Community for asking and answering any question related to the life, the people or anything related to the USA. Non-US people are welcome to provide their perspective! Please keep in mind:
Either in regards to the current political situation, or for other reasons. What drew you to the idea of living in another country? Do you think whatever benefits it offers are really worth it, or is the grass just greener on the other side of the fence?
These might help you choose a destination: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiple_citizenship https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jus_sanguinis
Canada cause it's close. Netherlands cause of DAFT and bike infrastructure would be so nice
I need to learn Spanish or German or both. It’s possible I could get approved as a person of German descent, or I could just flee to Mexico/elsewhere in Latin America but I’d need to speak the language.
Norway or Sweden, but apparently I'm one generation away from being able to do so.
I have Italian heritage and might qualify for citizenship that way, but the rules have been changing.
I'm told Portugal and Spain are "easier", but language might be a problem. Ireland would be great, but I'm told that's hard.
I'm only a few years from retirement, so perhaps that may open doors.
Finally, my company is expanding into Europe, so I may be able to transfer.
I looked into it after the 24 election, Canada and a few European countries. The big impetus was RFK jr talking about how he was going to put the autists in labor camps, because my partner and I both have ASD diagnoses. Also genderfluid but fortunately there's no paper trail for that. But 1) it's a lot of work, 2) for better or for worse my skin color protects me from the worst of it and 3) my family is here, my friends are here, my farm animals are here, and I'll be god-damned if I'm gonna abandon them without a fight. Liberty or death ain't just a bumper sticker removed.
I would consider moving to Belize.
Why Belize? Anything in particular that draws you to it?
It's cheap to live there, the diving is amazing, and they have free public 5G.
Belize speaks english, has nice beaches and uses their own dollars.
Belize nuts, mostly.
I've heard there is high levels of crime, but to be honest I haven't done a lot of research on this. Any comments on that?
Canadas : because of the current political climate which I honestly don’t think will change until after I’m dead. Been fighting against it for almost 30 years now. I’m burnt out.
The wife and I would love to move but that for us would mean giving up every possession and going it from scratch. It's especially hard to think of because we were both hard times divorces 8 or so years ago and started over with literally nothing . 8 years and we've both built a life in an apartment and now have a hella cozy nest. I can't afford to move any of it to another country. We both aren't super specialists in our jobs either so that's not helping. Its gonna have to get pretty bad before we sell it all and leave on basically foot. Sadly I can't rule out this eventuality. Life sucks now.
Ireland. Because I could. Issue is my wife can't handle change and it would be a hard thing to pull without the other person completely signing on. Honestly im not that motivated because I feel I would be abandoning the place and just stetting it up to be a problem for a lot of people. I mean anyone in the americas whos ancestry is abroad has to think about the native peoples. They got screwed and the only upside is being part of a relatively fair modern democratic country. Then you have to wonder what happens when everyone who is not looking to take advantage leaves. Not just domestically because trump has telegraphed all kinds of foreign military use. Then you gotta wonder if you will be useful to the new country. I mean im older. If that country was actually was at war maybe I would be useful given I still have some years of productive work left but in a status quo way its hard to say.
Canada. And not the typical "I'm running away to Canada!" that you usually hear, I've genuinely wanted to move to Canada since I was in middle school back in the early 2000s. I grew up in the mountains and cold climates are always my favorite so it wouldn't be a huge change. Canada is such a beautiful country too and I find it more culturally interesting than the US. I've always thought of Canada as the responsible and better put together sibling of the two (relatively speaking, of course. We all have our problems)
Unfortunately, I can't afford to live in the US or Canada right now so I'm kinda shit out of luck. Plus they all, and understandably so, hate Americans. I'm not worried about not being welcome, but more that It'd feel rude to show up after everything that has happened. Like your friend that ran over your dog but still wanted to come over and hang out. Minnesota is like half the price of where I live right now when it comes to housing so I feel like if I moved there I could get the best of both worlds. Who knows, maybe I'll do that instead.
Tennessee is pretty affordable too and has a lot of country to hike and camp in. It's red so your health care is almost non existent but the rent is low.
Don't live outside the cities; Minnesota Nice is just a guise for their thinly-veiled white supremacy (hey family, hope you're rotting in fear)
I've half-heartedly looked at Australia and New Zealand. Many parts of Europe are also appealing, as are Chile and Canada. Though between finding employment, language barriers, and the logistics of moving my whole family, leaving is an intimidating proposition. It's much easier to live in a blue state and work to keep my corner of the country a decent place.
The people I know who left the US either did it as students or they married foreigners. Either of those paths tend to make the initial visa process soooo much easier.
I think no, unless things get real real bad. Which they might. But maybe not even then. Honestly I have been thinking about this and I really don't want to leave.
Honestly, we did this shit. It's a crappy thing to turn this monster loose on the world and then peace the fuck out and let it do whatever it's going to do. We let it develop through inaction and apathy, it's our problem, we should stay and deal with it. Even the activist part of the US (which is small) is still not really having any kind of plan, just reacting and getting out and yelling sometimes. As far as I can see.
The one thing I really wish I could have is some kind of community that believes in the values I believe in. I think education is important, science is good, civic values are important to make everything a nice livable place. Honestly, things like this current spasm of fascism tend to have a pretty short shelf life (even if they manage to kill a bunch of people in the short span of years they're around). I am more afraid of what happens after, in a whole society which doesn't believe in education, doesn't have media that brings any kind of awareness of what is happening, is filled with people who don't give a fuck and don't care about each other. What happens when that society starts striking back to defend itself against the violence that's being visited on it now? What does it set up after? What country are we going to have when it's 2035, as climate change is really getting its hooks in? Are we going to just turn things back over to the Democrats and hope for the best? That doesn't sound good but I can't really forsee how anything else could happen. I would feel better if it was some decent people with a solid grasp of making a good place, like a lot of them and prominent in the country. If I felt like I could find those people, and get back to back with them for whatever is coming, I would feel a hell of a lot better about still being here. Honestly if I felt like those people existed somewhere else in the world that I knew about I would probably want more to leave. But for now at least, definitely for as long as I am safe here with my level of privilege, I feel like it is criminal to try to leave and not do anything about this fucking mess that we all made.
I’d leave in a heartbeat. I wanted to leave the US well before all this madness. I know Italian pretty well and a little Spanish, so I was considering moving to a country that speaks either. I don’t really have any professional qualifications though, so I kinda worry I’d just be a poor foreigner wherever I went.
I've thought about it often, but dang, I hate to give in to bullies. Mostly I've looked at countries in the carribbean.
I've considered Australia. I have enough points to immigrate and Australia seems somewhat more stable right now.
The compulsory voting tends to help there. The otherwise disengaged have to decide on some party. Even the conservatives looking at the US are thinking, nope we should avoid that. There has been a general trend to more independent candidates as well, which is great. The lifestyle is good even if housing is too expensive in the bigger cities.
These might help you choose a destination / get another passport: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiple_citizenship https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jus_soli https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jus_sanguinis
I want to move to Germany but I don't see it happening anytime soon
So far things are well enough in my part of the US that I haven't felt the need to seriously consider it. If I did, I'd probably end up in Canada. Would rather there than Mexico because I don't speak Spanish. If I did need to escape, I'd rather remain on continent at first because I think it'd be easier to escape to somewhere like Canada and then hop on a plane to Europe, if needed.
My wife and I have dreamed of possibly moving to Australia.
No country will take me. I have no skills.