Faced with an important turning point are the , due to the combination of his and his policies against the rights, as a lot of evidence reveals that the immigration flows to the USA have practically stopped and at the same time more and more Americans are leaving the country. At the same time, more and more people are paying companies or participating in interest groups with the goal of immigration.
Negative net migration for the first time in 50 years
The above picture was clearly described by a recent analysis by the Brookings Institution, according to the data of which net migration in 2025 was expected to move between -295,000 and -10,000 people, that is, from almost zero to negative for the first time in about half a century. This development, according to the same analysis, may continue in 2026, with projections remaining highly uncertain and dependent on different scenarios for migration flows.
Americans are leaving because of the cost of living and for political reasons
The “net” migration of US citizens from the US to other countries for 2025 according to reports amounted to 150,000 to 200,000 departures annually, while according to other estimates about 400,000 Americans left the US in the last two years. According to Gallup, approximately one in five Americans in this period would like to leave the country permanently, while thousands of others renounce their citizenship and move to countries in Europe, Asia, as well as Mexico and Central America.
The U.S. government does not officially record “outflows,” but data on residency permits, foreign home purchases, university enrollments and other indicators from more than 50 countries show Americans are “abandoning ship” on an unprecedented scale. Millions are studying, working remotely or spending their retirement abroad. For some Americans, it turns out that the new American dream is no longer living in their homeland.
The reasons vary. President Donald Trump emerges as the most important of them, but he is not the only factor. The negative immigration trend started years ago, fueled by the spread of remote work, the worsening cost of living and the growing desire for a more “international” lifestyle that seems increasingly possible, especially in Europe. About 68% of Americans considering leaving cite skyrocketing housing prices, the high cost of living and the inability to achieve financial prosperity as the main reasons.
A significant percentage of those who want to immigrate are women
Gallup’s relevant measurement has another dimension, which the Guardian emphasizes in its related article. A large percentage of those who are thinking of leaving the US or are leaving are women (the abortion decision and the overturning of Roe v Wade seem to be an important factor).
According to her, in 2025, 40% of American women aged 15 to 44 say they would move abroad permanently if they could. This percentage is four times higher than the 10% who expressed the same desire in 2014.
The percentage of younger women who want to immigrate to another country began to rise sharply in 2016, the final year of President Barack Obama’s second term. That year, Gallup conducted the survey in the US in June and July, after the two parties’ candidates for the November election, which Donald Trump eventually won, had already been decided.
The desire to immigrate has continued to rise, reaching 44% in the last year of Joe Biden’s presidency and remaining close to that level in 2025. The significant increase in this percentage has created a wide gap with men of the same age group as the difference recorded is in the order of 21 percentage points. Overall only 19% of younger men said they wanted to leave the US.
Trump is cracking down on immigration and tearing apart the job market and the economy
On the contrary, however, the American government keeps data on immigration to the USA. Based on this, flows through humanitarian entry and asylum programs, which in 2022–2023 exceeded 1.5 to 2 million people per year, have fallen to around 70,000 in 2025, and in some scenarios for 2026 they are almost zero. Accordingly, ‘illegal entry’ has fallen from around 270,000 in 2024 to just 22,000–39,000 in 2025, while refugee inflows have been reduced from around 105,000 in 2024 to under 12,000.
There is also a significant decline in green cards issued abroad, which fell from about 670,000 in 2024 to 560,000–575,000 in 2025, as well as temporary visas, which fell from about 2.17 million in 2024 to under 2 million in 2025.
As both Brookings and other experts note, this change has direct implications for the US economy, as in recent years the growth of the US labor force has come almost exclusively from immigration. Under the new treaty, the “breakeven” level for new job creation has been drastically reduced: from over 100,000–200,000 jobs per month in 2022–2024, to around 20,000–50,000 in the second half of 2025, and for 2026 in some scenarios it may even be close to zero.
The implications for development from the above element are a given. Brookings estimates that reducing immigration could shave about 0.2 to 0.3 percentage points off GDP in 2025, while cutting consumer spending by about $40 billion to $60 billion in 2025 and an additional $10 billion to $40 billion in 2026.
