In California, a ballot initiative is brewing for this November's elections that would deny state services to undocumented immigrants. In Florida, Gov. Lawton Chiles is suing the federal government for more than $1.4 billion to help pay the costs of providing educational, health-care and other crucial services for illegal aliens in his state. And in the nation's capital, Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-Calif.), a member of the House International Law, Immigration and Refugees Subcommittee, is exploring the possibility of a constitutional amendment that would revoke the citizenship of any person whose mother was in the U.S. illegally at the time she gave birth.

Coast to coast, town halls and legislatures, editorials and airwaves are roiling with anti-alien polemics. But while pols and pundits debate whether this nation descended from immigrants has had its fill of poor and huddled masses, almost everyone in the country is missing a far more troubling immigration story: We ought to be worrying about the people who are leaving the U.S., not just those who are slipping in.

Growing evidence from a five-month investigation by MONEY suggests that record numbers of Americans are pulling up stakes each year and moving abroad to seek economic opportunity and better lives. Even more disturbing, the people who are leaving the U.S. include some of the country' s wealthiest and best-educated native-born citizens. Consider:

-- As many as 250,000 people emigrate from the U.S. each year, up from approximately 160,000 a decade ago, according to estimates by Census Bureau officials and experts at the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS).

-- These days, as many as half of those who emigrate are native-born Americans, say government officials, while an estimated 80% of those who left for good between 1900 and 1980 were former immigrants returning home.

-- Among college-educated Americans and those who earn $50,000 a year or more, an astounding one in four reports that he or she has considered moving to another country, according to an exclusive MONEY poll taken this spring (margin of error: plus or minus 3.1%).

-- There's evidence that more skills are draining from the country than are entering it. For example, a 1990 U.S.-Canadian Government study of migration shows that American immigrants to Canada were nearly 50% more likely to hold college degrees than the general U.S. population or than Canadian immigrants moving here.

To be sure, the U.S. still gains more people from other nations than it loses to them. An estimated 7 million immigrants entered the U.S. in the 1980s alone, and roughly 850,000 to 1.1 million immigrants continue to cross our borders each year. But the growing flight of America's top achievers is nonetheless ominous, recalling historic "brain drains" experienced by countries around the globe -- from Germany in the 1930s to the Philippines in the 1960s to, most notably, the departure of well-heeled British from tax-burdened England, also in the 1960s. "There are insidious implications when you lose your best and brightest citizens," says Ikubolajeh Logan, director of African-American Studies at the University of Georgia in Athens and an expert on such population shifts. "Economic and social progress are slowed and the country's expectations about itself are reduced."

To better understand what's driving this trend and how it affects your future, MONEY interviewed dozens of demographic researchers, social scientists and government officials. We also visited and talked to scores of newly expatriated Americans in more than a dozen countries: from job-hungry Generation X-ers seeking economic opportunity to stressed-out baby boomers searching for safer streets and better schools. Here, in greater detail, is our disturbing report:

"Not everyone thinks the U.S. is the most wonderful place in the world to live," says Robert Warren, director of statistics for the INS. That sentiment no doubt surprises unregenerate nationalists who argue that America is drowning in a tidal wave of immigrants. But the percentage of foreign-born people in the U.S. has actually fallen -- from 8.8% in 1940 to only 6.8% today. And while 30 million people immigrated to the U.S. between 1900 and 1980, 10 million left during the same period, according to Colgate University researcher Ellen Kraly, co-author with Warren of a study called "The Elusive Exodus: Emigration From the United States."

Yet scant attention is paid to how many and which Americans choose to emigrate, even as the debate about immigration roars. The INS stopped tracking emigration in 1957, in part because accurate figures are hard to come by: Americans who leave are not generally required to give up their U.S. citizenship, and few countries accurately monitor or report the national origins of their newcomers. Worse, officially the Census Bureau still uses the decade-old estimate that places annual emigration at 160,000. "Indications are that it is higher, but we don't know by how much," acknowledges Greg Robinson, chief of the population analysis and estimates staff of the Population Division of the Census Bureau. Privately, however, officials at Census and the INS cite the 250,000 figure.

To understand why so many Americans are fleeing the U.S. is, in part, to plug into a pervasive sense of disillusionment and pessimism in the country today. According to MONEY's recent poll, three out of five Americans say the quality of life in the U.S. is getting worse, and nearly as many (58%) express similar feelings about economic and job opportunities. Little wonder, then, that nearly one out of every five Americans say they have seriously considered leaving the country.

Of course, the idea of pulling up roots for an international move is hardly as dramatic as it was even a generation ago. Travel is easier and cheaper than ever and, especially for the well educated and wealthy, findingacceptance and jobs in new lands is not the daunting task it once was. Says Arnold Dashefsky, co-author of Americans Abroad: A Comparative Study of Emigrants From the United States (Plenum, $27.50): "As unbelievable as it may be to late-20th-century citizens of the U.S., emigration may be a more common trend in the next century."

A surprisingly broad range of people are already getting out. At one end are foreign-born emigrants, who may have accumulated some money here but still have decided U.S. streets aren't paved with gold. At the other extreme are those whose departure poses the greatest threat: well-educated, native-born citizens adventuresome enough to imagine moving to another culture and wealthy enough to finance it. "Educated people are more likely to make a long move because their background and opportunities allow them to be more far-thinking and aggressive," points out William Frey, a demographer at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. "An engineer is more likely than a janitor to think he can improve his lot with a move. And he's more likely to be able to afford it."

Large numbers of career-oriented Americans with families are heading overseas in search of kinder values and a gentler national spirit. They're looking for more responsive schools, greater respect for family life and, perhaps most keenly, safer streets. Of Americans surveyed by MONEY who consider moving abroad, those ages 35 to 49 were most likely to say they are motivated by worries about crime -- no surprise in a country where teenagers tote guns to school and the number of violent crimes reached 6.6 million in 1992. "You've got a lot of baby boomers who realize they're not raising kids in the America that they knew," says David Murray of the Heritage Foundation, a Washington, D.C. think tank. "They used to move to Oregon or Montana to escape. Now they're going to Vancouver or beyond." Way beyond. From 1960 to 1976, nine out of every 10 Americans who emigrated ended up in one of seven countries -- Mexico, Germany, England, Canada, Japan, Australia and Israel. Today many still head for those countries, but they also choose more diverse locales such as the Czech Republic, where the American expatriate population has soared to an estimated 20,000 from fewer than 100 in 1989, or Hong Kong, where American ranks have nearly doubled to 27,000, from 14,000 in 1986.

Americans are even moving to once shunned countries like South Africa. "The pace was so fast in the States we never had time to get to know each other," says Aleece Tyler-Cooper, 38, who moved with her husband and three children to Johannesburg in 1990, part of a growing number of African Americans immigrating to that country. "This move has brought our family much closer, " she says.

John Roosen and Susan Rogers have similar hopes for rejuvenation in their new homeland. This past February, the couple and their three sons, ages 6, 9 and 14, moved to New Zealand, a nation of 3.5 million people. "We wanted to slow down and spend more time with our kids," says Susan, 43, the former director of general services for Solano County near San Francisco.

For many emigrants, though, the pace here isn't fast enough -- at least, not the growth rate. In MONEY's poll, more than two out of five Americans ages 18 to 34 who have considered emigrating cite better economic opportunities as the reason. "The U.S. is a slow-moving market, and I thought it would be easier to make my fortune in a smaller economy," says Michael Schmitz, 31, who in 1992 moved with his wife from Rockville, Md. to start a computer distribution company in Argentina. "It's like the wild West here."

Not all recent emigrants sound like latter-day Horace Greeleys. Many citizens leave the U.S. by default, convinced that the career paths of their parents are either undesirable or unattainable. And though the U.S. has rebounded smartly from recession, prospects are still bleak for those just entering the work force. A recent study by the Collegiate Employment Research Institute at Michigan State University projects a meager 1% lift in hiring for the class of 1994 -- and that after a 35% drop over the past five years. "It feels like 10,000 people interview for every opening in New York," says Gregg Betz, 25, who moved to Europe without a job after graduating with a bachelor's degree in business from the State University of New York at Albany in 1991. "I figured Eastern Europe had more promise," says Betz, who eventually landed employment as the business development manager for baby-food giant Gerber Products in Prague.

What work there is to be found in the U.S. is often derided by twentysomethings as "McJobs" because the positions offer no more pay or career opportunities than flipping burgers does. In fact, almost one in every six U.S. jobs pays below the poverty line for a family of four, or $14,228 a year. And many young Americans have soured on the Darwinian corporate culture in which 1.4 million managers lost their jobs since 1990. "We were raised on leveraged buy-outs and downsizing," says Trevor Cornwell, 30, a former nonprofit executive from suburban New York who is starting an English-language radio network in Budapest. "It's a different world than the one our parents knew."

Fueling the exodus is a global economic shift. For the first time in history, three developing regions of the world -- Latin America, Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia -- clearly possess the requisites for real economic growth. "All the elements are in place," says Robert Gay, director of Latin American research at Bankers Trust in New York City, "including rising incomes, privatization of state-owned businesses, the opening of trade and capital markets."

Most emigres, in fact, find relatively few government obstacles in their new lands. "What you don't have in many developing nations that you do have in the U.S. is a tax and regulatory environment that stifles business innovation," says Russell Roberts, director of the Management Center at Washington University in St. Louis and author of The Choice: A Fable of Free Trade and Protectionism (Prentice Hall, $11.95).

Adam Haven-Weiss, 26, agrees. "We started thinking seriously about getting into business around the 1992 presidential elections in the U.S.," he says. "But there was a sense Clinton would make it harder to run a small business." Instead, Haven-Weiss and his two partners moved to Budapest in 1993 to open a chain of bagel shops.

Many expatriate entrepreneurs get their start meeting the needs of American workers imported by multinationals such as Coca-Cola or Philip Morris. These corporate juggernauts often generate a third or more of their annual earnings overseas, and their ubiquitous presence has shrunk the globe. "Many of my customers are Americans who miss what would be considered basics in the States," says Whitney Brown, a 24-year-old from Aspen who moved to Prague in 1991 and started Affordable Luxuries, which provides dry cleaning, babysitting and other such services.

Lower operating costs abroad also attract entrepreneurs. "We're doing this by the seat of our pants," admits Gretchen Worth, 33, a Dryden, N.Y. native who moved to Hong Kong in 1989 and, with two friends, started HK magazine, an English-language city and entertainment biweekly (see the box on page 70). "Printing and labor are so much cheaper here than in the States."

Whatever their reasons for leaving, the loss of such innovators may have far-reaching consequences for the U.S. Just imagine if back in 1975 Microsoft founder billionaire Bill Gates had moved to New Delhi to do his tinkering with computer software. Bill Gates wannabes are no doubt eyeing India's burgeoning computer market today. Says demographer Frey: "A brain drain is a concern because you are losing not only your youngest, but your smartest as well."

How many the country will actually lose for good is uncertain. Many will undoubtedly return home, presumably older and more prosperous. But few of the emigres interviewed by MONEY seem in any hurry. "When I visit the States, so many things make me anxious to leave," says Lisa Frankenberg, 25, who graduated from the University of California at Santa Barbara in 1990 and now co-owns the Prague Post, an English-language newspaper in the Czech Republic. "American culture has become a choice between talk shows about high school wrestlers who rape teammates or whether blondes really do have more fun."

This alienation resonates across the oceans. Whether the issue is crime, the economy, taxes or the environment, "there is a sense of dismay, a sense that the U.S. has gone too far in the wrong directions," says the Heritage Foundation's Murray. Expatriates may have mixed feelings about the friends, family and country they leave behind, but they're still packing up.

"We are patriots," says Susan Rogers, who, like her husband, an environmental engineer, served in the U.S. Coast Guard. "But America has to understand that if it can't provide citizens with what they need, it will lose more and more of them. We've finally captured the American dream. It's just a shame that we had to come to New Zealand to do it."

JOHN ROOSEN AND SUSAN ROGERS, BOTH 43, had it all -- thriving children, a 3,800-square-foot home north of San Francisco and a $150,000 annual income. But their American dream took a surprising turn. Last February, Rogers quit as director of general services for Solano County and, with sons Chris, 14, Nick, 9, and Tim, 6, moved to New Zealand. Roosen, an environmental scientist finishing work in the U.S., will join them next winter.

The family visited New Zealand in 1992 and were hooked by its lush scenery -- and national priorities. "Look at the difference in education," says Rogers. Chris, for example, now attends Nelson College, a typical public school that offers electives like Japanese and forestry as well as core subjects. Back at cash-strapped Hill Middle School in Novato, Calif., Chris shared a science book.

"In the U.S., we open too many prisons and close too many schools," says Rogers. Roosen agrees: "Decay was all around us -- in education, the environment and family life. Escape from America was our only alternative."

AS UNDERGRADS AT HARVARD, ADAM HAVEN-Weiss and Robert Brooker dreamed of starting their own business. But by fall 1992, Haven-Weiss was at Columbia University Law School and Brooker was working at a Boston brokerage. When law school friend Andrew Bednar mentioned the reforms transforming Hungary, where his family is from, "everything just clicked," says Haven-Weiss, now 26.

After scouting trips and researching the food-services business, the friends opted to open a bagel restaurant in Budapest, moving there in May 1993. (Bednar, 26, is finishing law school but will return.) "We thought it would be fascinating to bring back a product that had begun here," says Brooker, 27, noting that bagels were a Central European invention that had disappeared from the region.

With each partner investing $20,000, they launched their first New York Bagel store in June 1993. A second will open this summer, and they're mulling an offer to run subway food kiosks. Says Haven-Weiss: "The opportunities here are endless. Entrepreneurs always need a country their own age, and, economically, Hungary is very young."

IN 1924, HERBERT SCHMITZ FLED GERMANY and headed for America, the land of opportunity. But when his grandson went searching for fortune 68 years later, the U.S. got left behind. In 1992, Michael Schmitz, now 31, quit his job overseeing finances for a Rockville, Md. grocery chain and settled in Buenos Aires, where his wife Luchi, 32, was born. That year the couple founded a computer distribution firm called Microhard S.A. -- a smart move. Sales at Microhard exceeded $1 million in 1993.

Michael and Luchi -- who owned a travel agency in the U.S. -- work together and live in a penthouse apartment in Buenos Aires' trendy San Telmo district. On weekends, they drive to the country to swim and barbecue. "In the U.S., everything is so developed, there's no fun," says Schmitz. "I want to raise my kids here."

BUZZ COOPER, 52, AND ALEECE TYLER-Cooper, 38, believed in South Africa's future even before the fall of apartheid. The family, including daughters Chanel, 19, Eboni, 15, and son Andre, 9, moved from L.A., where Buzz was an actor and Aleece taught cosmetology, to Johannesburg in 1990. More Americans have followed them. In the past year, says Stephen Grundlingh of the South African Consulate in New York, "There has been a significant increase in inquiries about moving to South Africa, particularly from African Americans."

The Coopers understand that home is not necessarily where you're born. Now resettled in a well-to-do suburb of Johannesburg, they live in a modern house with a pool and own and operate two hair-dressing salons as well as a curling-tong factory. "I want my children to experience living in the land of their ancestors," says Tyler-Cooper. "Home is spiritual."

THERE'S NOT MUCH NEED FOR ANOTHER city magazine in New York," says Gretchen Worth, 33, co-owner of Asia City Publishing Ltd. in Hong Kong. "But there is here." Worth and her two partners -- Greg Duncan and Steve Freeman, both 32 -- launched HK magazine in 1991, the only English-language entertainment magazine in frenzied Hong Kong, where 120,000 of the 6 million residents speak English as a first language. HK was profitable after just three months, and today, the trio presides over a company with $1 million in sales, three publications and plans to expand in Southeast Asia.

Worth was a magazine writer in New York City before moving in 1989 to Hong Kong, where she was joined by Duncan, who was working for a U.S. ad agency in Tokyo, and, later, by Freeman, a writer friend from Poplar Bluff, Mo. "We were sure Asia had the best growth possibilities," says Worth, "and there's no way we could do this in the States."

Like all of Hong Kong's residents, Worth worries about political instability in her adopted homeland, but the entrepreneur still has no plans to return to New York City. Says she: "My next stop will be Singapore."