為什么越來越多的美國人向往歐洲？

“我羨慕你們的自由，”在亨利·詹姆斯的《美國人》一書中瓦倫丁·德·貝勒加德伯爵對主人公克里斯托弗·紐曼說道。紐曼是名白手起家沒有階級偏見的富商，他前往巴黎游玩，卻被卷入了一場法國貴族的陰謀之中。這是一個典型的旅歐美國僑民模板，即天真的美國富戶到歐洲游玩或進(jìn)修。然而還有另一種情況，人們來到歐洲不是為了享受悠閑的舊生活，而是為了逃離新生活。“我不知道我在法國會出什么事”非裔作家詹姆斯·鮑德溫在1948年決定移民時說道，“但我知道我在紐約一定會出事。”

最近越來越多的美國人正在移民歐洲，并且許多人更像是在逃離美國而非向往歐洲。相關(guān)的數(shù)據(jù)很凌亂，因為當(dāng)?shù)卣茈y密切關(guān)注這些移民的動向。但在一些國家這一趨勢則較為明顯。2013-2022年間，荷蘭的美國人數(shù)量從大約15500人增長至24000人；葡萄牙的美國人數(shù)量增長了近三倍達(dá)到了10000人；在西班牙的美國人人數(shù)從20000人左右增長到了近34000。在其他地區(qū)，諸如法國，德國和一些北歐國家，美國人的數(shù)量有適度增長或保持穩(wěn)定。英國政府認(rèn)為其國內(nèi)美國移民數(shù)量從2013年的137000人增至了2021年的166000人（最新估測）

同時，也有越來越多的美國人表達(dá)了他們的移民傾向。其中有部分人發(fā)誓如果唐納德·特朗普贏得了2016年的總統(tǒng)大選，他們一定會移民，但事實上很少有人兌現(xiàn)承諾。但在2018年，民意調(diào)查人蓋洛普發(fā)現(xiàn)想要永久移民到其他國家的美國人，其占比從奧巴馬執(zhí)政時期的11%增長到了特朗普時期的16%。到2022年，盡管喬·拜登當(dāng)選了總統(tǒng)，這一比例還是上升到了17%。去年YouGov的一項調(diào)查顯示，美國國內(nèi)大部分考慮移民的人都是自由主義者。

很少有想要移民的保守派民眾，這不足為奇。并且跟進(jìn)率仍然很小：全美3.3億人中只有幾萬人有意愿移民。但是最近很多移民者稱他們離開美國一定程度上是由于對美國的發(fā)展前途感到絕望。

“有些人一個月給我打一次電話問我怎么出國，”卡洛琳·貝林格說道，她在2017年移民出國。貝林格女士曾是當(dāng)時眾議院民主黨領(lǐng)袖南?！づ迓逦鞯那爸郑谔乩势遮A得大選之后辭職去往了其配偶所在的阿姆斯特丹。她認(rèn)為，對于大部分移民來說，他們并不是因為政治因素離開，而是因其不想回去，“并不僅僅是大選，還有大選后持續(xù)的政治分歧?！?/span>

“我們一直聽說歐洲人的工作與生活保持著很好的平衡，”特蕾西·梅茨說道，她是約翰亞當(dāng)斯研究所的負(fù)責(zé)人。約翰亞當(dāng)斯研究所是一個研究美國-荷蘭文化的機(jī)構(gòu)。美國人一年工作1811小時，而歐洲人工作1571小時，修生養(yǎng)息的荷蘭人則僅有1427小時。荷蘭曾一度吸引了想要吸大麻和與同性伴侶結(jié)婚的美國人。而現(xiàn)在的吸引力則更加主流，梅茨說道。英語的國際化使得定居荷蘭變得更為簡單，尤其是對語言能力出了名的爛的美國人來說。在荷蘭的大學(xué)里，28%的本科課程是用英語教授的。線上招聘廣告對英語的要求不亞于對荷蘭語的要求。

有些移民則是被歐洲健全的社會保障體系所吸引。作家希瑟·考德威爾·厄克特于2021年移居里斯本，她曾在馬薩諸塞州做文職工作只為獲得健康保險。而在葡萄牙，她和她家人的保險費只占美國同等保險費用的一小部分。她說“到了這兒我們才發(fā)現(xiàn)美國的社會結(jié)構(gòu)是如此的破碎?！?/span>

2022年移居里斯本的精神病學(xué)家西爾維婭·約翰遜認(rèn)為，離開美國的數(shù)周后“我們感到緊張的情緒有所緩解”。對于約翰遜女士和她的家人來說，一個非裔家庭面臨的關(guān)鍵問題就是種族歧視與暴力。她這幾年來都在勸說自己的丈夫斯坦利，一名律師，移居國外。2021年發(fā)生的喬治·弗洛伊德事件及之后爆發(fā)的一系列沖突改變了斯坦利的看法。他回憶道：“‘我覺得我們需要一把槍’當(dāng)我這樣大聲說的時候我在想，如果我住在一個需要用槍保護(hù)我家人的國家，那這個國家不待也罷。”

斯坦利在佛吉尼亞州成長時，他家的草坪上有個十字架被燒毀了。西爾維婭的幾個親戚都死于槍殺。現(xiàn)在他們正從遭受偏見時和與警察打交道時的警惕中解放出來。他們說盡管葡萄牙存在一些種族歧視，但他們至少不用擔(dān)心暴力。

其他因素則比較平淡無奇。疫情期間激增的遠(yuǎn)程工作使得在國外居住變得可能。美國人最向往的一些歐洲國家也為外國人提供著誘人的合約。荷蘭政府要求公司為熟練的外籍員工提供30%的收入稅收減免。獲得葡萄牙的居留簽證只需薪水達(dá)到其國家最低收入的150%，大約為每月1100歐元（1190美元），這對于美國的退休人員來說并不是個難關(guān)。外籍人員可繳納“被動收入”（如投資或退休金）10%的單一稅。西班牙的“貝克漢姆法案”使得外籍人員只需繳納24%的個人所得稅。許多國家也正在為科技自由職業(yè)者推行“數(shù)字游民”簽證。

這些信息解釋了一些并不富裕的美國人移民歐洲的原因。其他國家想吸引全世界的“克里斯托弗·紐曼”。意大利計劃引入“高凈值人群”，無論他們掙多少錢，每年都要繳納10萬歐元的個人所得稅。法國有一項針對外國企業(yè)高管的復(fù)雜稅收豁免規(guī)定，但德國卻沒有。

相比于政治幻滅的故事，美國僑民更注重實際問題?！懊總€人都有復(fù)雜的因素促使其選擇移民，”來自肯特大學(xué)的阿曼達(dá)·克萊科夫斯基·馮·科彭費爾斯說道，她是研究美國僑民的權(quán)威人士。許多人都是因訪學(xué)或工作，之后與配偶相戀后定居于此。但她補(bǔ)充到這種情況也發(fā)生了改變。美國人曾認(rèn)為自己的國家是移民大國，因此在別人移民美國時自己移民出去似乎是一個很反常的行為?，F(xiàn)在美國人意識到了歐洲所具有的的優(yōu)勢：“健全的醫(yī)療保障，更便捷的交通，更少的槍支暴力，雖然有些種族歧視但至少不會要人老命。”

了解了新美國僑民之后會覺得《美國人》在一定程度上被顛覆了。美國人依舊比歐洲人更富有。但當(dāng)前者來到歐洲這片充滿著傲慢與偏見之地，他們便會丟掉自己平等主義者的身份，便會享受歐洲的全民醫(yī)保，高效交通，低犯罪率以及平等收入。如此看來，歐洲的自由也讓美國人紅了眼。

Original Article:

Why Europe is a magnet for more Americans?

“What i envy you is your liberty,” says Count Valentin de Bellegarde to Christopher Newman, the protagonist of Henry James’s novel “The American”. Rich, self-made and free of class prejudice, Newman moves to Paris for fun, only to be sucked into the intrigues of the French aristocracy. The template still describes one type of American expat: the well-off innocent who comes to Europe for amusement or edification. Another sort, however, comes not to enjoy the old world but to escape the new one. “I didn’t know what would happen to me in France,” said James Baldwin, a black writer, of his decision to emigrate in 1948, “but I knew what would happen to me in New York.”

More Americans are moving to Europe lately, and many are fleers rather than seekers. The statistics are messy: governments have difficulty keeping tabs on foreign residents. But in some countries the trend is clear. In 2013-22 the number of Americans in the Netherlands increased from about 15,500 to 24,000; in Portugal it tripled to almost 10,000; and in Spain it rose from about 20,000 to nearly 34,000. In other places, such as France, Germany and the Nordic countries, the number grew moderately or held steady. Britain thinks the number of resident Americans rose from 137,000 in 2013 to 166,000 in 2021 (the latest estimate).

Meanwhile, more and more Americans say they want out of their own country. Few of those who vowed to leave if Donald Trump were elected in 2016 actually did so. But Gallup, a pollster, found in 2018 that the share of Americans who said they would like to move permanently to another country had risen from 11% under Barack Obama to 16% under Mr Trump; by 2022 it was 17%, Joe Biden’s election notwithstanding. A survey by YouGov last year found that those considering emigration were mostly liberals.

It is hardly surprising that conservatives are less likely to say they want to leave their country. And the follow-through rate remains tiny: a few tens of thousands of émigrés out of a population of 330m. But many recent expats say they left partly out of despair at where the United States is heading.

“I do a phone call once a month with Americans asking me how to come over here,” says Caroline Behringer, an American who moved in 2017. Ms Behringer, a former aide to Nancy Pelosi, the then leader of Democrats in the House of Representatives, left her job and joined her partner in Amsterdam after Mr Trump’s victory. For most expats, she says, politics was not so much the reason they left as a reason not to go back: “not just the election, but the continued divisiveness”.

“The thing we hear all the time is that the work-life balance is so much better here,” says Tracy Metz, who heads the John Adams Institute, an American-Dutch cultural venue. American workers toil for 1,811 hours per year, Europeans just 1,571; the well-rested Dutch put in a mere 1,427. The Netherlands once attracted Yanks looking to smoke marijuana or marry same-sex partners. Now the attractions are more mainstream, Ms Metz says. The rise of international English makes things easier for Americans, who are notoriously bad at languages: 28% of the bachelor’s programmes at Dutch universities are in English. Online job ads require English almost as frequently as they require Dutch.

Some émigrés are drawn to Europe’s robust social safety nets. Heather Caldwell Urquhart, a writer who moved to Lisbon in 2021, had taken a clerical job in Massachusetts simply to get health insurance. In Portugal she and her family pay for coverage a fraction of what an equivalent American plan would cost. “We didn’t realise how shredded the United States’ social fabric was until we got here,” she says.

“We felt the tension lift” within weeks of leaving America, agrees Sylvia Johnson, a psychiatrist who moved to Lisbon in 2022. For Ms Johnson and her family, who are black, the central issues were racism and violence. She had been trying for years to convince her husband Stanley, a lawyer, to move abroad. The strife after the murder of George Floyd in 2021 brought him around. He recalls saying: “‘I think we need to get a gun.’ When I said that out loud, I was like, if I have to live in a country where I need a gun to protect my family, then this is not the country for me.”

Stanley had a cross burned on his lawn while growing up in Virginia. Several of Sylvia’s relatives were killed by guns. Now they are relaxing some of the wariness that black Americans develop for detecting prejudice and coping with police. While there is some racism in Portugal, they say, they do not worry about violence.

Other factors are more prosaic. The huge increase in remote working during the pandemic made living abroad more feasible. And the European countries that lure the most Americans have set up tempting deals for foreigners. The Netherlands lets companies exempt 30% of skilled foreign workers’ income from taxes. In Portugal a residential visa requires income of just 150% of the national minimum wage, or about €1,100 ($1,190) per month–an easy hurdle for American retirees. Foreigners can pay a 10% flat tax on “passive income”, such as investments or a pension. Spain’s “Beckham law” offers a 24% flat tax for income earned in the country. Several countries are introducing “digital-nomad” visas for tech freelancers.

Such deals explain why these places are getting a lot of non-rich American expats. Other countries target the Christopher Newmans of the world. Italy aims to attract “high-net-worth individuals” by letting them pay €100,000 per year in income tax regardless of how much they earn. France has a complicated exemption aimed at foreign business executives. Germany, though, has none.

For all American expats’ tales of political disillusionment, it is less important than practical matters. “Everybody has convoluted how-I-ended-up-here stories,” says Amanda Klekowski von Koppenfels of the University of Kent, an authority on the American diaspora. Many travel for education or work, fall in love and settle down. Still, she says, there has been a change. Americans once felt that their country was the ultimate immigrant nation; leaving for anywhere else seemed odd. Now they are aware that Europe has its advantages: “good health care, better transportation, less gun violence, there’s racism but [it is] a lot less deadly.”

To listen to the new American expats is to get a sense that “The American” has been partly upended. Americans are still richer than Europeans. But when they come to the continent, they no longer arrive as egalitarians in lands of aristocracy and prejudice. Instead they admire Europe’s universal health care, efficient public transportation, lower crime and lower income inequality. In a way, they envy the Europeans’ liberty.

原文網(wǎng)址：

https://www.economist.com/europe/2023/08/28/why-europe-is-a-magnet-for-more-americans