Fed up with U.S. politics, some Californians plan to move abroad

WASHINGTON —  Mykel Dicus, 54, is finished with the United States.

In September, the Hayward, Calif., resident toured Spain with a company that specializes in scouting trips for Americans looking to move abroad. Now he’s pursuing a specialized Spanish visa offered to remote workers, also known as a digital nomad visa, with a goal of moving within three years.

“If a regime like MAGA should win this election, I’m very scared,” he said. “I just feel like it’s time to enjoy a life that’s free from any American worry.”

In the months leading up to this week’s election, some agencies that specialize in helping Americans relocate abroad have noticed a spike in interest. Some clients are ready to leave the country, while others are looking for a contingency plan in case their preferred presidential candidate loses.

In France, for instance, a real estate agency is holding a webinar Thursday titled “Moving to France post U.S. elections.”

Travel YouTube creators have posted videos, such as “Where to move abroad if Kamala Harris wins.”

On a Reddit channel called “AmerExit,” a post from earlier this year titled “If you’re looking to leave because of political reasons, where do you want to go?” got more than 700 replies.

People typically have multiple reasons for wanting to leave the country, including work opportunities, a sense of exploration or lowering the cost of living in retirement.

Global migration agencies say that list increasingly includes escaping U.S. political divisiveness.

One such agency is Henley & Partners, a global firm that helps people obtain residency and citizenship in other countries through investment. Basil Mohr Elzeki, who heads the company’s North American operations, said roughly 80% of American clients are motivated by political issues.

Requests from U.S. nationals have grown since 2020 and interest this year has already exceeded that of 2023, he said, estimating most has come from California residents.

Most people seek residency in countries including Antigua and Barbuda, Portugal, Malta, Greece and Spain.

“They want an option to escape,” said Mohr Elzeki. “Now with the election, people have opinions on both ends, and they’re worried.”

Fewer people who say they want to move actually do, said Amanda Klekowski von Koppenfels, a migration scholar at the University of Kent in Brussels and an expert on Americans living abroad.

In 2016, after Google searches spiked of people wondering how to “move to Canada,” Klekowski von Koppenfels commissioned a survey in which a third of nearly 900 respondents indicated interest in leaving the U.S. She said her follow-up survey in 2019 showed no significant increase in the rate of those wanting to emigrate.

“We interpreted saying, ‘I’m going to leave’ as being an expression of protest rather than of actual migration intention,” she said.

Until recently, Klekowski von Koppenfels thought this election would show the same. But now she feels different.

“Anecdotally, I’ve heard more and more folks talking not just about a Trump administration, but about the divisiveness in the country,” she said.

Marco Permunian, founder of Italian Citizenship Assistance, which helps people obtain Italian citizenship by descent, said he started seeing a surge in interest after the 2016 election. He said he expected that to wane under the Biden administration, but instead has seen a further increase throughout the last four years.

“We came to the conclusion there is a sense of fear in general, and that affects people from both sides of the political spectrum,” said Permunian, whose company has offices in California.

About 5.5 million Americans currently live abroad, according to the nonpartisan Assn. of Americans Resident Overseas. Among the top destinations for American emigrants are Canada, Mexico and the United Kingdom.

The share of U.S. citizens who say they would move abroad if they could has tripled since 1974 to reach 34%, according to a March poll by Monmouth University.

“I’d be willing to bet that the partisan rancor of the past few years has played a significant role in the heightened desire to emigrate,” said Patrick Murray, director of the independent Monmouth University Polling Institute.

Jen Barnett, who founded the company Expatsi with her husband after spending years researching their own move abroad, said web traffic to her site went up 900% after the June debate between President Biden and former President Trump. Biden’s shaky performance spurred calls for him to drop out of the race.

Traffic has climbed again in the last couple of weeks as polls showed Trump leading in some key states, she said.

Barnett, who is from Alabama, said she and her husband started looking elsewhere after Trump became the 2016 Republican nominee. They settled in Mérida, Mexico, earlier this year.

“Just that he could be nominated to me meant that something was irreparably broken, and it wasn’t something we could get back,” she said.

Dicus, who is pursuing a move to Spain, found Barnett’s company through TikTok. Living in Spain feels like a calling, he said. He enjoys European culture, speaks fluent Spanish and, as a gay man, is drawn to Spain’s long-standing support for LGBTQ+ rights.

Regardless of who wins the presidential election, he no longer believes it’s best to remain in the U.S.

“I just want to be where I feel safe,” he said.