# Do people really leave the country over politics? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 6, 2003, 6:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-people-really-leave-the-country-over-politics/217346 "2003-12-06T06:42:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Ms2001](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ms2001/32/18463_2.png) [@Ms2001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ms2001)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2003, 6:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-people-really-leave-the-country-over-politics/217346/1 "2003-12-06T06:42:41Z")
There’s a (Pit? GD?) thread now about a claim that Alec Baldwin allegedly made, saying he’d leave the country if Bush were elected. Now, I don’t really care where celebrities choose to live, but I’ve also heard people say “If you don’t like [some law or decision] then get out,” which makes me wonder if anyone actually _does_ get out. Is there any evidence that more people move out of the United States following controversial election results, court decisions, policy changes, etc. than at any other time? ---
**Author:** ![SeekingTruth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/34f0e0/32.png) [@SeekingTruth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SeekingTruth)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2003, 6:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-people-really-leave-the-country-over-politics/217346/2 "2003-12-06T06:51:21Z")
Mr2001, I started the thread in the Pit, if anyone wants to see what it is. I doubt anyone renounces their citizenship (though they may leave for awhile in protest if they can afford to) Re: Jonny Depp. I suspect it’s because most people realize with the checks and balances set up, there will never be any one person that could fell the Republic. ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2003, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-people-really-leave-the-country-over-politics/217346/3 "2003-12-08T02:21:46Z")
I moved to Germany in 1992 and lived there until 1994. Granted it’s the Army that sent me there, and it was just slightly before the 1992 elections, but I supposed by occulting that former information I could make the argument that _I_ left the country over elections. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![county](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ce7236/32.png) [@county](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/county)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2003, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-people-really-leave-the-country-over-politics/217346/4 "2003-12-08T02:46:16Z")
I don’t have a cite but I heard a lot of people left California after Arnold was elected. ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2003, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-people-really-leave-the-country-over-politics/217346/5 "2003-12-08T03:46:58Z")
[Here’s to all the draft resisters](http://www.steppenwolf.com/lyr/dratre.html) Of course the Vietnam war wasn’t about politics, right? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![BobT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2003, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-people-really-leave-the-country-over-politics/217346/6 "2003-12-08T05:12:51Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by county \* > \*\*I don’t have a cite but I heard a lot of people left California after Arnold was elected. \*\* You heard that from whom? Schwarzenegger was elected by a wide margin and is quite popular and he does not have a significant amount of organized opposition. ---
**Author:** ![mcbiggins](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7c8e57/32.png) [@mcbiggins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mcbiggins)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2003, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-people-really-leave-the-country-over-politics/217346/7 "2003-12-08T06:03:47Z")
I left the States in 1995 becuase my dad got a job in Toronto, but I’m not going back because of politics. People with either means or excuses leave one country for another all of the time. A better question would be “Can Americans become politcal refugees?” In Canada, no. Not since the end of the draft. Some havetried though, but they get turned down by the refugee board. ---
**Author:** ![ruadh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d2c977/32.png) [@ruadh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ruadh)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2003, 6:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-people-really-leave-the-country-over-politics/217346/8 "2003-12-08T06:17:06Z")
I left before Dubya was elected, and don’t plan to go back anyway, but certainly would not as long as he is President. My brother recently married a girl who is eligible for Irish citizenship through her grandmother. She is pursuing it now so that she and my brother can leave the U.S. if things don’t change there. BTW, Arnie’s election was one of the factors that convinced my sister to leave California. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2003, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-people-really-leave-the-country-over-politics/217346/9 "2003-12-08T17:53:18Z")
Not quite the same extreme, but a man who now works for me swore back in 1991 that he would resign his Army commission if Clinton were elected, then did so. ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2003, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-people-really-leave-the-country-over-politics/217346/10 "2003-12-08T23:43:35Z")
I don’t know if the draft resisters who went to Canada count. I’ll point out without impugning their motives that most of them wouldn’t have gone if they could have avoided the draft without going to prison. Lee Harvey Oswald emigrated to the USSR, but the real reason was probably because he was a loser and thought he’d do better there. ---
**Author:** ![olefin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/d78d45/32.png) [@olefin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/olefin)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2003, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-people-really-leave-the-country-over-politics/217346/11 "2003-12-09T01:22:49Z")
There was a bunch in Hollywood that was going to move if President Bush got elected… but they never. I was really hoping they would move to Russia! 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2003, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-people-really-leave-the-country-over-politics/217346/12 "2003-12-09T03:42:27Z")
I’ve met quite a few South Africans who emigrated to Australia during apartheid. Although their reasons varied from the altruistic (“I don’t want to be part of an oppressive scheme”) through to the pragmatic (“when the blacks get power they are going to whup our white asses”), the former would seem to count as people who move over politics. ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2003, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-people-really-leave-the-country-over-politics/217346/13 "2003-12-09T04:07:05Z")
I’m sort of in the same boat as **mcbiggins**. I went overseas for job and education reasons back in '95, but when I look at what’s happened in the US since then (and I don’t count the 2000 election as one of them), I just don’t feel any great desire to go back. ---
**Author:** ![SeekingTruth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/34f0e0/32.png) [@SeekingTruth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SeekingTruth)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2003, 6:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-people-really-leave-the-country-over-politics/217346/14 "2003-12-09T06:26:03Z")
Where is talk of California coming from? I thought we were talking renouncing citizenship. Most people leaving California were doing so long before the recall. High taxes, low job growth, heavy-handed enviromental policies. No wonder Nevada had such a high influx during the '90’s. ---
**Author:** ![noddygrrl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/47e85d/32.png) [@noddygrrl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/noddygrrl)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2003, 7:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-people-really-leave-the-country-over-politics/217346/15 "2003-12-09T07:55:26Z")
I left shortly after Bush took office, and though this was definitely not my primary reason for wanting to live outside the US, it was one more negative factor which helped sway me towards finally take the plunge. My experience is similar to that of **Sublight** and **mcbiggins** , I think. Politics rates pretty high on my list of reasons now when people ask why I don’t want to go back. ---
**Author:** ![istara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e79b87/32.png) [@istara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/istara)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2003, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-people-really-leave-the-country-over-politics/217346/16 "2003-12-09T21:25:35Z")
I have met Brits here to claim to have fled the Blair regime. And others that are very reluctant to go back until things improve in Britain. ---
**Author:** ![Silver\_Serpentine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3be4f8/32.png) [@Silver\_Serpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silver_Serpentine)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2003, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-people-really-leave-the-country-over-politics/217346/17 "2003-12-09T23:37:06Z")
If I could figure out how the hell to do it and find a job, I’d move to Canada in a heartbeat. I’ve looked it up, tho, and the whole Becominng a Canadian Citizen thing confuses me. ---
**Author:** ![SpoilerVirgin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@SpoilerVirgin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpoilerVirgin)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2003, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-people-really-leave-the-country-over-politics/217346/18 "2003-12-10T00:27:47Z")
Snopes has a pretty thorough article on [celebrities who promised to leave the country if George W. Bush was elected](http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/outrage/leave.htm), including a discussion of Alec Baldwin. Apparently it wasn’t Alec himself, but his wife Kim Basinger who told a German magazine that Alec would leave the country if Bush won. ---
**Author:** ![olefin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/d78d45/32.png) [@olefin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/olefin)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2003, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-people-really-leave-the-country-over-politics/217346/19 "2003-12-10T00:31:25Z")
Love it or leave it… I like that! I wish everyone that doesn’t love our country and our freedom would just pick up and leave. 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![Popup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/94ad74/32.png) [@Popup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Popup)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2003, 11:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-people-really-leave-the-country-over-politics/217346/20 "2003-12-10T11:55:29Z")
Not in the US, but in the 1930’s a lot of people left Germany because they didn’t like the democratically elected governement. Similarly Trotsky’s voluntary exile was politically motivated - although the regime he opposed was not democratically elected. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-people-really-leave-the-country-over-politics/217346.md?page=2)