FLASH
Shkruar nga Pamfleti
Goodbye to the American dream! More and more people want to leave the US. Young women in particular are drawn to abroad, and their destinations are surprising...
A country that has attracted millions of people from around the world since its founding is currently experiencing a historic turning point. For generations, the United States of America (USA) has been considered the ultimate destination: a place where dreams come true, where hard work is rewarded, and where a better life can be built. But that legend is being shattered. More and more people want to leave the country.
What is particularly striking is that they are not drawn to the usual immigration destinations like Canada or Australia, nor to the sunny metropolises of Southern Europe. A growing number of American citizens are choosing places that have long been overshadowed by the glamour of Western Europe.
Historic wave of emigration
For a long time, the idea of permanently leaving the U.S. was largely a small-time phenomenon. But the data shows that it has become a serious social movement. According to a Gallup poll from 2025, one in five people would leave the country permanently if given the chance. The trend is even more striking among young women: 40 percent of American women ages 15 to 44 say they want to emigrate, four times more than in 2014, when the figure was about 10 percent.
The increase began in earnest in 2016 and has intensified since then under both Republican and Democratic administrations. Gallup has thus recorded the largest gender gap ever in this data set: a 21 percentage point difference between young men (19 percent) and young women (40 percent) who want to leave the country. No other country in the world has ever recorded such a large gap in this age group in the history of the Gallup World Poll.
Jessica Grose, a columnist for the New York Times, surveyed readers in early 2026 who were considering leaving the U.S., and one theme clearly dominated the responses: gun violence. In 2024, there were 503 mass shootings in the U.S., according to data from the Gun Violence Archive. Other drivers of the exodus include rising living costs, political polarization, and the Trump administration’s erosion of rights for women, immigrants, and LGBTQ+ people. Many describe their move not only as a political statement but also as a kind of personal liberation, from debt, from overwork, from societal pressures.
Romania, Poland and Albania are becoming the new home for frustrated Americans
While France, Italy, Spain and Portugal remain popular with Americans, experts are noticing a significant increase in inquiries about countries that were previously not on their radar. Romania, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Poland, Albania and Estonia are increasingly coming into the spotlight.
Jean-Francois Harvey, managing partner of a leading immigration law firm, told CNN that inquiries from the U.S. about these non-standard destinations have exploded: from one to two a month a year and a half ago to ten to 12 a week today. "People are doing their homework," Harvey said. "In the last few months, we've had people contact us who have already done their research. They have their family tree, they find documents in the archives, and then they ask: 'Is it realistic to claim my Romanian or Hungarian ancestry?'"
The issue of ancestry plays a central role indeed. Countries like Hungary, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Latvia, and Lithuania allow descent claims without generational restrictions. Applications related to ancestors and beyond are regularly approved. While traditional destination countries like Portugal and France are tightening their immigration laws, parts of Eastern Europe are opening up with tax incentives and simplified citizenship regulations.
New York couple swaps 90-hour workweek for Transylvanian mountain forests
One of these immigrants is Antoni Scarano, 34. He was adopted as a newborn in the 1990s by an American family. Decades later, he reconnected with his biological family in Romania, including his mother, siblings and grandmother, through a Facebook group. In 2019, he and his wife, Samantha, traveled there for the first time. "We really connected and it felt like we were picking up right where we left off all those years ago," he told CNN.
In May 2024, the two finally settled in a small village in Sibiu County, in the heart of Transylvania, far from the 60- to 90-hour workweeks that their jobs in New York required.
"It's idyllic, with mountains, ancient forests, churches, a truly magical place with its own unique energy," Scarano says of his new home. /Adapted from Pamphlet /
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