Migration reversal: Why more Americans are now moving to Ireland

In a historic reversal, the number of Americans moving to Ireland last year was higher than the number of Irish people migrating to the US. Was this just a blip or the start of a more profound trend?

Michael Sable is an American stand-up comedian and communications manager who moved from Washington DC to Dublin in 2016. 

Sable, who draws on his experience of being an American living in the Republic of Ireland in his stand-up routine, says that, when he first arrived, many Irish people he met were surprised he'd made the move, but now they don't question it. 

"I've noticed that, as the years go on, people have been less and less incredulous when hearing that an American moved to Ireland," he says. 

Sable is one of a rising number of people who have moved to Ireland from the US, with the latest data showing the figure nearly doubling from 4,900 to 9,600 between 2024 and 2025, exceeding the number of Irish people headed in the opposite direction.

It comes as the US saw more people leave than arrive last year, according to a report from US think tank the Brookings Institution. It said this was the first time that this had been the case "in at least half a century". 

The think tank highlighted "dramatic changes in immigration policy" under the second administration of President Trump, including more removals of undocumented foreign workers, and the White House "all but suspend[ing]" the US programme for accepting refugees.

Separately, more American citizens are choosing to move abroad than ever before, says the Wall Street Journal. It calculated that "at least 180,000 Americans" voluntarily left the US in 2025, which it said was a record high.

The reversal in the flow of migration between Ireland and the US marks a historic turning point in the shared history of the two countries, which have deep-rooted ties. 

For centuries, millions of Irish people emigrated to the US in search of work or a better life, making Irish Americans one of the country's largest ethnic groups. There have been several US presidents with Irish ancestry, including John F Kennedy and Joe Biden, whose visits to Ireland were celebrated more like homecomings than diplomatic missions.

Irish writer Colm Tóibín has frequently explored the relationship between Ireland and the US in his work, particularly in his novels, Brooklyn and Long Island, which follow the story of an Irish girl who emigrates to America in the 1950s. 

Tóibín, who lives in the US, says the relationship between the US and Ireland has changed. "A myth was created that America was a great place of opportunity and wealth," he says. "It was built into the [Irish] culture that if there's any trouble, you go to England, if there's any ambition or spark you go to America."

Barry Cronin

"The flow of young people [from Ireland to the US] looking for work just hasn't continued. So, that is going to be a big change in the future, because you're not going to get the same easy connection between Ireland and America," he adds. 

The trend partly reflects political shifts in both countries. As well as developing into a high-tech, export-driven knowledge economy, Ireland has undergone a social transformation in recent decades, moving from a deeply conservative society to a liberal, progressive nation, following referendums on divorce, abortion and gay marriage.

Tóibín, who was a prominent campaigner for the "yes" vote in Ireland’s same-sex marriage referendum, says: "Everyone became more aware that Ireland was a more liberal, cosmopolitan, open society, and that it would be a good place to live."

By contrast, the US has moved to the political right under President Trump, who, since returning to office, has launched a major crackdown on illegal immigration.

Tóibín revisits the Irish-American immigrant experience in his latest short story collection, The News from Dublin. In one story in the collection, Five Bridges, the protagonist is an undocumented Irish immigrant preparing to leave America before US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, known as Ice, come looking for him. The number of Irish citizens deported from the US rose by more than 50% in 2025. 

"There are large numbers of Irish people in America who are official in every way – they pay taxes, own their own house, have kids in school, but they came in on a tourist visa," says Tóibín. "If Ice found them, Ice would detain them. That's really frightening."

Expatsi, a firm that helps US citizens to move abroad, reported it experienced a month's worth of traffic in the hours after President Trump's election in 2024. Expatsi co-founder Jen Barnett says the reasons Americans cite for leaving are wide-ranging. "[Factors include] what's going on politically in the US, and has been for 10 years, the cost of living, and then safety. Gun violence is so prevalent," she says. 

Politics was also a driving factor for Kevin Wozniak, an American lecturer living in Ireland. He and his husband left Boston in 2023 after he got a post at Maynooth University, 23km (14 miles) west of Dublin. 

"My motivation to look at opportunities abroad was deep fears about the trajectory of the country in the era of Donald Trump," Wozniak says. "Ireland has liberalised very significantly and has moved in exactly the opposite direction that the US is moving."

Kevin Wozniak

Natalia Lange, a migrant support worker based in Crosshaven, county Cork, moved there from Michigan with her husband after the 2024 US election. Lange, who is half-Hungarian and has an EU passport, dreamed of living in Ireland since visiting on a school trip. "Politically, Ireland aligns much more with how we think," she says. "The US has the infrastructure to take in a lot more people, but it's a lot less inviting."

Lauren Udoh, from Houston, Texas, moved to Claregalway, in county Galway, in 2021 after marrying her Irish husband. Udoh, who has two young children, works as an executive assistant and documents expat life on social media under the moniker TheGalwayGal. 

"One of the biggest benefits is safety. I feel a lot safer here," she says. "With kids going to school, you don’t have to worry about school shootings."

Lauren Udoh

Emigration from Ireland has fallen, with 65,600 people leaving in the year to April 2025, a 6% decrease on 2024, according to the Irish Central Statistics Office (CSO). For those wanting to live abroad, Australia is the most popular destination. 

The CSO said 13,500 people left Ireland for Australia in the year to April 2025, the highest level since 2013. This is more than double the estimated 6,100 people who left Ireland for the US, which was, however, still up 22% on the previous year.

Restrictions around J1 visas, which allow Irish university students to work and travel in the US, has caused many Irish students to rethink studying in the US. 

Karen McHugh, CEO at Safe Home Ireland, an organisation supporting Irish-born emigrants wishing to return to Ireland, says: "We've certainly noticed an increase in queries about returning [from the US to Ireland]," she says. "Australia and Canada are two major countries where people are now going to from Ireland, and that's ease of getting a visa."

Irish student Jamie McElhinney is currently on a work placement in Portugal as part of his hospitality management course. McElhinney, who studies at Dundalk Institute of Technology, says current immigration controls put him off seeking a work placement in the US. "I was going to go to Boston, and then all of the news about Ice started coming out. It’s a deterrent from going over there," he says. 

While there are opportunities in Ireland, with employment at 74.4%, there is also a growing housing crisis, with recent protests over the shortage of affordable housing. 

Barnett says the housing shortage is something the Americans her company helps to relocate are mindful of, adding: "They don't want to add to [the housing crisis], so one of the things we talk to them about is staying out of city centres."

Sable, whose Irish grandparents emigrated to the US in 1939, is one of many Americans whose ancestry enabled them to get an Irish passport. Applications for Irish passports in the US rose by 10% in 2024, the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs reported. 

Michael Sable

Sable now thinks of Ireland as home. "Culturally, I identify a lot more with Irish people," he says. "It's a very collective society, not huge on individualism like in the US."

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Bill Hillyard, another American with Irish roots, relocated to Ireland for the cooler climate. He and his wife Anne left California following wildfires in 2019. "My wife said we need to move somewhere where it rains." They now run a pub called The Algiers in Baltimore, Co Cork. 

Hillyard says he now tries to avoid turbulent events in the US. "I tried not to follow the news because I'm here now," he says. "But I'm reminded every day, because everyone asks me about Trump and what's going on there… I'm West Cork's ambassador to the US at this point."

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