I'm an industrial engineer and while Mein deutsch ist scheiß, I'm still learning in the hopes that if I get to go to Europe as a brain drain or as a refugee (listen, if shit gets bad enough it'll still be shocking if we're let in) that I won't just be some dumb monolingual American.
this post was submitted on 06 Apr 2025
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Ich spreche nicht für alle, aber ein "dummer einsprachiger Amerikaner" der nach Europa abhaut verliert (meiner Meinung nach) zumindest das erste Attribut und mit dem zweiten kann ich ganz gut leben.
I don't speak for everyone, but a "dumb monolingual American" that to Europe runs off loses (in my opinion) at least the first attribute and with the second I can quite well live.
The awkward word order of the translation is intentional to more closely mirror the German word order. I promise you, I can also good English speak ;-)
@luciferofastora @captainlezbian abgesehen davon, dass so verallgemeinernde Beleidigungen fehl am Platz sind: nur weil jemand woanders hin zieht, wird er nicht unbedingt klüger. Er ist dann meist nur an einem anderen Ort dumm. Der Vorteil bei uns ist jedoch: die meisten Schulen/Unis sind so kostengünstig, dass man das schnell ändern kann. 😄
Das war eher als Korrelation gemeint. Wer Amerika verlässt hat eine gewisse Vernunft, was meiner Meinung nach eher gegen Dummheit spricht. Trifft natürlich auch nicht auf alle zu.
I'm a senior software engineer! Brain drain me!
Not sure how serious you are, but just in case...
https://www.englishjobs.se/job-role/it-software-engineering
https://jobs.thelocal.com/search/#results%2F67f4c4740357fbed229a30e9%3Fkw=&loc=sweden&page_num=1
My employer offers visa sponsorship to employees wanting to migrate to the Netherlands. Once I meet the tenure requirements (a little over a month left), I intend to start the process. My spouse and kid are onboard. We've already started learning Dutch and made a week-long trip there a couple weeks ago to make sure we would like it.
I'm a senior software engineer interested in moving to the Netherlands. Can you tell me more?
Immigrating to Europe isn't the easy process a lot of people think it is. At least for the countries I tried (Germany, Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands)...but I do know some things have changed recently, at least for Germany.
My efforts were about ten years ago thought. Despite having a graduate degree from a European institution I still found it impossible.
For Germany, though I had spent the previous 10 years as a software developer (which is classified as an Engpassberuf), I was told that the regulations would only allow me to seek work based on the skills from that degree (Berufsqualifikation). My Master's degree was in a different technical field (European development planning), and my BAs were in europe-related areas and German. I also studied at the Goethe Institute and completed the Oberstufe C2 exam. But none of that was sufficient.
Now I am middle aged, have a wife and kids, chronic health issues...and though I would love to emigrate, I can't imagine uprooting them all, even if I could find a European country willing to take us.
The trick is to tell them what they want to hear, otherwise you won't get the required permits and paperwork.
Unfortunately, the German bureaucratic clusterfuck does tend to hamstring good intention with stupid regulations carried out to the pedantic letter. It's a bit of a lottery at times whether you'll find yourself dealing with a human or with a relentless rule fetishist, and the more complex a process is, the more people it involves and the greater the chance someone will obstruct.
I'd hope things have improved and I hope they'll improve further. Shame that it's too late for you.
Ah yes, let the filthy and bad migrants on one side of Europe literally drown in the ocean (maybe help a bit, if their skiffs seem too robust) and open the doors for the good and awesome ExPaTs on the other side.
There's already a brain drain going in the US Government, as they replace experienced leaders and workers with blind loyalists.
The silver lining is that they have given their opposition the gift of competence. By firing all their competent, knowledgable people, they have driven them straight into the enemy camp.
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I wish I had a brain to drain. I don't have any valuable skills, nor a lot of money. Nobody wants to take me. I'm going to be at the mercy of the Nazis.
Why would they prefer Europe to Canada?
Europe is further from the US.
Exactly. Canada is also facing a decent chance at an invasion
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A big problem with many people moving out is that they will be missing as opposition and reason. To a degree, it reduces the chances of the US to reform itself.
I would not see it so strictly.
Academics for the most part contribute "thought". They are much better at doing so living in freedom outside the US than rotting in a prison cell inside the US, or in one of the crowny countries doing the dirty work for the US.
They are missing in doing the ground work of course. On the other hand they stop contributing to the system with their work, their taxes, their presence giving legitimacy... So it makes the system unstable faster and result in it falling apart, leaving space for something new, faster.
In authoritarian regimes it is very rare that they reform themselves. Usually they collapse, mostly in an ugly way. In the case of the US i don't think that there is currently any hope to be set into reform from inside the system. For every crazed Republican in power we see a Democrat in power who wants to maintain the system, maintain the systemic issues that lead to Trump not once but twice and last but not least is enjoying many of the oppressive and racist policies that were implemented by Trump during his first term. Looking at mass deportations, "the wall", violent crackdowns on peaceful protestors, or looking a bit longer running the continued operation of Guantanamo Bay, continuing the illegal occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq...
So in the case of the US there isn't just the extreme-right, there is also the complicit "center" that opposes changing the system and is in part happy with the further pushes to the extreme-right. This complicit block won't change their attitude and they wont stop keeping progressives in check for the regime until they are personally suffering. It is the Bidens and Harrises the Schumers and Fettermans that prevented a proper response and structural change after Trumps first term and now embrace cooperation with Trump and enjoying that he does some dirty work for them, like continuing the genocide in Palestine.
By staying in the US academics, some of whom have been beaten up by Cops during peaceful protests under the Democrats administration, the academics would give the very same people legitimacy as an "opposition" to the Republican administration that were complicit in bringing this administration into power and are complicit in keeping it in power.
You don't give up your right to vote by moving abroad. Your vote in state and local politics is lost. How much of a real impact that has depends on where you live.
This assumes voting continues to function more or less as it has in the past.
Not only am I in favour of the smart Americans moving here, I'm also in favour of sending the stupid Europeans to US.
The Immigration dilemma. When a country starts going wrong the people most fit to fix the country are usually the ones who left and go to another country, precipitating the downfall of the country of origin. Making more and more people want to emigrate and leaving the country in worse and worse shape to fix itself.
Fair point but if the US insists on being run like a business, then I'm going to treat it like one.
If I go to a restaurant with shitty food and shitty service, I'm paying my tab, leaving, and never coming back.
I'm not going to waste my time going home and writing yelp reviews so that the manager can offer me a free appetizer the next time I come in.
Place sucks.
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I'll be in a German Consulate soon to submit the last paperwork for my immigration paperwork. Our family is taking 2x STEM Phds, and kids going into engineering, computer science, healthcare, and education with us. This is a generational loss, but I'm doing it to protect my children, as well as myself.
I'm performing a short fuse wedding next weekend for a prior student so they can seek asylum in Canada as a couple soon. The number of students/prior students who have been reaching out about how to emigrate to anywhere else is very high.
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