The New American Refugees

Suddenly we're the ones running away from corruption and persecution.

Photo by Keren Fedida on Unsplash

“I got a Czech passport!” (By descent.)

“I got an Irish passport in only a month!” (By descent, but wives and children can not be included.)

“I qualify for Spanish citizenship because of my mother!”

“Ireland no longer allows by-descent citizenship to great-grandchildren of an Ireland-born citizen, you must have an Irish grandparent. I’m gutted.”

“Even if I won’t use it myself, I’m applying for another passport to protect my children’s future rights.”

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These are only a few of many, MANY excited/agitated announcements I’ve heard personally in the last several weeks. The tsunami of conversations about finding residency outside the USA—ongoing for the last several years —has drastically intensified. On a recent cruise almost everyone was discussing their ability, or lack thereof, to claim “Citizenship by Descent” in various countries in the EU: Ireland, Poland, Italy, France, Spain. Or outside the EU. But it’s not easy by any means. Suddenly the doors are closing fast and hard.

Forbes (Forbes!) just ran an article on “The 14 Easiest Countries To Get Citizenship in 2025.” CNN reports that Nauru, a tiny Pacific island nation, has launched a “Golden Passport” plan: for $105,000 you can become a citizen!

Portugal is among the many European nations that have ended or drastically curtailed their own golden passport programs.

Italy about two weeks ago doubled it’s passive income requirement for a residency visa, putting it now out of reach for many. And yet the calendar for visa appointments at the Italian consulate in Los Angeles is closed due to “absolutely no available time slots for the indefinite future.” (Luckily, we had long-ago-booked slots in early November.) The Italian government always used to be pretty flexible in granting citizenship to those who could prove some Italian ancestry—even a couple of generations back—but those hoops are getting much harder to jump through due to the sudden deluge of applications.

Coming in the other direction, to the USA, however, just got much easier—at least for folks who can afford a $5 million “gift” directly to 47’s eventual Presidential Library. For the hoi polloi, it’s a trip on a very large, 3/4-empty aircraft to Guantanamo. Or maybe not.

There are Facebook groups dedicated to those who can NOT gain any residency in Europe and are now doing, or planning to do, the “Schengen Shuffle.” (90 days in the Schengen Zone/EU, and 90 days out. Wash and repeat.) Schengen shufflers debate endlessly the benefits of various non-Schengen countries to shuffle out to for their required 90 days out. Albania and Croatia seem to be popular choices. (The goal here is less expensive travel.) Tiny Andorra is not in the EU or the Schengen Zone, and is conveniently located right between France and Spain, ie a nice easy drive. Expect 90-day rentals to spike.

Think Canada seems like a nice, “true” democracy nearby that would be happy to welcome you? Think again. That boat has sailed.

Andorra. Pretty.

Commentators like Kirsten Powers of the excellent Substack “Changing the Channel” offer us encouragement, such as this article (from late 2023, no less): “The Way we Live in the United States is Not Normal.” It’s gotten a whole lot less normal since then. (Understatement of the year.)

There are other voices in the national conversation. There is a subset of folks who believe it’s more important to stay in the US and fight. They reject the comparison of the USA today to Germany in the mid-1930’s. My Jewish friends tend to be more sanguine. My Quaker father schooled me almost from birth in the art of Civil Disobedience. Likely leading my being expelled from school at the age of 12 for leading an anti-war walkout by 50% of the students.

So far, the in-person protest rallies where I live have not come close to the size of our Pink Pussy demonstration waaay back in 2017. Folks are exhausted by the drama, not to mention that there is a real fear of violence. If Republican congresspeople and other dissenters are afraid to stand up for American values because of intimidation and death threats, what’s to make us ignore the legacy of Kent State? (Gift link to NY Times above.) Headline: “People Are Going Silent’: Fearing Retribution, Trump Critics Muzzle Themselves

“People say they are intimidated by online attacks from the president, concerned about harm to their businesses or worried about the safety of their families.”

Photo by Lindsay Doyle on Unsplash

Maybe the direction this country is going is not an aberration, or a blip. After all, it’s not just 47 or Musk, there’s an entire bureaucracy that seems to support selfishness, isolation, and fear of “The Other” as the new American National Identity. Maybe the Cowboy/Western spirit—the lawless side, anyway—is who we really are. Just ask Ronald Reagan’s ghost. My father always said that if Reagan were elected he would leave the country. Reagan was, and dad didn’t, and that was the birth of the transfer of wealth, the new Gilded Age, that we are living in now.

How very very tragic. I’m so glad my father didn’t live to see this debacle.

Note: For those pf you who read my recent piece on the Chinese Cultural Revolution, it appears I’m not the only one to see the similarities. Joyce Vance, Lucian Truscott IV, and now the New York Times are seeing the correlation too: “Many Chinese See a Cultural Revolution in America” (Gift article.) “People in China are expressing alarm at what seems to be an authoritarian turn in the United States, long their role model of democracy, that feels familiar.”

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Tidbits For The Week of March 10, 2025

Brigit’s What I’m

CURRENTLY LOVING ➡️  Running on the beach with the dogs
THINKING ABOUT ➡️  The deep uncertainty of the future
LISTENING TO ➡️  Crosby Stills, Nash & Young: Ohio