A woman identified as Annie packed up her life in the southern United States in autumn 2024, moved to a town outside London, and discovered that dishwashers and dryers are considered luxury items in Britain. She is now planning to move back to the United States in 2027.
She went looking for progressive paradise. She found extortionate train prices and people mocking her accent.
Several Americans who fled the country after Donald Trump's election, convinced that Europe would be the civilized alternative to the horror of republican self-governance were interviewed about their plans to return to America. The results are exactly what every person who has actually visited Europe could have predicted. Annie now pays, in her own words, "huge amounts of taxes and an immigration surcharge" to access Britain's National Health Service — and still describes the quality of care, particularly maternity services, as worse than what her American private insurance provided. "So no," she said, "the health care is not free here."
Annie reported a "high amount of anti-American sentiment" and said "people feel so comfortable mocking my accent and culture." The lower salaries left her with a "lack of disposable income" and what she called a "significantly lower" quality of life than in the United States. This is the woman who left America because she couldn't bear to live under Donald Trump.
Then there's Josh, who moved to Berlin in 2023. He already spoke German. He'd lived there before. If anyone was going to make it work, it was Josh. He couldn't find work. The bureaucracy, he said, had "grown worse." He missed "friendlier people, freedom of speech, and ease of daily life." And the cultural integration he expected never came. "If you aren't born and raised there, and don't look German, you'll never be fully accepted," he said. Once he had some distance from the American political situation, Josh admitted he "felt perhaps I had overreacted."
Perhaps.
Kate Glavan, an influencer who spent her platform posting about left-wing causes, moved from New York to London in late 2024. She announced her return earlier this year. Sarah Wood González, a journalist and consultant, spent three years between Spain and Edinburgh before returning to New York. An unnamed New York art director moved to Poland to escape right-wing populism and discovered — this is the best part — "What is happening in the US is also happening everywhere now."
She moved to Poland. To escape right-wing populism. Poland.
The numbers behind the exodus were real enough. Spain saw American migrants roughly double in the first quarter of 2025. Britain experienced a major surge in residency applications. But the fantasy collapsed on contact with reality. Daniel Di Martino, an economist at the Manhattan Institute who immigrated from Venezuela, put the economics bluntly: the average Greek salary sits near the American poverty line, and the average Dane earns significantly less than the average American.
Every one of these stories follows the same arc. The dramatic announcement. The Instagram posts from European cafes. The quiet realization that "free healthcare" means six-month waits and an immigration surcharge. The discovery that Europeans aren't particularly interested in hearing about American political identity. The sheepish return.
Josh overreacted. Annie found out British trains cost more than American flights. The art director learned that Poland is, in fact, Poland. And somewhere in all of this, 74 million Trump voters went to work, paid their mortgages, and never considered leaving.
The 2016 Toyota Camry in America still beats the train in London. Ask Annie.