It’s no longer a niche phenomenon.
Americans are moving overseas in record numbers, and the trend is accelerating. Estimates suggest between 5.5 and 8 million Americans now live abroad, and interest in relocation has surged in recent years. A 2025 report from the Association of Americans Resident Overseas noted a sharp increase in expatriation activity, and relocation firms report record inquiries from Americans exploring life outside the United States. Article after article names the best places to relocate to.
The motivations are not mysterious: High living costs. Healthcare expenses. Political division. And a search for balance — safety, time, and stability.
Europe, particularly countries like Portugal, Spain, and Greece, has become a preferred destination. Others choose lower-cost regions in Latin America. Remote work has made it possible in a way that simply did not exist a decade ago.
But there is a piece of this conversation Americans don’t always anticipate.
Leaving a country is easy compared to leaving its identity.
Many Americans explain their move in political terms. They want distance from elections, polarization, or public policy. Yet once abroad, they quickly discover that the distinction between a government and its people — something Americans understand intuitively — is harder for others to see from the outside.
Portugal understands this better than most.
For much of the 20th century, thousands of Portuguese left their homeland. They emigrated for opportunity, economic stability, and a future for their children. When they arrived in the United States, Canada, or France, they encountered questions about Portugal’s dictatorship and colonial wars. Yet those emigrants were not policymakers. They were workers, parents, and students. They carried their culture with them, but they were not personally responsible for the state they had left behind.
Today the situation feels oddly reversed.
Modern American migrants often describe themselves as “expats.” They seek affordable healthcare, personal safety, and a calmer civic environment. Some quietly admit they are tired of worrying about medical bills, school safety, or political conflict. Others are simply chasing quality of life — slower days, walkable towns, no guns and more predictable costs.
But global headlines travel faster than any airplane.
To a neighbor in another country, it can be confusing: you may say you disagree with your government, but it is still your country’s actions they see on the news. The separation Americans make internally is not always clear abroad.
And that is where expectations meet reality.
Moving abroad does not make someone a refugee, and it does not automatically make someone an expatriate in the old colonial sense either. It makes them an immigrant — just like the Portuguese, Irish, Mexicans, and countless others who once arrived in America seeking stability and dignity.
That realization is not a criticism. It’s a useful perspective.
Americans often arrive with enthusiasm and optimism. They also sometimes arrive with assumptions — that English will be widely spoken, that systems will work the same way, or that dissatisfaction with their own government will be universally understood. Instead, they discover something humbling: other countries have their own histories, pressures, and identities. They are not simply alternatives to the United States; they are societies in their own right. Most pre-date the U.S.
People in places like Portugal are generally welcoming, but what makes integration possible is not wealth, remote work, or even residency paperwork.
It is empathy.
Americans move abroad for many good reasons — cost of living, healthcare access, safety, or a desire for a calmer civic climate. None of those motivations are illegitimate. But success in building a life overseas depends less on why someone leaves and more on how they arrive. Portuguese who once came to the U.S. came with humility.
The path forward may not be to present oneself as an exile from a failed nation, nor as a consumer choosing a better product. It is to arrive with the same humility as well as curiosity, and patience.
Because starting a life in another country has always required the same things, whether you arrived in Boston in 1910 or Lisbon in 2026:
Respect the place. Learn the culture. Listen before explaining.
And understand that moving abroad changes your address — not your responsibility to represent yourself, and your country, well.
Jayme H. Simões is a Portugal–U.S. communications consultant who writes about the realities of moving, living, and retiring in Portugal, based on first hand experience.
Let’s Move to Portugal Now is an independent resource for Americans considering life in Portugal. We provide practical, experience-based information on visas, housing, health care, cost of living, and everyday life—focused on clarity, realism, and informed choices. This site is not affiliated with the Portuguese government and does not offer legal or immigration advice.
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