Move Abroad Search Interest Surges

However, I'm not moving to Spain for purely political reasons

I was looking for an introduction to this post. So I went for a walk to flesh things out.

Then—by happenstance—one of our founding members (she paid once and never has to pay again) sent me an article about a company that helps Americans move abroad. Thanks, Patti!

And it looks like business is good for these guys—

A CNBC analysis of U.S. Google search data shows a spike in users searching for terms related to “how to move to X country” beginning in mid-June. Interest swelled following the first 2024 presidential debate between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump on June 27.

It’s been “a crazy week” for Jen Barnett, co-founder of Expatsi, who says traffic to the site is up 800% since the debate.

Americans’ interest in visa applications to move and work abroad tend to pick up after big political moments, Masha Sutherlin, head of immigration at the global HR and payroll company Deel, previously told CNBC Make It.

“You’re seeing some folks in the U.S. saying, ‘I don’t want to be in this environment, and I have choices to go to other places,’” she says. “Pair that with the digital nomad lifestyle and the abundance of digital nomad visas, and that opens up an entirely new scheme of working for Americans.”

Based on everything I see happening, there’s definitely a dual trend of people—

• saying they want to and, maybe, exploring the possibility of moving abroad, and

• people actually moving abroad.

Of course, as we surface scratched the other day, this type of talk and—in some cases—action only intensifies as the likelihood of Trump winning the presidency increases.

And, as we discussed the other day, don’t fool yourself. If you move abroad for political reasons, you’re merely running from a political environment you have a lived history with to one that, while it might check all of your boxes, you don’t have the same or any history with.

To act as if you must flee America for political reasons is something more than an insult to people trapped in sociopolitical environments that are dangerously oppressive.

This said—I am not downplaying the shitty sociopolitical state of the United States. It blows. By the same token, I don’t blame you if—for example—you decided to leave the UK after Brexit. In both cases, I am and would have been right there with you. However, if the only thing wrong with my home country was the sociopolitical environment, I’d have a difficult time making the argument that moving to Canada or Spain cures all ills.

It simply doesn’t.

Again, it’s merely a case of skin in the game.

If you don’t like the far right, they’ll be waiting for you throughout Europe. The same and similar culture wars we’re seeing in the United States—really tugs of war—are ebbing and flowing all around the world, particularly on the European continent. Yes, they ebb and flow. It just so happens that right now they’re ebbing.

That said—I have not lost sight of the fact that things like universal healthcare, abortion, day care, parental leave and LGBTQ rights are—inherently—political issues. In some cases, I am intimately touched by these issues as an American—and, more so—as a parent of a soon-to-be 21-year old young woman.

However, as much as I love the fact that countries such as Spain have managed to be way more progressive on the above and other issues, I could stay in the United States and continue with a good life amid our backwardness. My daughter is arguably more passionate about these things than I am and, for now, she’s staying and says she has no desire to leave. If she can stick it out, there’s no question in my mind that I could.

If you see it differently, I probably get it. There’s a better than zero chance that you’re more intimately touched or directly impacted by one or more American sociopolitical ills than I am. This reality—your reality—might be all you need to move.

Rational. Perfectly rational.

And, because you’re rational and smart like that, you’re likely not putting yourself on the same plane as a refugee who will do anything to leave a war-torn nation.

Ultimately—and quite sadly—it’s all relative. Just because somebody somewhere has it worse than you doesn’t mean you shouldn’t seek and seize opportunity to improve your life.

This and that said—for me, there’s more behind the decision.

In something kinda like particular order, I am moving abroad because—

• I want a lifestyle where I don’t have to drive a car.

• I want to live in a dense, walkable urban environment.

• I want to see better overall urban planning and old, interesting architecture, everyday, in every way and everywhere I go.

• I can’t afford these things—long-term—in the best examples of the above in America.

• Even if I could afford it, I’m fooling myself if I make myself believe that the best examples of urbanism in America can even hold a candle to most European counterparts.

• This move could benefit my daughter and Melisse’s daughter now and in the future in more ways than one.

• I want to challenge myself as I pass through mid-life. Crossword puzzles, books and working in retirement won’t do it for me. I’ll wilt away. I need big challenges such as navigating foreign bureaucracy, learning a new language and integrating into a new culture as an immigrant.

And, yeah, I think the sociopolitcal environment in the United States blows and isn’t getting any better.

Spain has its problems. I am trying to learn more about them most days of the week, using the exercise to improve my language skills. But I can’t claim a Spaniard’s problems or political positions as my own. At least not yet. And probably never.

We’ll see what happens.

Maybe this is sort of messed up of me. You tell me.

But I am happy to go to a place where I—though this obviously isn’t entirely true—only see the good sociopolitically. Where the bad—probably due to what I tried to articulate the other day and in this article—doesn’t hit quite as hard or in the same way.

I kind of want to put my head in the sand for a little while and merely enjoy life without as much knowledge of the social and political ins and outs of the place where I will hang my hat. I want to learn about them pretty much from scratch—slowly, but surely, as an adult with no real formative history—and take it from there.

By the way, I often say to Melisse that sometimes I use ‘we’ and sometimes I use ‘I’ when I write about the move.

We tend to agree on most things about the move. So I often use ‘we’ on my own or after checking with her. However, in some cases, I go with ‘I’—especially on charged issues—because I don’t want to speak for her if she’s not seeing or feeling it precisely the same way.

To that end, we are planning to talk about what Melisse’s transition to Spain will look like, as it will be meaningfully different than mine. We’re just equal parts procrastinating and thinking of the best way to present it. But, don’t worry, it’s coming!

Oh. And the food. Especially the most basic food. It’s so much better in Spain!