Ask Lemmy

Well I moved to Berlin at the end of last month. I lived in a "developing country" with a declining economy and a far right dictator that is technically chosen but everyone knows he steals votes and everything. Soo especially as a queer person studying aboard as an international student and not coming back was always the end goal.

Our familiy (2 parents and us 4 kids) moved from Russia to France. None of us spoke French. Worth it every second

Went to live in Mexico because of girl. Got married twice, divorced twice

Stayed for decades

Not easy, but man do I have stories to tell ya. It was interesting for sure!

Now live in Canada, been here a few years already. It's quieter, so much quieter.

Tip: make sure you use a lawyer or at least someone with expertise with the local immigration rules because if you don't, it might ruin your life.

Also, don't move to the USA, it's a silly place.

I've been a digital nomad for almost 20 years now as a software engineer. It's by far the best way to live imo especially if you can have remote income. The world is incredible, there are so many places, so many cultures, so many people to connect with - living in a single location seems like missing out.

Don't mind me I'm also looking through the replies, I'm not qualified to answer this question... I basically followed the trend and drifted from China to the US for education & thought I would have stayed permanently, but wow things went down the drain quickly (left before the ICE did their thing in Chicago...). I am still trying to figure out the new country (Belgium) I found a job and relocated to at the moment

I think the number one thing that made it possible was the willingness to try. Covid hit; very early in the cruise ships are staying out of port phase… my family decided it was time. We’ve always been rambling. But I was already ready to leave my job at the time.

Having sufficient education and experience helps to get a skilled work visa, but so does willingness to try and to take, in my case, a 50% pay cut.

It has been a great 5 years, and I wouldn’t trade it for the world.

I moved back to my home country from the USA. So glad I did. We're on the up and up and see no fascism in sight. We're getting plenty of gentrification driving up prices and displacing our locals, though... 🙄

Moved from Germany to the Bay Area in 2017. Was an interesting experience, I now understand why they hate health insurance so much. Overall it wasn’t half as good as they make it out to be. We were lucky since we could afford it but I don’t want to live in that place.

Moved to Vancouver right before Covid hit and we’re not going to go back to Germany except to visit friends and family. It’s weird to see how conservative and backwards the whole country is and will forever be. With AFD on the rise and the overall negative attitude of Germans we don’t miss it one bit. Canada is much nicer and we’re dual citizens now 👍

I went from US to UK. It was the easiest way out, as a dual citizen by birth. Still hard, with a baby and a wife in tow, neither UK citizens, during a pandemic. My job did a lot of legwork for me, incorporated a subsidiary in the UK for me to work here remotely.

Our families have only been American for roughly one generation so far (bar one or two grandparents), I'm just taking us back to one of our home countries, belatedly. Philippines seemed like a non-starter, as did Croatia. The UK has a lot of the same problems as the US, but at a different scale.

The craziest part was that until we emigrated, we'd never even been to the UK. But we had a certainty several years ago that America was going where we couldn't follow. I wish I could have travelled more, growing up.

I'd say it was worth it. I just wish I had more cards in my hand to choose from, or that the UK was still in the EU. Whole world's a mess these days though, just playing the hand I've been dealt.

Moved from Austria to the Netherlands at the age of 19. I moved in with my (then) boyfriend so that made the transition easier.

It was weirdly more of a culture shock than I had anticipated. Mainly because lots of things (besides the architecture) are so similar that the differences kind of sneak up on you. Having German and English as a base made Dutch easy enough. Got an advanced language certificate and ended up getting the nationality, found a study I liked and plenty of job opportunities. It has been over 15 years now and I regret nothing.

The only thing that didn’t work out was that relationship.

Moved from the US to the Netherlands in 2023 and regret nothing. The opportunity came in the form of the Dutch-American Friendship Treaty. It makes it ridiculously easy for Americans to move to the Netherlands, if you are self employed. It worked for me to move, and when my business went sideways due to my main client screwing me over, I got a normal Dutch job as a highly-skilled migrant.

Downsides:

• Pay is decidedly lower compared to American salaries (but pretty good compared to Dutch standards)
• Spicy food is rare
• Korean food is also pretty rare
• Good Mexican food is borderline nonexistent. My coworkers saw nothing wrong with "cheese flavored yogurt" being applied to nacho chips instead of actual cheese. I once tried a local restaurant's nachos and got a plate of chips covered in a really sweet ketchup.
• While everybody speaks English pretty well, you WILL want to learn basic Dutch to better understand important legal or medical meetings. But you should be learning the native language anyway, no matter where you go.

Benefits:

• Everything I need is within walking or a short bicycle distance
• Nobody is going to shoot me here
• I can get medical treatment without going bankrupt
• Health insurance doesn't cost as much as rent
• My asthma inhaler doesn't cost 1/4th of my rent
• High fructose corn syrup is rarely found here (it gives me migraines)
• The cities are more attractive (more appealing architecture)
• The roads are damned near immaculate. I don't drive here because I don't need to, but on the rare occasion I'm in a car it's impossible to not notice how good the roads are. I have crossed the country from Schiphol to Nijmegen and didn't see a single pothole anywhere, in roughly two hours on the road. Seriously, they could spend 10 or 20% less on the roads and still have what would be the best roads anywhere in N.America by comparison.
• The work-life balance is insanely better (I get 35 paid days off a year, starting from the moment I started working). I can tell my boss I'm sick and that's that. If I move to a new home I get a free day off.
• Trains are much more enjoyable for traveling between cities than driving; I've been reading so much lately
• Dutch is a pretty accessible language if you're a native English speaker that already understands some basics of German
• Nearly everybody speaks English better than the people I grew up with in the mid-west
• A huge amount of Europe is only a single day's travel away
• Store workers here aren't obviously beaten and ground into a raw bundle of nerves and depression like in the US. Of course it's not a workers paradise by any means, but people generally seem more genuinely happy.
• So many restaurants have patios or tent covered tables to enjoy a drink or meal while staying outside to enjoy the weather when it is good
• Food from Suriname is really good, as are frikandelbroodje and kaassouffle
• Nijmegen's Vierdaagse can be a blast, the whole old/inner city becomes a giant festival

There's probably more benefits, but those are the highlights for me. All around though, the biggest advantage is that I can easily see a much better future for myself and my wife in the Netherlands than I can in the US.

My family moved from Mainland China to the US in around 2010. I was a kid so I did not have a choice, but I do remember being excited about it. When I got here, things were rough, language barrier, and ptsd lingering from my abusive older brother made it hard to socialize, I didn't have much friends. So I didn't like it too much at first, but I did like how there were just so much more trees even in the city (I mean not really city-city, more like suburban ourskirts of a City, Brooklyn I mean), air feels cleaner in the US, my mother thought the same too. I've grown too used to western media, I can never live in Mainland China ever again, the only options for me are now mostly other western countries lile Canada and Australia. As for the US, I liked it until November 2024, now it feels like a foreign army has invaded the country, doesn't feel very like "America" anymore. But I still prefer the US to Mainland China, even as of today.

My parents, even though they are PRC-Sympathizers (to clarify, they're NOT communists, just "homesick" I guess), never seriously talked about wanting to go back, dual citizenship doesn't exist in China, and my mother already got US citizenship so I don't know if PRC even restores revoked citizenships.

Was it worth it? I mean... idk, but I definitely had access to more entertainment content than I ever could in Mainland China, so in that aspect, yes, absolutely. I don't think I could've ever tolerated China, I mean, being practically the only person who has a sibling would be very weird (I'm the second child in my family born during one child policy), Hukou situation is messed up, Toxic Masculinity is 2x worse, massive corruption problems, food safety problems, child abductions/trafficking that authorities don't care about, the infamous 豆腐渣工程 (tofu-dreg)... it mean its absolutely just cooked.

(But then... November 2024 happened... So yea, the US is becoming like China all over again. Jesus christ, my life is torture, pretty sure this is a simulation and this is some High-Tech torture chamber by the Galactic Empire.)

TLDR: I wished it was Norway instead, but I'll accept US over mainland China.

Trying to learn a FSI category 5 language when you don't have a dedicated language class is an ongoing and frustrating experience, but the cost of living is low, the countryside is peaceful, and going back to the states right now seems crazy.

https://www.state.gov/foreign-service-institute/foreign-language-training

A company was willing to sponsor my visa and pay for relocation costs. Was it worth it? In some other world it might have been, but the way it went for me - absolutely not.

If your entry point into a society is work, make really really sure you will like it. "Culture fit", despite all the criticisms of the concept, is more important than ever. And make sure the initial social circle you fall into is conductive to your mental wellbeing.

In some ways it's like being born. Your starting point matters. Anything you achieved previously doesn't matter since your entire support system will be gone.

Moved from the US to Germany in 2023 through my work (and the EU Blue Card). It has been life changing and I want to stay forever, eventually becoming a citizen and renouncing my US citizenship.

AMA

Hey, I did that!

Engineer in my 30s. We packed up and left the US after I got a job in the EU (pre 2nd trump). It's been awesome!

Super hard some days, lots of learning, cultural norming, work, job problems, language learning, social circle building, but it's very fulfilling and I think it's a better lifestyle fit for us.

Highly recommend it if you can swing it. And if you do, jump all in.

Moved from EU to US during Trump1/just before COVID. Loved the pay check, the weather and the nature, hated the work culture, the food culture, the lack of culture, the lack of a social net and of social cohesion, the ingrained racism.

Moved from US to Germany, liked it but didn’t love it. Loved to social net and the beer gardens, the parks and public transport, struggled making connections and learning the language.

Moved from Germany to France, loved it. Great food, great weather, good work life balance, great social net, amazing food and good culture, people are friendly and welcoming (not in Paris or overly touristy places). Only downside is being away from family and having to build my social circle again.

I was offered a job that payed much better than my old one. So I'd say it's well worth it.

Downside is that it takes years to build up a new social circle when you're in late 30s (might vary with personality).