Michelle Call, 53, has lived since 1998 in the United States, where she raised her children. But since the re-election of President Donald Trump, she has made the decision to return with her family to her hometown of Littleborough, about thirty kilometers from Manchester, in the United Kingdom. Like this mother, thousands of Americans ask themselves the question of expatriating, after the conservative’s accession to the White House. Mother of a transgender child, she had made the choice, during Donald Trump’s first term, to stay to “fight” against policies stigmatizing transidentity. “But this time, we felt that we had to leave,” she said, quoted by the British daily The Independent. In January 2025, Donald Trump said that the United States would only recognize “two sexes, male and female”, defined at birth, and adopted a series of decrees complicating administrative procedures for transgender people. With her husband Lewis, they want to sell their house in the New Mexico to start a new life, across the Atlantic.
The Call family is not the only one to dream of elsewhere: many Americans disappointed with the result of the presidential elections in November 2024 are looking to expatriate. A few hours after the poll, research on Google “where and how to emigrate” had exploded in the United States. Supporting this trend, many articles published in the American press offer rankings of the best countries in which to move.
Mexico, Canada and United Kingdom in mind
Among the privileged destinations are those where the American community is historically present: Mexico (nearly 1.2 million expatriates), Canada (more than 1 million) and the United Kingdom (320,000). According to the British interior office, quoted by the Financial TimesLondon is experiencing a naturalization request record: “More than 6,100 American citizens’ files were submitted last year, the most important figure since the creation of registers, twenty years ago”.
It is also “26 % more than in 2023 […]. Requests increased in the last quarter of 2024, up 40 % compared to the previous year “. Beyond the Trump factor, the recent tax reform of non-resident status in the United Kingdom (which exempts income from perceived abroad) seems to have encouraged a category of rich Americans to emigrate. also jumped 46 % over a year.
Despite this craze, however, it is not said that all of these expatriation projects are materializing. This is not the first time that the subject has arisen after an election: “such an interest was noticed during the re -election of George W. Bush in 2004, the election of Joe Biden in 2020 and the first election of Trump in 2016”, explains the Washington Post.
But only a small part of these emigration candidates had finally taken the plunge. “Expatriate can be complicated and expensive. Reasons for which many Americans opt for a digital nomad visa in order to live temporarily abroad, while working at a distance,” explains the daily.