Why a growing number of American women say they want to move abroad … because America is horrible, worst country in the worlds, say these mostly wealthy, privileged, educated Americans – not noticing their own contradictions. This was covered previously here: Gallup: 40% of young women want to leave the US permanently
The subjects mentioned in the story come from American privilege:
- Claire Naughton, BA in English Lit at a small private college, study abroad in France, also attended a university in Wellington, NZ. “For the 2025 academic year, the tuition at Kenyon College is approximately $72,220, with the total cost of attendance, including room and board, estimated to be around $87,160. Many students receive financial aid, which can significantly lower the amount they actually pay”
- Jennifer Wonder, Assistant VP at Purdue University, and oddly, attended the same small private college as the person above. On her LinkedIn page, “Exciting news: In 2026, I’ll be moving to Portugal to spend more time with my daughter and explore a more intentional way of living and working.”
- Jeneya Villatoro. She has a D-7 visa which means adequate passive income. She ran a small business and previously worked in insurance and her husband was an electrician. Seems like a nice family.
- Nadia Brown, provides expert commentary to explain why American women are wanting to move abroad. She is Director of the Women’s and Gender Studies Program at Georgetown University.
The media has beaten the America is terrible meme in travel stories for years, and no surprise, the effect of propaganda messaging is to persuade others to adopt someone’s agenda- America is terrible, you should move to where everything is better!
These stories usually focus on moving to Europe, but estimates are that 30-40% of Americans who live abroad live in Mexico or Canada. Just 20+/-% of Americans living abroad are in a European country (including Europe, the UK and Ireland) – but 80% of the “I moved abroad stories” are about someone who moved to Europe. Europe dominates the stories because (a) almost all stories are written by highly educated, young, American female freelance writers with European ancestry, most of whom did a study abroad in Europe, (b) one-third of the stores involve a woman, usually the writer, who married a foreigner, obtained residency or citizenship via marriage, and moved to Europe, or (c) had a familial right of descent ancestry immigration privilege to Europe.
The result is overwhelming media bias about Americans (mostly women) moving abroad and finding romance.
We see media bias about how awful America is, followed by overwhelming media bias about Americans moving abroad – to a mythical Europe – even though most Americans who move abroad, move elsewhere.
The story linked at top says women are wanting to move abroad as their percentage in the workforce has declined – leaving out that the percentage of men in the workforce has declined far more! Blames “politics” for the desire of so many women to leave the United States.
Changes in the US Workforce Over Time
(This data was collected with AI-based search assistance)
An estimated 1.6% of American live abroad – and most who think they are going to move abroad will not be able to do so. In most countries, obtaining a residency visa is difficult.