Link (Archive)
She wasn’t alone. The past three years of Covid-19 and increased social upheaval in America have caused a small but significant exodus of Black professional women from the US in search of a better quality of life. They are packing up, some with kids in tow, starting businesses abroad and not looking back.
Michelle Wedderburn, now in her 50s, says she left Florida for San Miguel de Allende in 2018 with her now 10-year-old son primarily because she wanted to raise him to be bilingual, but also because she was concerned about school shootings in the US and the easy access to illegal drugs in South Florida. “I wanted his childhood to resemble a time when things were simpler,” she says. “Mexico provides us with this.”
Ashley Cleveland, a high-income tech professional working 60-hour weeks in Atlanta, got her third pink slip in five years in January 2020. After therapy for burnout and severe depression, the then-36-year-old realized she needed to change her environment. “I was living in a society that did not value the mental or physical wellness of Black women,” she says. Cleveland moved to Tanzania with her daughters, age 2 and 11, before settling in South Africa a month ago.
In September 2020, Perry co-founded the ExodUS Summit, a digital platform to help women determine how to leave the US. It featured talks on planning for long-term travel, finding house-sitting opportunities abroad and turning expertise into an online business. Perry thought a dozen women might sign up for the event, but more than 3,000 registered. In 2022 the third online summit hosted more than 4,500. A private Facebook group now includes almost 9,000 members who share relocation tips and host meetups in the US and overseas. Other groups have also formed since 2020, such as Blaxit Global.
“This is a movement,” Perry says. “I think Black women have discovered that the American dream is not necessarily possible in America.” A survey of 2020 summit attendees showed that 25% to 30% of members earned more than $200,000 a year and held graduate or professional degrees. The majority are also Generation Xers or baby boomers.
The first wave of Black women leaving the US could afford to move without needing to work, Perry explains. A second wave of working women is now looking for different ways to make money or find remote jobs. Perry and her business partner, Roshida Dowe, a former lawyer who retired early at 39 in Mexico City, offer coaching on turning ideas into online businesses and obtaining residency. They also bring in women to teach various freelancing skills and show them how to make money in real estate and investing.
Popular relocation destinations among Black Americans include Mexico, Portugal and the Caribbean. Some have settled as far away as Bangkok. “I expect there to be a time when we look back and say this was another Great Migration,” Perry says. Many of these destinations have a lower cost of living.
Racist encounters aren’t eliminated abroad, but life can be easier thanks to the privilege that comes with being an American. “Outside of the US, money often trumps anti-Blackness,” says Dowe, though she recognizes the issue is fraught. (Whether richer immigrants are displacing local populations is a topic for another article.)
The wealth disparity between Black and White Americans has worsened in recent decades. As of 2019, Black Americans had one-sixth of the wealth of White Americans. More than half of Black Americans also say that overcoming wealth inequality is a struggle no matter how hard they work, according to a Pulse of Black America survey. Concerns over disparate health-care treatment and voting rights are also high, the report showed.
In Mexico, Wedderburn makes money by offering move-abroad consultations and selling “relocation tours”—weeklong stays to acclimate to San Miguel de Allende. Guests go on excursions, scout neighborhoods with a real estate agent and listen to presentations from medical insurance and immigration experts. Her guesthouse, Casa ELM, opened in 2022. She adds that she has more living space than she had in Florida, and her rent hovers around $600 a month for a three-story, three-bedroom home.
For Cleveland, the cost of living came to almost $10,000 a month in Georgia, but her budget in Tanzania—with two daughters, a full-time house helper, a driver, groceries and vacations—added up to only $2,500 a month.
Buying as a Black person in America “is not sustainable. It doesn’t shelter you from racism and White supremacy,” Cleveland says, citing recent allegations of discrimination by the Black couple who purchased Freedom Acres Ranch in rural Colorado. “So let’s try something new. That’s really all it is,” she adds. Cleveland’s company, BrandUp Global, helps Americans expand their businesses in Africa and invest there.
Perry has settled in San José, Costa Rica, for at least the next five years. She rejects the argument that Black women are abandoning a country they worked hard to build. “There are people who expect to magically get something from the United States that they have not gotten so far and that their parents have never gotten, and their great-grandparents,” she says. “If what you want is a life of peace, a life of safety, a life of joy, you should have that, and it’s much easier for Black women to have that in other countries.”
Black Women Are Banding Together to Leave America Behind. Here’s Why
In 2015, Stephanie Perry left her job as a pharmacy technician on the night shift and spent 12 months traveling across Southeast Asia, Australia and parts of Europe. “I felt like my life revolved around my work, but traveling around the world showed me that there is another way,” says Perry, who is Black and in her 40s. “You can have a full life in other countries that we don’t necessarily have in the US.”She wasn’t alone. The past three years of Covid-19 and increased social upheaval in America have caused a small but significant exodus of Black professional women from the US in search of a better quality of life. They are packing up, some with kids in tow, starting businesses abroad and not looking back.
Michelle Wedderburn, now in her 50s, says she left Florida for San Miguel de Allende in 2018 with her now 10-year-old son primarily because she wanted to raise him to be bilingual, but also because she was concerned about school shootings in the US and the easy access to illegal drugs in South Florida. “I wanted his childhood to resemble a time when things were simpler,” she says. “Mexico provides us with this.”
Ashley Cleveland, a high-income tech professional working 60-hour weeks in Atlanta, got her third pink slip in five years in January 2020. After therapy for burnout and severe depression, the then-36-year-old realized she needed to change her environment. “I was living in a society that did not value the mental or physical wellness of Black women,” she says. Cleveland moved to Tanzania with her daughters, age 2 and 11, before settling in South Africa a month ago.
In September 2020, Perry co-founded the ExodUS Summit, a digital platform to help women determine how to leave the US. It featured talks on planning for long-term travel, finding house-sitting opportunities abroad and turning expertise into an online business. Perry thought a dozen women might sign up for the event, but more than 3,000 registered. In 2022 the third online summit hosted more than 4,500. A private Facebook group now includes almost 9,000 members who share relocation tips and host meetups in the US and overseas. Other groups have also formed since 2020, such as Blaxit Global.
“This is a movement,” Perry says. “I think Black women have discovered that the American dream is not necessarily possible in America.” A survey of 2020 summit attendees showed that 25% to 30% of members earned more than $200,000 a year and held graduate or professional degrees. The majority are also Generation Xers or baby boomers.
The first wave of Black women leaving the US could afford to move without needing to work, Perry explains. A second wave of working women is now looking for different ways to make money or find remote jobs. Perry and her business partner, Roshida Dowe, a former lawyer who retired early at 39 in Mexico City, offer coaching on turning ideas into online businesses and obtaining residency. They also bring in women to teach various freelancing skills and show them how to make money in real estate and investing.
Popular relocation destinations among Black Americans include Mexico, Portugal and the Caribbean. Some have settled as far away as Bangkok. “I expect there to be a time when we look back and say this was another Great Migration,” Perry says. Many of these destinations have a lower cost of living.
Racist encounters aren’t eliminated abroad, but life can be easier thanks to the privilege that comes with being an American. “Outside of the US, money often trumps anti-Blackness,” says Dowe, though she recognizes the issue is fraught. (Whether richer immigrants are displacing local populations is a topic for another article.)
The wealth disparity between Black and White Americans has worsened in recent decades. As of 2019, Black Americans had one-sixth of the wealth of White Americans. More than half of Black Americans also say that overcoming wealth inequality is a struggle no matter how hard they work, according to a Pulse of Black America survey. Concerns over disparate health-care treatment and voting rights are also high, the report showed.
In Mexico, Wedderburn makes money by offering move-abroad consultations and selling “relocation tours”—weeklong stays to acclimate to San Miguel de Allende. Guests go on excursions, scout neighborhoods with a real estate agent and listen to presentations from medical insurance and immigration experts. Her guesthouse, Casa ELM, opened in 2022. She adds that she has more living space than she had in Florida, and her rent hovers around $600 a month for a three-story, three-bedroom home.
For Cleveland, the cost of living came to almost $10,000 a month in Georgia, but her budget in Tanzania—with two daughters, a full-time house helper, a driver, groceries and vacations—added up to only $2,500 a month.
Buying as a Black person in America “is not sustainable. It doesn’t shelter you from racism and White supremacy,” Cleveland says, citing recent allegations of discrimination by the Black couple who purchased Freedom Acres Ranch in rural Colorado. “So let’s try something new. That’s really all it is,” she adds. Cleveland’s company, BrandUp Global, helps Americans expand their businesses in Africa and invest there.
Perry has settled in San José, Costa Rica, for at least the next five years. She rejects the argument that Black women are abandoning a country they worked hard to build. “There are people who expect to magically get something from the United States that they have not gotten so far and that their parents have never gotten, and their great-grandparents,” she says. “If what you want is a life of peace, a life of safety, a life of joy, you should have that, and it’s much easier for Black women to have that in other countries.”
