The number seeking to escape violence and political strife in the United States is small but growing
在美国寻求逃离暴力和政治冲突的人数虽少，但在不断增加

Aug 28th 2023 | AMSTERDAM AND LISBON 经济学人

“What i envy you is your liberty,” says Count Valentin de Bellegarde to Christopher Newman, the protagonist of Henry James’s novel “The American”. Rich, self-made and free of class prejudice, Newman moves to Paris for fun, only to be sucked into the intrigues of the French aristocracy. The template still describes one type of American expat: the well-off innocent who comes to Europe for amusement or edification. Another sort, however, comes not to enjoy the old world but to escape the new one. “I didn’t know what would happen to me in France,” said James Baldwin, a black writer, of his decision to emigrate in 1948, “but I knew what would happen to me in New York.”

“我羡慕你的是你的自由，”瓦伦丁·德·贝勒加德伯爵对亨利·詹姆斯的小说《美国人》的主人公克里斯托弗·纽曼说道。纽曼富有、白手起家、没有阶级偏见，他搬到巴黎寻找乐趣，结果却被卷入了法国贵族的阴谋之中。该模板仍然描述了一种类型的美国侨民：来到欧洲寻求娱乐或启蒙的富裕无辜者。然而，另一种人并不是为了享受旧世界，而是为了逃避新世界。 “我不知道我在法国会发生什么，”黑人作家詹姆斯·鲍德温 (James Baldwin) 在谈到 1948 年移民的决定时说道，“但我知道我在纽约会发生什么。”

More Americans are moving to Europe lately, and many are fleers rather than seekers. The statistics are messy: governments have difficulty keeping tabs on foreign residents. But in some countries the trend is clear. In 2013-22 the number of Americans in the Netherlands increased from about 15,500 to 24,000; in Portugal it tripled to almost 10,000; and in Spain it rose from about 20,000 to nearly 34,000. In other places, such as France, Germany and the Nordic countries, the number grew moderately or held steady. Britain thinks the number of resident Americans rose from 137,000 in 2013 to 166,000 in 2021 (the latest estimate).

最近越来越多的美国人移居欧洲，其中许多人是逃亡者而不是寻求者。统计数据很混乱：政府很难密切关注外国居民。但在一些国家，这一趋势很明显。 2013-22 年，在荷兰的美国人数量从约 15,500 人增加到 24,000 人；在葡萄牙，这一数字增加了两倍，达到近 10,000 人；在西班牙，这一数字从约 20,000 人增加到近 34,000 人。在法国、德国和北欧国家等其他地方，这一数字温和增长或保持稳定。英国认为，美国常住人口数量从 2013 年的 137,000 人增加到 2021 年的 166,000 人（最新估计）。

Meanwhile, more and more Americans say they want out of their own country. Few of those who vowed to leave if Donald Trump were elected in 2016 actually did so. But Gallup, a pollster, found in 2018 that the share of Americans who said they would like to move permanently to another country had risen from 11% under Barack Obama to 16% under Mr Trump; by 2022 it was 17%, Joe Biden’s election notwithstanding. A survey by YouGov last year found that those considering emigration were mostly liberals.

与此同时，越来越多的美国人表示他们想离开自己的国家。那些发誓如果唐纳德·特朗普 (Donald Trump) 在 2016 年当选就会离开的人中，很少有人真正做到了。但民意调查机构盖洛普 (Gallup) 在 2018 年发现，表示愿意永久移居另一个国家的美国人比例已从巴拉克·奥巴马 (Barack Obama) 领导下的 11% 上升到特朗普领导下的 16%；到 2022 年，尽管乔·拜登当选，这一比例仍将达到 17%。 YouGov 去年的一项调查发现，考虑移民的人大多是自由主义者。

It is hardly surprising that conservatives are less likely to say they want to leave their country. And the follow-through rate remains tiny: a few tens of thousands of émigrés out of a population of 330m. But many recent expats say they left partly out of despair at where the United States is heading.

保守派不太可能说他们想离开自己的国家，这并不奇怪。而且追随率仍然很低：3.3 亿人口中只有几万移民。但许多最近移居国外的人表示，他们离开的部分原因是对美国的发展方向感到绝望。

“I do a phone call once a month with Americans asking me how to come over here,” says Caroline Behringer, an American who moved in 2017. Ms Behringer, a former aide to Nancy Pelosi, the then leader of Democrats in the House of Representatives, left her job and joined her partner in Amsterdam after Mr Trump’s victory. For most expats, she says, politics was not so much the reason they left as a reason not to go back: “not just the election, but the continued divisiveness”.

2017 年搬到这里的美国人卡罗琳·贝林格 (Caroline Behringer) 说：“我每个月都会给美国人打一次电话，问我怎么来这里。”贝林格女士是时任众议院民主党领袖南希·佩洛西 (Nancy Pelosi) 的前助手。特朗普获胜后，她辞去了代表职务，前往阿姆斯特丹与她的伴侣会合。她说，对于大多数外国人来说，政治与其说是他们离开的原因，不如说是他们不回去的原因：“不仅仅是选举，还有持续的分歧”。

“The thing we hear all the time is that the work-life balance is so much better here,” says Tracy Metz, who heads the John Adams Institute, an American-Dutch cultural venue. American workers toil for 1,811 hours per year, Europeans just 1,571; the well-rested Dutch put in a mere 1,427. The Netherlands once attracted Yanks looking to smoke marijuana or marry same-sex partners. Now the attractions are more mainstream, Ms Metz says. The rise of international English makes things easier for Americans, who are notoriously bad at languages: 28% of the bachelor’s programmes at Dutch universities are in English. Online job ads require English almost as frequently as they require Dutch.

“我们一直听到的说法是，这里工作与生活的平衡要好得多，”美荷文化场所约翰·亚当斯研究所 (John Adams Institute) 负责人特雷西·梅茨 (Tracy Metz) 说道。美国工人每年工作 1,811 小时，欧洲工人仅为 1,571 小时；休息良好的荷兰队只打出了 1,427 分。荷兰曾经吸引过那些想要吸食大麻或与同性伴侣结婚的美国佬。梅茨女士说，现在这些景点变得更加主流。国际英语的兴起让美国人的语言变得更加容易，因为美国人的语言能力是出了名的差：荷兰大学 28% 的学士学位课程都是英语。在线招聘广告需要英语的频率几乎与需要荷兰语的频率一样。

Some émigrés are drawn to Europe’s robust social safety nets. Heather Caldwell Urquhart, a writer who moved to Lisbon in 2021, had taken a clerical job in Massachusetts simply to get health insurance. In Portugal she and her family pay for coverage a fraction of what an equivalent American plan would cost. “We didn’t realise how shredded the United States’ social fabric was until we got here,” she says.

一些移民被欧洲强大的社会安全网所吸引。希瑟·考德威尔·厄克特 (Heather Caldwell Urquhart) 是一名作家，于 2021 年搬到里斯本，她在马萨诸塞州从事文书工作只是为了获得健康保险。在葡萄牙，她和她的家人支付的保险费用只是美国同等保险计划费用的一小部分。 “直到我们来到这里，我们才意识到美国的社会结构有多么破碎，”她说。

“We felt the tension lift” within weeks of leaving America, agrees Sylvia Johnson, a psychiatrist who moved to Lisbon in 2022. For Ms Johnson and her family, who are black, the central issues were racism and violence. She had been trying for years to convince her husband Stanley, a lawyer, to move abroad. The strife after the murder of George Floyd in 2021 brought him around. He recalls saying: “‘I think we need to get a gun.’ When I said that out loud, I was like, if I have to live in a country where I need a gun to protect my family, then this is not the country for me.”

2022 年搬到里斯本的精神病学家西尔维娅·约翰逊 (Sylvia Johnson) 表示，离开美国几周后，“我们就感到紧张局势有所缓解”。对于约翰逊女士及其黑人家人来说，核心问题是种族主义和暴力。多年来，她一直试图说服身为律师的丈夫斯坦利移居国外。 2021 年乔治·弗洛伊德被谋杀后的冲突让他回心转意。他回忆说：“‘我认为我们需要一把枪。’当我大声说出这句话时，我想，如果我必须生活在一个需要枪支来保护我的家人的国家，那么这里就不是最好的选择。”国家对我来说。”

Stanley had a cross burned on his lawn while growing up in Virginia. Several of Sylvia’s relatives were killed by guns. Now they are relaxing some of the wariness that black Americans develop for detecting prejudice and coping with police. While there is some racism in Portugal, they say, they do not worry about violence.

斯坦利在弗吉尼亚长大时，在他的草坪上烧了一个十字架。西尔维娅的几名亲戚被枪杀。现在，他们正在放松美国黑人在发现偏见和应对警察时所产生的一些警惕性。他们说，虽然葡萄牙存在一些种族主义，但他们并不担心暴力。

Other factors are more prosaic. The huge increase in remote working during the pandemic made living abroad more feasible. And the European countries that lure the most Americans have set up tempting deals for foreigners. The Netherlands lets companies exempt 30% of skilled foreign workers’ income from taxes. In Portugal a residential visa requires income of just 150% of the national minimum wage, or about €1,100 ($1,190) per month–an easy hurdle for American retirees. Foreigners can pay a 10% flat tax on “passive income”, such as investments or a pension. Spain’s “Beckham law” offers a 24% flat tax for income earned in the country. Several countries are introducing “digital-nomad” visas for tech freelancers.

其他因素则更为平淡。疫情期间远程工作的大幅增加使海外生活变得更加可行。吸引最多美国人的欧洲国家也为外国人制定了诱人的交易。荷兰允许公司对外国熟练工人收入的 30% 免税。在葡萄牙，居留签证的收入要求仅为国家最低工资的 150%，即每月约 1,100 欧元（1,190 美元）——这对美国退休人员来说是一个简单的障碍。外国人可以对投资或养老金等“被动收入”缴纳 10% 的统一税。西班牙的“贝克汉姆法”规定对在该国赚取的收入征收 24% 的统一税。一些国家正在为科技自由职业者推出“数字游牧者”签证。

Such deals explain why these places are getting a lot of non-rich American expats. Other countries target the Christopher Newmans of the world. Italy aims to attract “high-net-worth individuals” by letting them pay €100,000 per year in income tax regardless of how much they earn. France has a complicated exemption aimed at foreign business executives. Germany, though, has none.

此类交易解释了为什么这些地方吸引了大量非富裕的美国侨民。其他国家的目标是世界上的克里斯托弗·纽曼。意大利旨在吸引“高净值个人”，让他们每年缴纳10万欧元的所得税，无论他们的收入有多少。法国针对外国企业高管制定了一项复杂的豁免政策。但德国却没有。

For all American expats’ tales of political disillusionment, it is less important than practical matters. “Everybody has convoluted how-I-ended-up-here stories,” says Amanda Klekowski von Koppenfels of the University of Kent, an authority on the American diaspora. Many travel for education or work, fall in love and settle down. Still, she says, there has been a change. Americans once felt that their country was the ultimate immigrant nation; leaving for anywhere else seemed odd. Now they are aware that Europe has its advantages: “good health care, better transportation, less gun violence, there’s racism but [it is] a lot less deadly.”

对于所有美国侨民的政治幻灭故事来说，实际问题并不重要。 “每个人都对我是如何来到这里的故事感到困惑，”美国侨民问题权威、肯特大学的阿曼达·克莱科斯基·冯·科彭费尔斯 (Amanda Klekowski von Koppenfels) 说。许多人为了求学或工作而旅行，然后坠入爱河并安定下来。尽管如此，她说，情况还是发生了变化。美国人曾经认为他们的国家是终极移民国家；离开去其他地方似乎很奇怪。现在他们意识到欧洲有其优势：“良好的医疗保健、更好的交通、更少的枪支暴力、存在种族主义，但[它]的致命性要低得多。”

To listen to the new American expats is to get a sense that “The American” has been partly upended. Americans are still richer than Europeans. But when they come to the continent, they no longer arrive as egalitarians in lands of aristocracy and prejudice. Instead they admire Europe’s universal health care, efficient public transportation, lower crime and lower income inequality. In a way, they envy the Europeans’ liberty.■

听听新移民美国的声音，你会感觉到“美国人”已经部分被颠覆了。美国人仍然比欧洲人富有。但当他们来到非洲大陆时，他们不再是作为贵族和偏见之地的平等主义者了。相反，他们钦佩欧洲的全民医疗保健、高效的公共交通、较低的犯罪率和较低的收入不平等。在某种程度上，他们羡慕欧洲人的自由。■