Gallup reports that “a record number of Americans want to leave the U.S.” But its poll results don’t support this statement. The results show only that more Americans say they want to leave the U.S. than during the earlier part of this century.
Gallup found that 16 percent of Americans say they would like to move permanently to another country. That’s up from 11 percent when George W. Bush was president and 10 percent when Barack Obama held the office. Virtually all of the increase is driven by women.
But during the Bush and Obama years, emigration by U.S. citizens born in America was negligible — nothing like 10 percent — and, as Gallup acknowledges, there’s only been a small uptick since Trump took office.
During the Nixon years, almost half the young people I knew made utterances about leaving America for Canada. That might have been fine with the “silent majority,” some of whom used to say, in frustration, “American, love it our leave it.” Fortunately, the only people I knew who actually moved to Canada were were draft dodgers.
As in Nixon’s time, the alleged desire to leave America is strongest among young people. 30 percent of Americans younger than age-30 told Gallup they would like to leave. But, as Gallup seems to acknowledge, the number who actually intend to leave, or make a real effort to do so, is much, much smaller. The poll tells little if anything about impending emigration.
What it does tell us is that a great many young Americans hold their country in low esteem, just as many of us did in the Nixon years. We had an excuse — the Vietnam war and then-virulent discrimination against blacks.
Today’s young Americans have an excuse too — what they are taught about America in school.
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