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Is this new? I thought this had been the case for decades.

Over 150 years:

> Colonial administrators in Canada observed the trend of human capital flight to the United States as early as the 1860s, when it was already clear that a majority of immigrants arriving at Quebec City were en route to destinations in the United States. Alexander C. Buchanan, government agent at Quebec, argued that prospective emigrants should be offered free land to remain in Canada. The issue of attracting and keeping the right immigrants has sometimes been central to Canada's immigration history.[245]

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_capital_flight#Canada

My father's family emigrated from the US to Canada to claim free land in the 1800s. They stayed about a century then returned to the US.

One time offers will often only get temporary results.

Not new at all. Articles have been spouting this for a long time.

Anecdotally, a lot of us return to Canada after a short stint in the US.

Speaking as a Waterloo grad that moved to the US for about 5 years post graduation. Many of my university classmates did something similar.

As a current Waterloo student (who is not particularly tied to any specific place). I’m curious about this and I’d like to know more. Why US for 5 years and why back?

It's a myth that US income tax is always lower than in Canada.

I worked in the US for a bit when I started out. I paid more income tax in CT than in Toronto on the same salary.

I just wanted to come back home. Even in small town CT, there were areas we were told to stay away from after dark.

Can’t speak for the OP but it’s often about what’s most valuable at different points in life. Depending on where you are in the US, having kids can be a formidable experience. Poor leave, expensive childcare, etc etc. It can change the calculation for whether the extra money in the US is actually worth it.

That’s fair. I can see a lot of reasons to stay in Canada over the US for long term plans.

Although it feels like all of the desirable jobs (in terms of technical interestingness and pay) are in the US. At least for internships.

And to simplify, there’s also really only two reasons to move:

1) more interesting work opportunities; and

2) more money

And the delta on (1) has never been smaller thanks to remote work post-covid (even after all the RTO).

So basically, at some point, you start asking if the extra money is worth it.

(Depending where you come from in Canada, lifestyle in SF might be better overall - but then you can just move back to somewhere else in Canada and have it all.)

Right out of school it was fun and easy to drop everything and go somewhere cool (SF, NY, etc.). Can tell everyone you work for a flashy big tech company, make a ton of money, and have no responsibilities.

But eventually life catches up to you, especially if you have strong family/social roots in Canada. It's not easy to bootstrap that in a new country.

I was also there under a TN Visa and had a few border experiences that rubbed me the wrong way since the TN Visa is a bit hand wavy and up to the border guard at your time of entry. The hostility at times from the border guards didn't make it feel like I was returning "home". Sure, I worked for a company that had an army of lawyers to fix it if anything went wrong but it still leaves you with a sour taste. I can't imagine they're getting any friendlier these days.

Lastly, I didn't mean it like 5 is some magic number - some stay less, some stay more.

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