The urge to escape
I understand wanting to defect from the US in the wake of the election. But may I offer a few words of caution?
If media reports are to be believed, there has been a flurry of Americans applying for passports and making plans to move abroad in the wake of the election. I cannot blame them. I too would want to flee a regime that fails to consider women, the LGBTQ+ community, and immigrants to be human beings.
But before you leap from the shores of our troubled homeland, I offer a few cautions. The social media posts of tourists in Europe often romanticize this continent as the source of all things cultured and civilized. Traveling in a country, however, is a very different beast from actually living in it and navigating its bureaucracies, education systems, and politics.
Let’s start with France, which Americans often dream of as a promised land of exquisite pastries, wine, cheese, art, and beautiful ruins. These are the things tourists photograph and extol. And these things indeed exist here. It is a beautiful and diverse country, with extraordinary art. I am also deeply grateful for the free healthcare I receive here, no small thing.
Yet it’s no promised land. For example: One aspect tourists fail to note is how hostile the country has become to both Jews and Muslims.
Anti-semitism and Islamaphobia are both on the rise. In 2023, antisemitic attacks quadrupled in France. There were 1,676 anti-Semitic incidents last year compared to 436 in 2022. Many of those occurred in schools.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/20/world/europe/french-election-antisemitism-jews.html
Muslims are also targeted. At least half of the Muslim population in the European Union has faced discrimination and hatred. Here’s a few articles on Islamophobia both France and the EU for those of you interested:
https://time.com/5918657/frances-muslim-citizens-republican-values/
https://www.aljazeera.com/podcasts/2022/10/27/why-is-islamophobia-on-the-rise-in-france
There are plenty of other aspects of life in France that foreigners may want to take into account before moving here. If you have children, make sure you thoroughly investigate the French educational system. If you’re okay with rote learning, tyrannical teachers, and a complete lack of sports , school plays, and creativity in schools, then by all means, bienvenue.
And let’s not forget the paperwork! The labyrinthine French bureaucracy has a well-deserved reputation for impenetrability. But pretty much any country you choose to move to will require a mountain of documents. And not all of them will let you in. Acquiring residency in a foreign country is not something easily achieved on a whim.
Okay, let’s move on from France. Maybe you’re thinking of the Netherlands, renowned for its liberal attitude toward sex and drugs?
The far-right party of Geert Wilders, who longs to seal the country’s borders and to ban the Quran, won more seats in the country’s recent election than any other party. New Prime Minister Dick Schoof, the country’s former spy chief, is politically independent, but much about him remains unknown. Marjolein Faber, the new migration minister, is “most famous for referencing the “great replacement theory” in a speech—the the claim promoted by the Nazis and carried forward by white supremacists that there is a conspiracy to replace Europe’s white population.” (quote from the Politico story linked below)
This is the country that has been keeping my friend Kawkab in a refugee camp for the last two and a half years, separated from her children and family.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cd1r0xvn0z5o
Thinking of Austria? The country’s hard-right Freedom Party won a majority in September’s elections. Among its aspirations are kicking out immigrants, ending sanctions of Russia, and denying support to Ukraine. Party leader Herbert Kickl has supported conspiracy theories around fake covid cures. The good news is that the Freedom Party needed a coalition with other parties in order to govern, and the other parties have refused to work with them. Three other parties are instead working on forming a coalition to exclude the far-right party (this is a developing story). However, this does not detract from the dismaying news that so many Austrians voted for Kickl and his views. These people could be your neighbors.
Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany party won the September state elections in Thuringia, the first far-right party to do so since the Nazi era. The party leader in Thuringia, Björn Höcke, has been convicted of speaking Nazi slogans in public. As a result of recent elections, Chancellor Olaf Scholz governing coalition has collapsed and a confidence vote is planned for January.
The far-right has also been rising in Italy, where Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s conservative coalition rules. That said, Sardinia is offering homes to fleeing Americans for a mere $1! Italians are worried about their population declining. https://www.forbes.com/sites/laurabegleybloom/2024/11/20/leave-the-us-a-village-in-italy-is-selling-homes-for-1-to-americans-who-want-to-escape/
I could go on, but I think you get the idea. Every country has its drawbacks. Europe is not the paradise many Americans imagine it to be. It might be better, in the end, to simply to make the country in which you live a better place, to continue to fight for the survival of the human race, for our natural world, for women, for immigrants, for people of all colors and sexualities. Do you really want to leave the last remaining unspoiled mountains, forests, grasslands, and rivers in the hands of the Trumpies, who will happily sacrifice the future of our species by drilling for oil and fracking and wreaking all manner of destruction? I’d feel better if some of you were still standing guard. Not that this is about me!
Standing guard is no small task, as you all know. I absolutely support anyone trying to flee, particularly those in imminent danger (immigrants, gays, people with vaginas). Or if you need an abortion. This year, France became the first country to enshrine abortion rights in its constitution. It wasn’t even controversial, with the vote in parliament 780 to 72, with those who voted against the amendment saying they did so only because they didn’t think it necessary in a country that believes in reproductive freedom and bodily autonomy. Abortion is free here, with some 93 percent of French people supporting abortion rights. So. Bright lights remain here abroad!
Those of you still wanting out, here’s a useful New York Times story on how some Americans have escaped. Note that many already had dual citizenship or were entitled through ancestry to passports of other countries, had a ton of money, or a job that allowed them freedom of movement. The list of people the Times includes feels like a list of pretty privileged people. But hey, maybe that’s you too!
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/09/06/realestate/american-voters-leave-us-politics.html
I promise I’m not writing this to discourage you. You know what is best for you. This is just a friendly public service announcement suggesting that some due diligence is in order before deciding on a new homeland.
Bon courage! Send me a postcard from your new home.
I would largely echo what you say here, Jennifer. I don't regret leaving the US decades ago to live in France, which in the end proved to be a generous country to me. But sometimes when I hear Americans say they want to chuck it all and live in Europe, I have to bite my tongue. (Because I'm thinking: what makes you blithely assume another country wants to take you in?) It can be the expression of a privileged attitude, divorced from the realities you describe. I'm not being dismissive in any way of the real problems and persecutions faced by Americans, either. But if you're not wealthy, if you actually have to go out and earn a living, it takes more than an attitude, or more than being deserving. It's complicated.
Thinking of you during this next round of chemo...
Best,
Charles
Correction: The German elections mentioned above were state elections, in Thuringia. The AfD did secure the largest share of votes in Thuringia. Björn Höcke is the leader in Thuringia, not nationally. I apologize for my error.