So another thread ( https://lemmy.world/post/17746018 ) got me wondering… How many people would want to move to another country?
Just to provide a concrete scenario, let’s assume that in your current country you (magically) have a decent-ish job. They open up offices in another country of your choosing, and you have the option of moving there and work for an equivalent living wage.
They’re able to get visas set up (however improbable that may be) for you and any family, but you have to go through the process of finding housing, physically moving your belongings and anything else you need to set up.
What countries would you take the offer to move to, if any?
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I’m an American, so yes - in a heartbeat.
Broadly, I wouldnt much care where it was, just so long as it was somewhere that was not being actively transfomed into a plutocratic/christofascist autocracy.
And in fact, there’s virtually nothing that I want more at this point in time than to get the hell out while I can. I fully expect that if I don’t, I’m going to end up in prison or dead, just like so many other vocal dissidents under so many other authoritarian regimes.
^the new American Dream
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Yes, I have done this several times for work. Digital nomad life that turned into starting a family that travels for work.
It’s difficult every time and sometimes you just have to admit that it isn’t going to work out in that country. Some countries have really strange attitudes or laws or systemic issues that you will not solve as an outsider. Sometimes people will just see you as a target or an opportunity for money and that’s never going to change.
Also looking back gives perspective; I had a difficult time in xxx country, but that was my first time overseas and I didn’t have quite a grasp of the language, and I was also unfairly comparing it to the USA. A decade later, I’ve been back a couple of times and now xxx is my favorite country. Five stages of grief and all. There’s more backstory but I can blend in a lot of countries.
Conversely, I went to some countries and saw how they are still very colonized from centuries of oppression. And then I go back to the USA sometimes and see the same mentality. Really shifts your perspective.
I was a child of a refugee so I always thought whatever complaints I had were nothing compared to what my parents went through. Also I had swastikas spray painted on my house when I was young so I never really fit in anywhere. Kind of keeps me going.
I feel more comfortable in some countries than my own home country. The USA has changed as much as I have over the past decade.
Finally, one semi-related point: I really, really learned to hate American missionaries. In every single country. They’re just the worst. I think they choose their countries and villages for some sort of confirmation bias to themselves that American Jesus is the best and only civilized way to live. They aren’t learning anything, just reinforcing their world view and not teaching anything useful. It’s just a way for middle aged white guys to get young girls from poor villages. They aren’t helping anything.
Not really. I live in Switzerland, thing is, there are no countries that surpass it in terms of safety, income, social security and political stability combined. For me at least it is the perfect country to live in.
I (originally from the US) moved to Germany with a Swiss girlfriend, so we visit Switzerland frequently and know the cultural/politics.
I find Germany to have much better social policies than Switzerland, such as better worker rights/conditions, public health insurance. The Swiss people voted against having minimum 5 weeks vacation and also just rejected caps on the private insurance minimum costs. The politics are much more conservative/individualistic compared to Germany. On a positive side, Switzerland probably has the best public transport system in Europe.
Not sure about social policies, for example homelessness exists here only by choice. Every citizen will get a roof over their head if necessary.
Medical insurance could be better but on the other hand we have one of the worlds best healthcare systems (for which I pay 200 bucks a month with a deductible of 2500.-).
And if the politics are conservative, which can’t really be as the conservatives have below 50% of the votes and results are usually determined by what the center party wants, that is what the people want (we all vote every 3 months on various issues) and I will respect that.
And even then, Germany may soon be controlled by CDU/Afd and I seriously doubt anyone would want to live in that kind of Germany.
we have one of the worlds best healthcare systems (for which I pay 200 bucks a month with a deductible of 2500.-).
Canada: 25th in the ranks, apparently, but 0 and 0. While I didn’t mind paying the premiums - and it slid with my income - the idea of a deductible/copay/user-fee I find abhorrent, chilling and the wrong way down a slippery slope.
I did not say it is free, but the price to performance ratio is quite good. Cost however is increasing slowly but steadily which is a bit scary.
no countries that surpass it
Humblebrag, eh?
I had the chance to join Google (Zurich?) 2014, but it got kiboshed when we weren’t sure we both could get along with just English, and her with no ability to work. So we asked for Ireland, but they don’t work like that. And we were out.
Basically everyone speaks some English, wouldn’t have been an issue. And I am not saying everything is perfect, just that there is no better alternative.
I moved from US to Canada with a whole lot less lined up
How did it work out?
The list of countries I’d move to is actually longer than ones I wouldn’t want to move to.
I’d take an offer to work from home on a house boat and go sailing around the world I feel like I’d end up making a lot of new customs officer friends XD
I’d take a little canal boat in Amsterdam. Though learning Dutch sounds like a PITA.
It is. Our grammar rules are nonsensical and Dutch is useless outside of the Netherlands and Belgium.
It’s probably the easiest language for a native English speaker to learn
You probably picture that as a cheap bohemian lifestyle but these things will cost you like 2M€ to buy + untold yearly fees lol.
That’s significantly more than I expected. Also, I probably wouldn’t want to deal with the toilet situation. Would probably be novel for a couple weeks and get old quick.
Did a quick check and yeah I was massively exaggerating, you can get some in the 600k to 1.3M€ for small ones with mooring in the center, which is still pretty unaffordable for normal people but not as outlandish as I made it out to be. The points about additional costs to the city and the mortgage stuff remains though.
I might be slightly exaggerating depending on how big it is and location but yeah everything in Amsterdam is crazy expensive. The toilet situation is pretty normal these days I think? I think they get plugged into the normal sewer systems, the days of it just falling into the canals are long gone (but that’s also a part of the yearly expenses along with mooring costs, property taxes and so on). Also you can’t even mortgage these things normally because banks consider them high risk so you get less advantageous terms (higher costs, bigger down payment, etc).
I would and I did. Nearly on a lark I decided to move to Norway right as the pandemic started appearing on cruise ships. I got a job within two weeks and they handled the immigration process for the most part. It wasn’t simple but it was pretty straight forward.
And it was worth it, big time.
So, for context - I live in Scotland and I guess I feel a cultural connection with being Scottish. I even have a domain with a .scot tld.
But at the same time… I know the UK is kind of slipping back in terms of social issues - starting to feel like a “mini US” than a state with european standards.
So yeah, I’m torn between staying here and moving to some as of yet unknown country with better rights…
Although, since I basically never travel and nothing is really infringing my freedom (yet …), I’ll probably not actually do anything even if I wanted to.
Love Scotland and the Scots (one of my best mates is one, and I visited many times), but it has the unfortunate flaw of being part of the UK indeed… I guess the obvious option that is similar-ish without having that flaw is Ireland, but personally living in the Netherlands I’m only really considering a move if it’s to somewhere truly different (tropical, etc).
Yes. In fact it’s a done deal.
Steady on, I only just got to Australia!
But it’s New Zealand.
Hey greetings from Aussie land
Piggy backing answer to op, I did that already. Twice.
Honestly, comparing 1st world to 3rd where I come from, employment is so easy!
Israeli, I’ve been considering this for several years but the impact on the family seemed too big. Since the war with Gaza, and the the political situation, the impact seems with it. Last week I’ve started looking for options.
I haven’t given up on being a stick in the mud keeping Austin a little different from other parts of Texas. The loudest idiots in this state rebuke Austin as something un-Texan, but I’m not going anywhere and am continuing to live and vote the way I do. I know it’s a little easier for me to say this, not having to worry about kids, so I don’t expect others to make the same choice, even if they feel the same way.
I did, moved from France to Canada
I did the opposite lol.
Did you have any problem with the French?
I always wanted to move to Sweden. My grandfather was born there and I have always loved visiting.
It was a nice country but it’s getting poor and has many problems now due to unlimited immigration the last few decades. Much violence and murders now.
The classic Sweden that I grew up in is gone. But it’s still better than USA of course. If you avoid the big cities, it’s still a bit like it used to be though.
The best country in the Nordics is now Norway I would say.
I live in Finland. Wouldn’t mind a less wintery climate but not to the point of willing to move elsewhere.
Wanna swap? I’ll come enjoy the snow, you can come to the UK and enjoy the, uh, rain.
It’s not the winter wonderland many foreigners think it is, unless you go to Lapland. Most of the winter is just wet, cold, dark, slippery, and absolutely miserable. It’s dark when you leave for work and it’s dark when you get back home.
Ngl sounds good to me. I like it cold and dark. Did I mention I’m a mole?
Yeah sounds awesome to me too tbh. My mood brightens whenever I see snow and I don’t find that low sunlight levels affect me at all.
However apparently between 1-10% of people are affected by seaonal affective disorder so those people may want to avoid Finland during the winter months
My wife’s sister found she has SAD when she moved to sweden. One of her kids has it too. They cope with the lights and the , well, the understanding they’re gonna be affected. They seem to suggest that it’s not rare there, and that its frequency makes it more acceptable and understandable. It’s okay to be super-down for a few days on a bad wave, and people seem to get it.
So, Chicago? Except I bet your winters are a bit longer than they are in Chicago.
I think that hardest part wouldn’t be adjusting to the winter–I’m actually pretty okay with the kind of winter you describe–but the language. I hear that Finnish is very challenging for most people to learn to speak with any degree of fluency, unless they’re raised with it.
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