It must be nice to have the privilage to immigrate to wherever you want lol.
I mean I wasn’t even supposed to be here. It’s only pure chance that my family had relatives in the US. Less than 5% of Chinese live abroad, so… like imagine you ask a question like: “How many of you are actually fine with living in China”
I mean the wording implies that people living there are automatically supportative of the government or something.
Moving is hard, pal.
I had the advantage of being a child and learning English; now as an adult, I’d struggle learning French, German, or Norweigian.
You can do it. I learned Norwegian as an old man. Well, enough to get by. I still struggle, but it is possible.
Do people actually let you speak it, or do they just reply in English?
Depends. In some settings people switch to English the moment they realize English would get to the meat more quickly. But in others, people actually not only allow me but push me out of my comfort zone. That is very helpful.
It must be nice to have the privilage to immigrate to wherever you want lol.
Really they don’t. The only group that can switch countries painlessly is the super rich, and even then it’s not universal - some don’t want foreigners regardless of how much money they bring.
I’m in my 40s and learning Norwegian (roughly 75 days in spending maybe 30 minutes a day on average). It’s actually pretty easy. If you’ve never studied a Germanic language outside of English, you might have some word order issues to get used to, but that, so far, has been about it.
I uprooted my life and left. It’s far too dangerous for me. I’m a trans latina. I grieve over the friends and community I left behind daily
There are multiple reasons why most people don’t shift countries willy-nilly.
Moving, even within the same state is a difficult, stressful, and expensive prospect. Moving to a different country is even more so, and that assumes you have a job lined up when you get there or substantial monetary reserves. Then there are the legal hurdles, which depending on the destination country can be downright daunting. In many countries unless you are a top earner with an in-demand skill-set you are likely to experience significant legal challenges to even achieve temporary residency. And then there are language and cultural differences that can make life difficult once you get there. Unless you have friends/family already in the destination country and/or know the language you can expect it to be rough going for quite a while.
All this would be compounded if you have a family. Not to mention the added difficulty and expense involved with visiting or supporting extended family members or friends back in your original home country after leaving.
Simply put, most people simply can’t move countries whenever the political situation in their home country gets dicey. It’s only after the fighting starts do you see people doing that in significant numbers and at that point they are refugees.
I will not run from my country. I will remain here and be a problem to the opposition by existing aka an enemy to the regime of an administration.
And just because I continue to live here, does not mean I accept everything they do.
It’s either that or become an unwanted immigrant with no support. I feel this 100%.
I’ve read a lot of novels set in Germany/Europe in the Hitler Era.
I always used to be amazed at the people who would see what was going on, and who stayed.
One of my favorite series is the Bernie Gunther [Berlin Noir] novels by the late Phillip Kerr.
Bernie stays in Germany because he’s a German. He was born and raised in Berlin and it’s his home. No strong family ties, he just stays because he can’t imagine living anywhere else.
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I mean you get to pick which flavor of authoritarianism to live in
Shot by cop, unhinged lunatics doing mass shooting?
Or public beheading?
:P
Both are ruined by religious fanaticism.
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This question is asked as if there is an obvious destination. Where do I move? Europe/UK isn’t exactly killing it lately, so that’s out. That leaves Australia and NZ for English-speajing countries, but I know nothing about them. I could move to Japan since I know some Japanese, but the Japanese are not well-known to be accepting of foreigners. The PM is literally trying to limit immigration. So where should I be moving as an American?
Canada is right next door
Not exactly easy to immigrate to, as you can see from the comment about CRS scores
My apologies, I didn’t know.
Not great, mostly because we don’t have close enough family in Canada. They’re all too many branches out on the family tree to count.
I might have filled things in wrong since I did it quickly, but it’s fun to see how governments try to balance different kinds of immigrations needs and skills.
No longer offer points for specialty job skills? Damn.
Where does it say that? As far as I can tell it’s just job offers.
But yes, our housing market got fucked so we’re scaling immigration back for a few years. Hopefully we get back to it afterwards, since from our perspective it’s free population, and obviously it’s good for the immigrants.
I don’t know, it was an informational note on one of the pages.
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My spouse and I are both well-educated professionals, but it would help if we spoke French
Are you going to help me immigrate out of here? Will anyone on Lemmy?
For all the political posturing and holier than thou attitude I see on Lemmy not a single one of you would do anything to help me.
My thoughts are why should I move? America the country is beautiful and bountiful. I’m not the one wrecking it. I’d rather work on cleaning up the mess than just tossing everything I’ve ever had.
People from other countries can mock, but a lot of what I see going on in the EU doesn’t seem far behind or is in some ways worse. Chat control, anti-immigrant policies, and a rise in fascism over there as well.
At this point, I feel I’m still better off with the enemies I know.
I think you’re having a better go than me. The reason I’m having such a rough time is that I don’t have the things that make life bearable. If I “tossed everything I ever had” it wouldn’t be much to toss.
Trump and Musk took my job in May. I had to pick up a gig working nights for a third of what I was making without benefits.
Once again thanks for the owl pictures.
This year has been tough mentally, but I’ve at least managed to maintain overall stability, and thankfully my wife has done very well this year considering we lost both her parents in the last two years.
I don’t know where you’re or what work you do, but I’m at a huge pharmaceutical company, so they hire damn near every kind of job since we’re basically self contained. I’m a nobody so my name won’t open doors, but I can always watch postings if you are able to get up to KOP or Collegeville. Like I said before, PM me if you ever need to.
We can only make things better if we’re looking out for each other.
I would even accept financial assistance for the extreme costs of the move. I’m generous like that.
What would help look like? I could answer questions, help practice the language etc. But otherwise what could anyone do? I can’t give you a job or a visa. My apartment isn’t big enough to house someone. There just isn’t too much us normal people can do.
job or a visa
Unfortunately that’s exactly what I need.
Well, that’s nothing anyone can just provide you with. You’d need to do your research, maybe ask around in relevant expat communities. Check if your country of choice needs people with your skill set. What I can tell you is that I know many expats who come on a tourist visa to job hunt, usually stay longer with a student visa and learn German in language schools and then try to get a job from there. It does require quite a lot of funds though.
I’d help you, to what degree I can, which is not too much.
If you’re stuck, I’m just sorry about that, no attitude at all.
Can you supply a job offer? I have a background in UI/UX Design, Frontend Web Development, and I have project management certifications. I can move myself and I don’t have dependents that would move with me. I can pay to relocate myself. I just need a source of income and a chance at a better life.
I’m afraid not. Although, that’s the least of your problems if you’re coming to Canada. You need to qualify competitively and immigration levels are tight right now, while our housing market catches up. If you can do that, getting a job as an educated American should be easy.
What I can do at my current moment in life basically amounts to personal favours, that’s it. I’m not even in a convenient location for crashing.
I appreciate the sentiment regardless.
I wish I was born Canadian instead of Texan.
I did it before.
Like you sponsored someone? You hiring?
I’d like too but I don’t think it’s a possibility. I don’t have the money or the skills.
Agreed love to get fuck out of this capitalist, dictatorship, but where can we go? Love to live in Iceland.
It’s spreading everywhere. I noticed a year ago my buddy in India was talking about it on a Spotify interview. Apparently, non-caucasian cultures are having the same problems with division and authoritarianism. Also, dissenters are being treated very poorly there now.
International nationalism. It’s just a divide and conquer strategy being pushed everywhere. Some places like Spain, Ireland, and South Afrika seem to have an international push against it but a lot of the rest of the world have only local resistance to it at the moment. At least from a an english readers perspective. I hope in other languages there is more opposition.
Thing is I uprooted my family to move to the US 15 years ago and loved it here, and still do. I hate the current everything of course, Ikbut 'm still a bit idealistic and still believe the country will right itself. How long it will take, I don’t know, but I still believe it.
(… ok back to the job search, yay layoffs)
OMG ARE YOU ME?
I also moved here approx 15 years ago.
But yea this is basically how I feel.
Don’t wanna go back to PRC… omg I remember that ugly looking tiny “apartment” unit… in Guangzhou 15 years ago… dirty as hell, 5 flights of stairs no elevators god damn lol… imagine if you break a leg, how do you even go home / leave home?
I’ve been here since I was 8, this is more “home” than China ever was. I can’t even understand the Chinese internet, the slangs. The complete utter lack of mental health awareness and acceptance. Holy shit my parents are so cruel, especially mom. Can’t imagine asking my recent AskLemmy question on a Chinese Forum. Probably get bombarded with “you disrespecful child” comments.
I like the west much more than China, much more progressive.
In a lot of ways what I see the US turning into is a lot like China. So yeah, that would be tough.
russia actually more than china. USA is heavily influenced by russia, through propaganda, thats why the gop mimics putin’s russia.
Hmm. Well, that’s true, what’s emerging is a lot more of a corrupt morass than an actual, defined one-party system like China has. Maybe something else will grow out of it, but that remains to be seen.
How it acts on the world stage more China-like though. Nativist, aggressive and clueless but still taken seriously because they’re so huge. Probably the economic policy too - China is a lot more protectionist than Russia.
2nd time i come across you here ;)
I’m fine. I live in a dark blue state that is fighting, ignoring, offering sanctuary as they can. Depending on your assumptions we have the highest quality of life in the us. We’re trying to hold to our environmental commitments despite the federal government reneging on commitments to power transmission, power generation, transit upgrades, and ending the California waiver that let other states set higher air quality standards. We’re holding to health coverage for all despite the federal government ending funding. We’re holding to public health standards by leading a regional cooperate for fact-based vaccination standards. I’m proud of the number of my fellow citizens participating in “No Kings” and similar protests. I’m proud of colleges and corporations holding to standards for education, diversity, equity and inclusion.
Things are getting even more expensive here, due to the policy chaos and federal rejection of anything that might look to the future or to care to people, but we’re holding together. It certainly helps that I make a good income here.
However this is the first time I really worry about the future my college kids will live in. I keep telling myself history will reassert itself, our current situation is an outlier. I tell myself this is a national version of a mental breakdown: we will recover and spend the rest of our lives fixing the damage. There is hope
If I had to move somewhere, Canada would be the obvious choice. Ive visited so many times and it’s always been great. Canada has always been a great neighbor, putting up with our bullshit. Realistically from my interests and job, I’d be most interested in Vancouver or Toronto areas. Toronto is closer to my family, and my company has an office there, so it would be an easy transition
Already left and in Europe but in a bit of a grey area with residency between two countries here. Doing my best to get sorted more permanently and to stop sending my tax money to the US and instead send it to one of the two governments (whoever is willing to let us continue as a family to live).
It was stressful and expensive over the last year+ but wife and I are both in high risk categories for detention, persecution, and possible separation from our new baby in the US, so not much choice. We are liquidating assets there which is not good for our financial future but hopefully we aren’t too old to rebuild stability in Europe somewhere, or failing that, the Philippines where we have much better residency privileges.
If I had the money to I’d leave in a heart beat.
I have family here, I have a house here. I’ve built a life here.
Canada’s great but cold. Europe would require me to rebuild everything in my life. Plus, Europe is dealing with their own problems at the moment - its own rise of the right; the threat of Russia. In Australia, everything wants to kill you or cause you great pain, even the plants. South America seems enticing, but the US affords more opportunity for now, so maybe when I retire.
Everywhere you look, the deeper you look, you realize that everywhere has their own problems. Times change, seasons change. Right now we’re in a conservative phase. We’ve been here before. So instead, I’ll stand my ground and weather it out with the allies I have around me. I’d much prefer to be part of the resistance anyway.
We’ve been here before.
Like what, the Civil War era? Obviously Trump is not Bush or Reagan or Eisenhower.
I’d like to point out that nobody in Australia hates the wildlife. It’s all small, shy or confined to the water. It has issues too but I wouldn’t avoid it just over that one.
- The great awakening (the original woke, bit ironic now, ain’t it?)
- Redeemer / post reconstruction era
- Fascism after the New Deal
- McCarthyism
- The “Contract With America”
I should probably throw in the Gilded Age too as it seems to fit with our current situation nicely. We had a decent progressive push after the last one. History rhymes, so here’s hoping.
And yes, Australia is probably great. Would love to visit one day. However, politically, It has been led by their conservative party for the majority of two decades now - and has outsized influence from China due to it being a major importer of Ozzie’s natural resources.
Two out of the five never got real political power, though. Meanwhile McCarthyism blew over because it was just a component of a larger panic within a healthy democracy, and the Contract with America looks like it amounted to a slight reorganisation of congress in the end.
The whole racist South thing is a more reasonable comparison. Although it was a time when things went by region a lot more, and the larger north could apply pressure. I can’t really see a Lincoln or fifteenth amendment coming to the rescue the same way this time around. Just, who’s left to stand up to MAGA?
I should probably throw in the Gilded Age too as it seems to fit with our current situation nicely. We had a decent progressive push after the last one.
Sort of? Inequality took on a different character after Teddy, but the roaring 20’s is often lumped into the gilded age anyway. That’s because it wasn’t really a political (or spiritual) movement so much as wealth self-accumulating like it always tends to in agricultural civilisation. You were right to leave it out.
I do like living in the USA. There is generally a reliability and safety that I haven’t seen in many other places. There are big problems for sure, and being married to an immigrant is worrying at times. We absolutely have backup plans but so far we have not seriously considered leaving.
