It’s been a while since my last post. I’d been meaning to write, but I’ve been busy with updating my moving abroad ebook (“Should I Stay Or Should I Go” http://expatliving101.com/amx.php?adminid=5001&tid=14003), meeting article deadlines, visiting the UK, etc and the time has just gone … you know how it is.
But I thought I’d post an article I’ve just sent to my newsletter subscribers, in honour of the events of this week.
Is America The Place To Be?
There’s no doubt Barack Obama’s election as President of the United States is a momentous – if not a defining – event in the country’s history, fostering amazing scenes of jubilation not only in the States but around the world, from Americans and non-Americans alike.
Of course there are millions of disappointed McCain supporters. But given the size of the turnout and the winning margin, it’s evident that Obama’s platform for change has resonated far and wide.
And more than that, the sense I get as an outsider is that there is a new era of hope in the US. (And believe me, the rest of us around the world are just as happy to see a switch of personnel in the White House.)
As for the implications of Obama’s election from a moving abroad perspective, there are a couple of points I’d like to highlight.
The first is how Obama has succeeded in giving new life – and colour – to the American Dream.
You only have to take a cursory look at his biography to see what a fascinating story his is. And in the post-election analysis people are already talking about the inspiration he is giving to their lives, and the example he is setting to their children of what is possible, that anyone in America truly can make it all the way to the top.
So at a time when America’s position as the world’s torch-bearer for life, liberty and opportunity – the beacon that has lured so many millions to its shores since those early settlers in the seventeenth century – was seriously guttering, Obama represents a rekindling force.
As such, he may help America regain its attractiveness, both for the people that already live there but had become disenchanted, and prospective immigrants.
The second, related, point is the widely-reported feeling that the election has made many Americans more proud of their country.
The Bush administrations have, without doubt, blighted America’s reputation around the world, inciting derision at best and murderous hate at worst. And from accounts I’ve read, and people I’ve spoken to, the Bush era seems to have spurred sizable numbers of Americans to move abroad, or at least want to.
But with the events of last Tuesday there are signs that perhaps America’s standing is back on the up. And given these times of unparalleled economic, diplomatic and military crises that is much needed, for all our sakes.
A blog on the Huffington Post (Expat No More? Proud to be an American Abroad, Vivian Norris de Montaigu, November 5, 2008 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/vivian-norris-de-montaigu/expat-no-more-proud-to-be_b_141294.html) summed it up when the writer said how friends in the US had been threatening to leave the country if John McCain was elected, but that she was now hearing about Americans abroad who want to return to the States.
Perhaps America will be a pretty good place to be after all, whatever your current location and nationality.
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