United States Citizens Escaping to Canada?

There are so many talks of US residents who will give up their citizenship because of the political atmosphere in the country...which is their biggest concern. But try researching how many US residents who live abroad gave up their passports? Yes, they move out of the country but didn't go to the US embassy to surrender their passport and be a citizen of their adopted country. Why is that? Because these people knew that the moment they get into trouble or whatever...they are sure that the US government will come out looking for them. When a US citizen denounces his country and thinks that other countries is way much better in terms of living, freedom of speech and benefits...then they should give up their citizenship so that those people who are dying to come here in the US will replace them. These celebrities that goes out of the country to live...they can afford it but have you noticed that they didnt visit their local US embassy to give up their passport? Destinations for them is Europe but when the taxes goes up so high...they will look for another haven, probably in the Carribean or the Bahamas.

All those people you mentioned applied for a visa to reside in their new countries. There is a huge difference between people going to other countries to live with a valid visa and illegal Mexican immigrants who come over to the US with complete disregard for the law just to make less than minimum wage. Plus they are involved with gangs sometimes and commit crimes such as pedophilia (personal familial experience!) to name just one. People who go out of their way to get a visa are usually educated (some countries require a B.Sc before permanent entry) and some say you must already have a provable job offer or you have to have technical training that they are lacking (such as being an air traffic controller). Of course the richer you are, the easier time you have moving to a new country. I would love to move to French-Canada because it's a beautiful place and the people are super-friendly but I would do it legally because I have nothing to hide and everything to risk.

I will response on yuor discussion. I am also a immigrated. I am immmigrated to canada three years ago, but not for having a better life. I come from the Hetherlands and the money is much more better than in Caanda. The reason whu I am immigrated to canada was the space and the nature. I love it here so much. Maybe the Americans has also their meaning of immigration, it dont have to for a better life. That is your opinion.

I have heard of foreign nationalities including Americans leaving their country to live in a place where they thought to be a paradise or a place where they can see leisure never ends but not for a better life in terms of money or any financial means aside from business. For example there is an island in my country (Philippines) called Boracay....there some foreigners chose to stay there for good because of business, climate and because their family lives there already. Well for people who left searching for a humane legal system.....not yet.

That is an interesting topic! I am not from the US but I have been there quite a lot, so could try giving you an outside opinion. After what I have seen, life in the US was pretty good, but it also had a downside, a lot of powerty and epensive medical care and education system. I think most of the illegal immigrants end up working in low paid jobs (often way below minimum wage)with no medical insurance or rights. The conditions they left behind must have been really bad for them to WANT to be illegal immigrants, earning peanuts and having no rights. I am not saying that that is a problem uniqe to the US, its the same thing in my country. There are people working illegaly doing all sorts of manual jobs, and often less than half the pay the would receive if they were working legally. I really do feel sorry for these people as I can't imagine they really want this life! If I ever have known anyone leaving the US in search for a better life, the answer is yes. I had a friend whos mother was Swedidh/American, and when he was born they lived in a rough part of Washington. His mother decided that she wanted her son to have a good chanse in life and moved to Sweden with him although she gave up a lot. The only reason they moved is that she felt she did not have enough money or security to give him the kind of upbringing she wanted, and in Sweden the standard of living is a lot higher if you have no money. Also, education is completely free and so is health care. So they moved to Sweden. It must have been a hard choice for her as she had lived in the states for years and really felt at home there, like she said "Its a great country but life can be hard if you fall through the security net"

If they are coming to Canada, for a better legal system, chances are , they ar criminals andwill get stopped at the border or found out fairly soon. Its harder to blend into the crowd here. We do have a few Americans moving here because of the health care cost, but the wait usually sends them back to the States for treatment, at our expense, of course if they've been here more than a year. But yeah, I suspect your govermnent downplays people emmigrating, just like it puts a spin on the news that is different from what the rest of the world gets.

We have the same problem here in the UK. In a few years time, I believe English people in England are going to be the minority. As we are part of Europe and lately more countries have become part of Europe, it means that the door is open to our Country for hundreds of thousands of refugees to live in England. I do not mind this so long as they work and pay taxes like we have to. We have problems with homeless people like everyone else and it makes me sad to see someone come into this country and be given a house for free, when homeless people have been on waiting lists for a house for years. Also I have heard of a lot of people that refuse to speak English or claim that they hate us. If this is the case then why come here? I like to try and remain open minded and try not to judge people but it is hard. Plus I think the media sometimes does not tell the whole story. It would be great to hear from someone who has been in the situation of leaving their birth country to know why they had/wanted to move. I am always waiting to learn about other cultures and beliefs as I find this fascinating.

I have thought about leaving the us a few times. I do love it here and probably would not stay away long, but I know a number of people from eruope and it seems like they have a diffrent way of doing things that make me want to check it out. In general it seems like they don't have to work as hard to put food on the table. They get more time off from work and just seem happier and healther. I also think it would just be a good experance to live in another country. I'm sure there are bad things about living somewhere else too. There is not perfect place.

Hmmm I didnt hear about the those things, but I didnt noticed yet. what ever sometimes every things has 2 sides or more.... I know may be it can happend because of those mentioned people wants something special in their life in special country. It happens in lot always.

It happens in all the countries. We have the problem here in India. But here its always for a better life abroad. Because the life here is dull and poor. Those rich men in US are going out coz they have lot money and wanna enjoy with that. Can you spot pooor guys doing that?

More human legal system? The only thing I could think of that you would be talking about is capital punishment, which isn't practiced in many western countries anymore. What are you talking about though?

It saddens me that this is happening, and I do believe it is. There can be little doubt that there is a strong element of conservative religious right-wing pushing legislation in many areas. I believe strongly, it is less to do with social politics, than Corporate manipulation. The power of America has been sold to the Corporations and politicians of all parties, have shown that they are little more than puppets. Money really has taken over. However, I am so concerned that you see so many people leaving, because these are the very people that need to be voting against the lobby system and for total reform. This is not just an American problem because America is so influential in the world, everyone gets affected sooner or later. As Corporation power expands globally, so does "The American way". At this time I dread the expansion of "The American Way". Here in U.K. all the prospective leaders are not worth voting for, all but the "crazies", like George Galloway and Claire Short (bless 'em both), are gutless sheep. The USA appears the same. The lobby system is killing America. VIVA Hugo Chavez!!!

i've heard of people retiring to costa rica because it is so cheap! But i don't think going to canada to freeze my butt off would be anything I'd want to do. I believe the USA has lots of cool places to go to. I would like to see even more of this country before i go flying off to another.

I am going to move to the UK as soon as I can save enough money and get the paperwork in order. I know things aren't perfect there but they suck here. Quality of life has been going down for as far back as I can remember. I am sick of everyone BUT citizens getting help and if the citizens are lucky enough to get help it is either because they have been trying to get help for years (it took my mom 6 years to qualify for SSI) or they have so many kids it is rediculous. As a single person(widowed since 1996) without kids I was told there would NEVER be any kind of help for me and that I should work 2-3 jobs. The fact that I wasn't prooved to the caseworker that I am lazy. I almost slapped the crap right out of her. I have worked "jobs Americans won't do" for crap wages and had to be glad to have it and for the privilage of being treated horrbly by my co-workers and employers. My graet-granparents moved here from Austria after WWI because they saw the writting on the wall with the Nazi party. Now I am seeing the writting on the wall because my government doesn't seem to care and hasn't cared for almost 20 years.

With all the people coming here from Mexico I believe that people will be heading toward Canada in the near future and in greater amounts, especially with the cost of living going up and with the way our government is running things. The benefits of going to Canada will be greater unless things improve here. I have friends in Canada and they are very happy there and would not want to live in the USA ever again. They say it is better in Canada. What if things detiorate in Canada, where would they migrate to? My ex-girlfriend moved to England and is much happier there than she was here.

First off who ever got Micheal Jackson can have him....just hope the country watches their kids. Its not that the US has problems with people coming here we just want them to do it legally. I think everyone should be proud of their country that they live in. more humane than the laws in the US?

Yes you are correct people are not thinking about money they want better and safe living. Lot of other countries are equally very attractive to usa.

I honestly feel that it's as good here as anywhere else. There are problems in just about every paradise. I do recall however, that a lot of the US draft dodgers that went to Canada in the Vietnam era, did not come back when they were issued a pardon. But I think it had more to do with having settled and started families then with any great quality of life change.

I am from the US and agree that there may be better places to live. I can't say from experience. I might consider Canada, the only other country I have visited. The US is heading toward becoming a socialist republic. Our rights are being taken away by special interest groups. The IRS is becoming more like the Nazi SS. Like what ever is yours, is actually theirs. There is no accountability in Congress. I still like a lot of things about this country...but you have wonder about the direction we seem to be heading in.

There is a saying that "The other side is always better and green"...let it be any place and any country... For an American who is used to the American way of life, Cananda sounds better...for a person in middle east, Europe sounds better ! For an Asian, 'any world' other than Asia sounds better ! like this the attitude changes... let it be an upper class, or middle class..let it be any country... ! But the sad truth remains that American way of life is slowly and steadily going to a level of saturation ! whereas other parts of the world are slowly catching up in terms of economy and life standards..!