Not Just Citizenship: What Our Data Reveals About the American Exit Mindset

1. What We’re Measuring Isn’t Just Citizenship

At LuxCitizenship, we’ve helped more than 2,450 Americans reclaim Luxembourg nationality since 2018. But behind every application lies another story — one less about ancestry, and more about agency.

What started as a genealogical service evolved into a data-rich observatory on one of the most underreported trends of the decade: the psychological shift in how Americans think about belonging, mobility, and identity.

In recent years, dual citizenship has moved from heritage curiosity to strategic planning — a personal hedge against uncertainty. Since late 2024, our data has confirmed what our clients have been whispering for years: something deeper is shifting in the American psyche.

2. The Data Tells a Clearer Story Than the News Cycle

Let’s be precise.

• 2024: We closed the year with 1,201 eligibility inquiries for Luxembourg dual citizenship — a 52% increase over our previous annual average of 792.
• Early 2025: In just the first two months, we’ve already logged 390 inquiries — on pace to double last year’s record.
• Oct 21, 2024 – Mar 6, 2025: We registered 700 inquiries and 279 new clients — a 131% increase in inquiries and a 42% increase in conversions compared to the same period a year earlier.

But the volume is only part of the picture. What’s even more revealing is the language people use when they reach out.

We analyzed 1,500 open-text responses to the prompt: “I want to become a citizen of Luxembourg because…” using NLP and sentiment analysis tools.

Before the 2024 U.S. presidential election, most responses reflected heritage pride and travel aspirations. Sentiment scores were mildly positive — averaging 0.184 on a normalized scale.

After the election, something snapped. While sentiment ticked up slightly to 0.195, the intensity surged. Keywords like “stability,” “escape,” “safety,” “democracy,” and “uncertainty” spiked — used in emotionally charged, future-facing terms.

This isn’t just data. It’s a quantified shift in collective psychology: from roots to risk management.

3. From Dual Citizens to Dual Mindsets

The picture that emerges from the data isn’t just about paperwork — it’s about perspective.

We’re seeing the rise of a dual mindset, where individuals aren’t simply acquiring a second passport. They’re adopting a second framework for life.

For some, Luxembourg is symbolic. For others, it’s tactical. But across the board, dual citizenship is no longer about honoring the past — it’s about engineering personal resilience amid institutional fragility.

Many of these clients are still deeply engaged with U.S. life. They vote, pay taxes, and raise families in America. But they’re diversifying their national identity — consciously and at scale.

This is not a fringe movement. It’s a demographic shift hiding in plain sight.

4. Why Data Alone Isn’t Enough — And Why We Built AER

This combination — high-velocity data and emotionally charged narratives — is precisely what led us to launch the American Emigration Revue (AER).

Our internal numbers revealed the change long before the now-famous September 2024 New York Times article, “The American Voters Leaving U.S. Politics.” But while the press flagged the pattern, they couldn’t connect the dots like we could.

Through AER, we’re doing just that: bridging hard data, migration policy, and identity narratives.

We gather statistics from foreign ministries, analyze multilingual press, and align it all with the NLP and sentiment modeling we’ve developed through our intake systems.

Where others see anecdotes, we see indicators.
Where others see flukes, we see signals of a generational realignment.

5. This Isn’t Brain Drain — It’s Identity Realignment

The American exit mindset isn’t driven solely by elite privilege. Our client base includes high-net-worth individuals, yes — but also teachers, tech workers, artists, and single parents.

They’re not all “leaving” the U.S. permanently. Many are positioning themselves. Creating options. Building buffers.

Patterns we’ve tracked include:

• A 3x spike in inquiries from swing states immediately post-election.
• Significant growth among clients under 40 — particularly those in remote-friendly fields.
• A surge in those pursuing additional residency pathways — including Portuguese golden visas, French long-stay permits, and even Japanese cultural visas — often starting with Luxembourg as their legal beachhead.

What we’re witnessing is not just exit strategy. It’s the emergence of a transnational American identity — one designed, not inherited.

6. Where This All Leads

We now operate at a convergence point:

• Historical citizenship reclamation through ancestry.
• Quantitative modeling of American motivations and migration behavior.
• A cultural reframing of what it means to be American in an unstable world.

That’s the space I’ve found myself in — not just as a service provider, but as an analyst, researcher, and interpreter of a story that’s still unfolding.

The numbers will keep rising. The motivations will keep evolving. But what remains constant is our purpose:

To provide clarity in a time of movement.
To connect stories to systems.
And to name the American emigration mindset for what it is:
Not an anomaly, but an emerging paradigm.