The Yanks Are Back!

Worsening politics, healthcare and quality of life in the United States are prompting growing numbers of Americans to make France - and Europe - their home. And their numbers are accelerating.

PARIS -- Back in the 1970s and 80s, when this writer worked as a foreign correspondent based out of Paris, the city was a magnet for Americans seeking romantic exile, only to be supplanted years later by cheaper, edgier destinations: Prague, Berlin, Istanbul.

Today, the pendulum has swung back with a force that surprises even veteran migration researchers. What was once a bohemian trickle has become, if not yet a flood, something unmistakably larger, a slowly emerging tide reshaping the demographics of European cities and villages from Paris and Lisbon to Lyon, Lake Como and Colmar in the Alsace.

Seeking the romantic spirit of the past.

A Filmmaker Who Never Really Left

Tom Woods, a tall, energetic director-cameraman in his 70s from upstate New York, first came to Paris at 20. As with so many Americans of his generation, he had done the Hippie Trail (from New Zealand to Europe), fetching up in France in search of a Hemingway-style moveable feast and a career in television just as the video boom was beginning to surge.

As co-founder of Video in Paris, Woods quickly made his mark. He recalls wandering into the celebrated La Coupole brasserie during the dinner rush, lights blazing filming as if everyone were a celebrity to attract corporate clients. "There’s nothing like living on the edge with a bit of imagination in Paris," he says. "It’s what life is all about, n’est-ce pas?"

He went on to form Transatlantic Video on the Île Saint-Louis, collaborating with major broadcast networks on both sides of the Atlantic: fashion shoots, commercial productions and, eventually, documentaries in Afghanistan, Zambia and South Africa.

“Documentaries barely paid but they made everything worthwhile,” he recalls. “Paris during the 1980s was the place to be if you were a foreign correspondent, war photographer or filmmaker. People would fly back from conflict zones and hang out for dinner at Le Select or the Brasserie Furstenberg.”

For many years Woods shuttled between Paris, Los Angeles, New York and Bozeman, Montana, organising large-scale shoots: the Tour de France, Le Mans 24 Hours, the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup, the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics. Woods still conducts such operations for the networks, but his personal life is now more focused on France.

“There’s a sense of decency in Europe that one is finding less and less in America,” he says reflecting a common concern expressed by many Americans who have chosen existences on this side of the Atlantic. “I don’t want to live in a country where people think it’s okay to carry guns openly, shoot up schools, and where half the electorate voted for a leader who has betrayed everything America is supposed to stand for.”

Tom Woods: Camerman-director, sailor,and now mentor.

Woods now lives full-time in Paris with his French wife; their 22-year-old son, also a filmmaker, has settled there too. Much of his energy is channelled into an ambitious three-year multimedia initiative to help save the Mediterranean, but also to help make young people more aware.

Over 40 years ago he purchased WIKI, a classic wooden sailing ketch built in 1920 in Kiel, Germany, which he lovingly renovated from a near-wreck into the centrepiece of the WIKI Centennial Expedition, officially launched by the Yacht Club de Monaco in May 2026. “Our mission is to highlight how the Med has changed over a century and what we need to do, whether as high school students or yacht owners, to protect this unique but threatened region for future generations,” he explains.

Hemingway with A Moveable Feast friends.

How Real is the American Exodus?

The short answer, backed by hard data, is: very real, and accelerating. According to the French Ministry of Interior, first residency cards issued to Americans rose 14.3% in 2025 alone. Portugal has seen American residents climb by over 500% since the pandemic; Ireland doubled its American intake in a single year; in Germany, for the first time, more Americans arrived than Germans left for the United States. Following the November 2024 election, online searches for emigration spiked by more than 1,500%.

“What we are witnessing is a complete re-surge of Americans seeking to make France, and other EU countries, their base,” says Adrian Leeds, an expat relocation and property specialist with The Adrian Leeds Group in Paris. “Our business has more than doubled since COVID. Americans are very unhappy about what is happening under Trump and are freaking out. They feel America is no longer the country they grew up in.”

Among recent high-profile arrivals: actress Natalie Portman, a long-time Francophile, returned to Paris permanently in 2024 following her divorce from French choreographer Benjamin Milliepied. Actor Aaron Paul, whose family lost their home in the devastating 2025 Los Angeles fires, has reportedly relocated to France. “Love the food, the history, the people. Every time I came to Paris, I never wanted to leave,” he said in a television interview. “We wanted our kids to learn another language and be surrounded by another culture.”

Others have chosen Spain: Richard Gere in Madrid, Eva Longoria in Marbella. Comedian Rosie O’Donnell, applying for Irish citizenship, put it bluntly: “When it is safe for all citizens to have equal rights in America, that’s when we will consider coming back.”

This steady movement includes scientists, medical researchers, academics and data specialists, precisely the sort of people America needs most. Many have left or are leaving for what they consider to be political or discriminatory reasons, among them the Trump administration’s drastic cuts to research funding.

The 50th Anniversary Edition June 2026

Paris is Not the Only Attraction

While at a recent 50th Anniversary gathering of the Paris Metro, a somewhat irreverent Rolling Stone or Village Voice style English-language publication focusing on investigative reporting and lifestyle that made its mark on French media over a brief two-and-a-half-year period in the late 1970s, I met up again with various expatriate writers and Metro aficionados. Most have retained their passion for Paris and France. “I no longer live here but I keep coming back,” said Tom Herman, now a lawyer and documentary filmmaker based out of Boston. over drinks at a rooftop reception hosted by the Tour d'Argent restaurant.

Elsewhere Americans such as Janet and Mike Hill, both formerly with international organisations in Geneva, have chosen their own personal retirement challenge: they have applied for French citizenship and now live in Pouilly-en-Auxois in Burgundy, restoring a 15th-century manor.

Janet and Mike Hill in front of their Burgundy house they are renovating.

“Renovating a house brings you in touch with just about everyone in the area,” Janet says. The quality of life, notably the rich culture, great food, a genuine human pace, made it, in her words, “a no-brainer. The cost of housing and medical care here is so much lower. And in the United States, even with Medicare, the healthcare costs are ridiculous. No one has time for a conversation … it’s rush, rush, rush. What kind of life is that?”

Then there are Steve (67) and Patricia (55) Nunemaker from Iowa, who moved to Colmar in the Alsace in October 2025, an unusual destination perhaps, but one that reflects a growing desire among Americans for non-big-city European life. The original catalyst, they admit, was burnout and political frustration. “We started looking at what other options might be out there,” Patricia says. “But then we looked around at the house, and our things, and said to each other: ‘What are we doing? Is all of this really making us happy? Do we need this to survive? No. Not at all.’”

After evaluating quality of life, healthcare, cost of living, transport and walkability across several countries, France won. They first visited Dijon, then fell for Colmar. They got rid of most of their possessions, rented a small apartment in the old town and have not owned a car since. “We both have a love for history and architecture and Colmar is full of both…the colourful half-timbered buildings, medieval streets, curved passages and waterways lined with flower boxes. Every single time we get out, our eyes find a new discovery.”

The Proof is in the Baguette

According to estimates compiled by relocation specialists including CS Global and Get Golden Visa, the number of US citizens moving to Europe nearly doubled in 2025. While some 5.4 million Americans officially live abroad, more than one million have chosen Europe. The United Kingdom remains the top destination with nearly 250,000 Americans living and working there. Portugal leads among EU countries with growth of over 500% since the pandemic; France, Germany, Spain and the Netherlands are rising steadily.

Within France, nearly half (46.6%) of all US nationals reside in the Greater Paris region, according to INSEE, France’s national statistics institute. Provisional Ministry of Interior figures put the number of French residency cards issued to Americans at 15,000 in 2025 - a 14.3% increase on 2024 - while long-stay visas issued to US citizens reached 16,782 in 2024, representing roughly one-third of all nationalities.

Austria boasts one of the world's top-ranked health care systems

Austrian Ministry of Health

The Push Factors: Why Are They Leaving?

The reasons are as varied as the people. Earlier waves of American expatriates tended to be defined by a single type: the Hemingway-era romantic, the Vietnam-era draft resister, the post-9/11 disenchanted.

Today’s departures cut across generations, income levels and motivations, whether retirees priced out of American healthcare, young professionals crushed under six-figure student loan debt, parents who watched yet another school shooting on television and quietly began researching Spanish visas. One such mother, who secured residency documents for her family through the Los Angeles consulate, said she simply could not “let her 14-year-old daughter grow up in an environment like this.”

What unites them all is not ideology but exhaustion, and the stubborn conviction that Europe, for all its imperfections, still offers something America, at this particular moment, cannot.

It is no longer just Paris that attracts but European quality of life

Paris Tourism

US healthcare spending now stands at $4.9 trillion annually, roughly $14,570 per person, with poor outcomes relative to peer nations. Free public healthcare is available to legal residents across France, Spain, Portugal and most EU countries. “Taxes in Austria are high,” notes one young American working for a Vienna-based NGO, “but people don’t mind paying because of what you get back. If you’re going to fall sick or have a baby, it’s better to be in Europe.”

Cost of living is another driver. Monthly expenditure for a US family of four averages $4,203 excluding rent - nearly double the roughly €2,424 equivalent in Portugal. Safety, too, features prominently. The United States recorded between 38,000 and 40,000 gun-related deaths in 2025 and, while that figure has been falling for the fourth consecutive year, firearm suicides have reached record highs. The country ranked only 132nd of 163 nations in the 2024 Global Peace Index; seven of the world’s ten most peaceful countries are European.

Student debt adds another dimension. Millions of Americans carrying federal loan debt are now in default or delinquency as the Trump administration resumes aggressive collection - including wage garnishment and seizure of tax refunds - after years of pandemic-era forbearance. For those with no US-based wages to garnish, moving abroad transforms an active financial threat into a credit scar. As one American on a temporary visa in Paris put it: “The Europeans have long understood the importance of free education. Why not Americans?”

Benjamin Franklin: One of America's first envoys to France

The Ambassador Who Does Not Represent America

For many who have chosen Europe, there is one figure within their midst whom they regard as an acute embarrassment: Charles Kushner, Trump’s ambassador to France. The father of Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law, Charles Kushner has signally failed to uphold the standards of discretion and respect for his host country that Americans abroad try hard to embody.

As reported by Le Monde and other French media, Kushner, a convicted felon, has been effectively frozen out by the French Foreign Ministry because of his perceived interference in domestic French affairs. Senior officials at the Quai d’Orsay have reportedly described his appointment as an insult to a relationship cultivated over centuries dating back to the likes of Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson.

Curiously, though not surprisingly, Kushner’s official embassy biography makes no mention of his criminal past. A former real estate developer and lawyer barred from practice in three US states, he was convicted of illegal campaign contributions, tax evasion and witness tampering and served two years in federal prison.

Charles Kouchner: US Ambassador to France, an embarrassment for both Americans and French, according to the French press.

The Question of Citizenship

A growing number of Americans already in Europe are pursuing naturalisation, while those still stateside with eligible ancestry are activating second-passport claims. Nearly 5,000 people renounced US citizenship in 2024, with a global queue for renunciation now estimated to exceed 30,000, according to the Jeelani Law Firm, which specialises in citizenship matters. Annual renunciations have surged from an average of 200–400 before 2009 to a record 6,705 in 2020, with numbers remaining elevated.

The primary driver is citizenship-based taxation. The US is one of very few countries that taxes citizens on worldwide income regardless of residence, compounded by foreign banking restrictions under FATCA that cause many overseas banks to refuse American clients outright. “A lot of Americans seem to think that just because you live abroad you are rich and should pay double taxes,” says a representative of Republicans Abroad in Paris. “Being a long-time expat actually costs a lot of money.”

Spain, which offers a ten-year path to citizenship for US citizens, is proving particularly attractive; Germany’s Blue Card holders can qualify for permanent residency in as little as 21 months. The window for investment-based routes, however, is closing: Spain shut its Golden Visa programme in April 2025, Portugal ended real estate-based residency routes, and Greece has doubled its property investment thresholds. This may paradoxically push more Americans toward long-stay lifestyle visas - making France an increasingly logical choice.

A Better Life, Not a Flight

Jessica (44) and Brian (50) Amrine from Colorado, both early retirees, travelled to Paris in their 20s and fell in love with the city. Years later, they opted to put down roots - in Nice. “As you get older, you want to live somewhere civilised,” Jessica says. Trump’s America is certainly a factor, but she is quick to add that they are not “running from something” but rather “running to something” notably a better quality of life.

After a year weighing up Italy (“a bureaucratic nightmare”), Portugal and even Andorra, they chose the South of France for its tax situation, climate and community. “We now have perhaps 50 friends in Nice, most of them American,” Jessica notes. “The city is clean, you can walk everywhere, there’s an excellent tram network and easy access to good cafés, restaurants and jazz festivals.”

For Americans such as these, the moveable feast that Hemingway once described has not ended. It has simply relocated, diversified and grown considerably more crowded. Europe, for all its bureaucracy and occasional grey winters, is offering what many Americans feel they can no longer find at home: decency, proportion, a sense that public life is still worth participating in. Whether the tide turns when, or if, the political climate in the United States changes remains to be seen. For now, the Yanks are back, and in greater numbers than ever.

Editor of Global Geneva. Edward Girardet is a foreign correspondent and author. Based in Cessy, a French village in the Lake Geneva region, he has reported conflict, humanitarian and environmental issues worldwide for more than 40 years.