Yuki Iwamura/AP Photo
Americans, imagining life under a second Trump administration, are returning to the time-honored liberal tradition of contemplating exile, only with more purpose than during the era of George W. Bush or the first Trump regime. It is almost inconceivable that our country, which has been a land of refuge for centuries, would become a place from which to escape.
Some of the people considering having to flee, yet again, are Jews. But many non-Jews also can’t bear the idea of living in America with Trump as dictator. As I noted in a recent piece, progressive former Congressman Jim McDermott of Washington state has moved to a tiny village near Bordeaux. “If you can afford it, buy a second home in France, or Spain, or Portugal, wherever … a second home that could become a safe house,” he advises friends.
But will they let you stay?
All it takes is money. Thanks to the rise of rampant capitalism as the system whose value hierarchy trumps all other values, you can now buy your way into permanent residence in some pleasant nations.
Several EU countries have “Golden Visa” programs that allow you permanent residency and, excuse the expression, a path to citizenship. The terms vary, but basically, you need to invest at least $250,000 in the local economy. Permanent residence in any of these EU countries also gives you access to all other nations in the so-called Schengen Area, which includes most of the EU.
The lowest-cost deals are offered by Malta ($150,000), Portugal ($250,000), Greece ($250,000), and, wait for it … Hungary ($300,000). And do pay attention to health care. Most European systems are better and less costly than ours; but in a splendid case of “what goes around comes around,” Malta’s main hospital system is in ruins, having been purchased and pillaged by none other than … Steward Health.
Britain and Canada will also let U.S. expats in under special visa programs for the rich. But exile in an English-speaking country will cost you a lot more: two million pounds for the U.K., and $2 million in loonies for Canada (about US$1.5 million). And if you want to live in Montreal or elsewhere in the Province of Quebec, you will need to demonstrate proficiency in what the Quebecois aspirationally describe as French.
As Emma Lazarus didn’t write:
Give me your sturdy, your rich,
Your fat elites yearning for Par-ee.
In contrast to 1938 (and 1492), the key countries that exterminated Jews or forced the fortunate ones into exile are now welcoming Jews back. Portugal and Spain, which demanded conversions during the Inquisition and then murdered many conversos as untrustworthy, will now admit Jews of Sephardic origin. Germany and Austria both welcome and grant citizenship to descendants of German and Austrian Jews who were exterminated or forced to flee.
The MAGA thugs would doubtless be glad to see all those unreliable cosmopolitans go. Their departure would reinforce the Trump majority.
The State Department estimates that there about nine million American expatriates. They include about 150,000 African Americans who have realized Marcus Garvey’s dream and are back in Africa, where the cost of living is cheaper and Blacks are the majority. On the other hand, too many African countries, in a legacy of colonialism, are ruled by corrupt strongmen, all too reminiscent of Trump.
Well, at least there is a path for the affluent and the formerly oppressed to emigrate. Isn’t capitalism plus tardy remorse wonderful?
But hold on a moment. Right now, the welcome mat is out for those who can open their checkbooks. But what happens when the trickle of a few hundred thousand expats a year turns into a panicked flood? After Portugal, population 10.4 million, became a popular retirement destination for Americans, bidding up housing prices at the expense of the locals, the government stiffened the terms of the tax-favored deals for emigrés.
Europe, let’s recall, is in one of its nationalistic fevers. Even in the best of circumstances, Americans with bulging wallets and no local language competence are less than popular. Should large numbers of Americans, even affluent ones, start seeking entry to Europe, we can expect new limits to be imposed as fast as you can say Schengen, and it could start feeling like Germany in 1938.
Peter Gourevitch, a professor at the University of California, San Diego, whose family were Menshevik Russian Jews persecuted by Stalin and then Hitler, has written a poignant family history titled Who Lived, Who Died? Some of his ancestors made it to America. Others waited too long and were murdered in Hitler’s Final Solution.
Does this mean you should get out now while the getting is good? More importantly, it means you need to work harder to make sure that a Trump dictatorship doesn’t come to pass, and we can all cherish what it means to be an American.
