Moving out of the country is the new American Dream
The US has the 5th highest median income in the world, so I don't think mass exodus is likely. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Median_income
This is a common trope but only kinda-sorta true.
It's definitely true that there is no sign of mass exodus. Net immigration number remain positive (3% ish) but they are well below historic highs, and currently declining YoY. See e.g. https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/USA/united-states/net-...
It's interesting I think that per capita Canada (e.g. another "new world" immigration target) has fairly consistently been much higher, and is currently near 2x. The approx 10x population size dwarfs this in total numbers though (https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/CAN/canada/net-migrati...)
It seems that until you get a green card, the state barely tolerates your presence.
So nothing to do with the fundamentals, for me anyway.
I've actually heard good things about the AU system too - apparently Canada considers AU&NZ their biggest competition in attracting immigrants.
That seems to be pretty variable; I've met people on both sides of that border that decided against the other one for "societal issues" of various types.
It's not all about income, and it's really as simple as that. IIRC marginal tax rates in some parts of US are higher than some parts of Canada. So, as usual, it depends.
On average I don't think you are wrong, btw - but it's hardly cut and dried.
Probably obvious, but : and it's really not as simple as that.
And good luck even getting to that point. If you have a family, you'll have to live without them for upwards of 10 years while you work alone in the US waiting for your number to come up in the lottery.
It's got to be a mix of both, no?
> that my original claim isn't just "kinda sorta true" but rather, "strictly true".
I don't think we are really disagreeing. My point was that the common trope about US being the only place everyone wants to go has never really been true, but that especially by net amounts, it has been and remains a popular immigration target, albeit not as much as it has in the past.
Not as far as I can tell. The rate of immigration is the lesser of “how many people are willing to migrates the host country” and “how many migrants the host country will accept” and I would be shocked if the latter number was not many multiples of the former number.
> My point was that the common trope about US being the only place everyone wants to go has never really been true
I’ve heard some outlandish things under the rubric of American exceptionalism, but I’ve never once heard anyone—not even my most nationalistic acquaintances nor Fox News/etc—say that the US was the only place anyone wants to go. Who are the people who believe/espouse this?
It depends a bit if you have absolute quotas, or thresholds/scoring.
> some outlandish things under the rubric of American exceptionalism,
I was unclear, apologies. The idea isn't that nobody goes anywhere else, obviously. The idea, which I have heard many times in the US, is that once someone has decided to immigrate, all else being equal they would obviously choose the US. Clearly most times all else isn't equal; but it also doesn't seem to be true...
Fair enough, but even still I’ve never heard that even among “Fuck yeah, ‘merica” types.
https://www.migrationpolicy.org/programs/data-hub/charts/top...
America still has more to offer than a lot of the world, but it's not some shining peak in a valley of despair - it's more "middle of the table, some good, some bad". If you're here already, it's easy to look out, see, and decide to move where it's better, if you can.
Me ? I'm a Brit, been living here for the last almost two decades. I came here for the money and the weather, nothing more. Recently, the weather is a bit crap; the money's still good, but once I get to where I can FIRE, I'm out of this country. There's plenty of places better.
Arguably the American Dream is very much intact, it's just that it's mostly brown & yellow people achieving it. I have a lot of friends who left their home country because there were no opportunities for them there, and now have the suburban house with a yard, 2 kids, white picket fence, neighborhood Trick'or'Treaters, good savings, and vacations whenever they need a break. They work very hard for what they have, which has always been part of the American Dream, but they get a good life in exchange for it.
1. People leave worse places (by some metric, usually poverty or opportunity) to come to US since its big and rich and full of potential. That is why immigrants come here. Its the richest big nation with lots of jobs. You can try to move to china or brazil or india which have massive populations, but the jobs pay better here. You can move to Switzerland or some EU nations that have higher avg salary, but the COL is high and immigration is even harder with less lucrative job openings available.
2. People leaving aren't the immigrants who arrived (not including returning to old country). People who "have the american dream of leaving" are the middle class white kids who don't see their own growth into top 10% of society (because they perceive their social mobility decreasing or gone), and see the exploding debt and health costs across america (often they haven't experienced directly), so they want to move to a socialized nation and "free healthcare". This is almost always a white euro nation, not eg. china or inida. Do they move? Not always.
TLDR. People still want to move to america, but some americans are basically chasing some ideal/privilege they think they can get better elsewhere.
Economic opportunities in america are great if you're willing to work your ass off and smartly. Smartly is the keyword to avoiding exploitation. That said, the wages here are way higher than in other countries. Here in Colombia, the minimum wage comes out to around $250/month. People here don't have much choice given the language barrier and lack of skills for the international market. Their skillset and ability to endure absolute crap gives them an edge when they immigrate to the US and get paid relatively descent wages for their work.
Now I'm on the other end. I have skills as a software engineer, fluency in english and connections. Those are all things I can take with me to maintain the smae wage I'd be making in america in a country where the average wage is a fraction of what I make. Thus I get to live like a king.
TLDR: both sides are moving to maximize their living potential and they increase for different reasons.