in Mexico by writing the same story, year after year after year. Has she written anything else in all these years?

It goes on and on:

Mass Media Meme Stories

Only about 1% of Americans retire abroad – yet this constitutes a HUGE part of the media’s click bait stories. A collection of story headlines from MarketWatch, below – none of which mention the reason these countries are affordable is because of the strong U.S. dollar in the local country’s economy. Locals, who earn their income in the local currency, do not do so well. Thus, hypocritical Americans bash America as expensive and generally awful, are, in fact, living their lives based on the success of their American experience and the strong U.S. currency that lets them live like royalty in other countries:

Fox News: Couple left the US in search of American dream and now they are helping others do the same

Visa: Unknown

Category: Family

America is awful …”The new American dream is to leave America” …

Americans living abroad are documenting their new stress-free lifestyles outside the U.S. on social media and explaining why they think the American dream has a new meaning.

“The new American dream is to leave America,” TikToker Andrea Elliott previously told Fox News Digital. “It used to be to stay here, to have a job, to retire when you’re 60, to have a house, to have a family, and now we’re not even able to live.”

Oh, and this little item:

Their main piece of advice to the over 1,000 Americans they’ve helped relocate: have a stream of income coming from the U.S. America is so awful, you need to receive your income from America?

“The key is to have a U.S. based source of income, either Social Security, a pension, some sort of retirement or online income,” Stonestreet said. “That’s what makes it all possible.” 

And of course, one of them has a BA in communications studies and an MA in public relations – ALWAYS A WRITER INVOLVED in these stories. In his background he had started several business and sold at least one for a nice sum.

YouTube: House Hunting in Europe: Seattle Couple Leaves the U.S. to Live Abroad

Visa: Digital Nomad visa

Category: Gay, family

As always, both of them are writers. It’s always writers who take off to other countries. They will settle in Bulgaria for a bit, as “digital nomads”, so the residency visa issue is resolved on a temporary basis. Fortunately, this one avoids the usual “America is awful” – but adds another gay couple to the mix.

CNN: ‘The American dream is to leave America.’ The US TikTokers revealing what life is like abroad | CNN

Visa: Unknown

Category: Single female

America is stunningly awful. Absolutely no one should live in America.

The above begins with the 30-year-old woman who has moved to Italy, where everything is wonderful and she fell in love. These exercises in story telling are romance novels packaged as fake news, providing escapism – similar to the “cottage core” videos on YouTube and TikTok. “Cottage core” is an aesthetic based around an attractive young woman, always with long hair – and usually a shade of blonde, almost always white, living a carefree life in a (typically) small home in the woods, wearing frilly dresses, having beautiful gardens, baking bread, painting pictures and enjoying a calm life in an area resembling a stereotypical English countryside of the 19th century. And like the emigrants to “better countries”, they are usually writers or artists.

“Cottage core” is based on a fantasized, idyllic simplified farm life imagined as it might have been in Europe in the distant past (but with access to fiber Internet, 5G cell phones, 4K video cameras and computers for digital editing – so quaint!)

“Cottage Core — the word “core” basically means enthusiasm — is a daydream of Generation Z, who have lived much of their lives online. This is the contradiction it holds: it promotes dreams of a technology-free world using only technology.“

The wicked truth about Cottage Core – UnHerd

It’s the stuff of flowery prairie dresses and sourdough starters, of hand-dried wildflower arrangements and hand-stitched quilts strewn on antique beds, of handmade pies cooling in open windows with the sun shining in. In an era where just about everybody wishes they had a bucolic getaway, cottagecore brings the stylized movie set dream of a fairytale cottage in some magical woods or an enchanted English countryside meadow to you, wherever you are.

….

What makes cottagecore distinct is that it was born on the internet and largely exists there, far away from the realities of country life.

What Is Cottagecore? A Simple Guide (thespruce.com)

(Much more here from the BBC. Worth reading.)

This genere started before Covid but grew rapidly as a form of escapism during periods of lock downs. Unfortunately, some of these cottage core stories were faked – and some didn’t really live these lifestyles but played the part for TikTok and YouTube. As some have noted, many of these fantasy lifestyle video content creators would not last a full day on a real farm or ranch.

Travel stories have degenerated into the same escapism format, wrapped up as a romance novel, or the ever popular “America is awful but I found heaven in another country”. (The linked item, above, is by a writer, who has native language skills in English and French, and thus, is international, who has bought into the myth that the end of the world is near. Of course. Everything is awful.)

Like all romance novels, you may note from the stories above, these stories all take the following form:

  • a (usually) young woman moved or traveled to another country and fell in love (sometimes it is a gay man or a minority – white guys are only mentioned if part of an older or retired couple.)
  • America is a stunningly awful country
  • Life at the destination country is so much better than in America
  • All your problems would be solved if you too left America for a better future in another country.

Having seen these stories my own perspective has changed. I no longer view America as so awful after seeing how the media is manipulating our perspectives with a constant barrage of negativity and doomerism.

It’s always bad news, and even good news is spun into negativity. The result is an entire generation (Gen Z) addicted to social media sharing and a media that is inundated with nonstop bad news, lacking historical context.

Watching this unfold has changed my views – a lot. I was going down the America is awful path until I saw how I was being manipulated by bull shit media story tellers pretending to be reporters.

Reality: Moving Abroad Requires Immigration Privileges

The real story is some people have immigration privilege – as most of those in the above stories have – and moving abroad ranges from very difficult to impossible for most Americans – a point omitted from all of these creative writing exercises in the media.

Also omitted is that few Americans move abroad. About 1% of retirees (estimates are 0.7% to 1.3%) are living abroad, and 2-3% of Americans are currently living/working abroad at any given time. Perhaps half of those living abroad are on temporary work assignments.

A huge number of these stories are about people who work as – surprise! – writers or sometimes teachers. Writers tend to write about themselves, or about other writers. Their lifestyle is often very different from most people who have to work “regular jobs”. We don’t see, say, truck drivers, construction workers, factory workers, retail workers, and mechanical engineers living nomadic lifestyles (there are some exceptions but it is not common). Because writers mostly write about writers, who do not need to work in fixed locations, these stories present a skewed perspective that anyone can pack up and move off to another country – and live where ever they want.

Further, these fluffy stories are a generic meme of content mill media. The meme pattern is that the U.S. is the worst country in the world in which to live and you will achieve nirvana, if you move to another country.

Continue on to Part 2 after reading this. Lots and lots and lots more examples, particularly of the huge percent who have prior dual citizenship or right of descent ancestry privilege. Most of these meme click bait content mill stories are all the same – and all leave out that the subjects have immigration privileges.

More on immigration privileges here:

Coldstreams Travel and Global Thinking