Ask HN: What is your story of immigrating to another country?

Moving to an another country isn't for everyone. If you move to a richer country, foreigners are usually automatically treated differently. You go from being around equals to being the lowest tier in their social "caste" system.

I moved to a neighboring country for about 3 years. I enjoy a far better living standard in my home country with half the pay. Money isn't everything.

I'm from Trinidad and Tobago. I moved to Ontario, Canada in 2014 to do a B.Sc. in Chemistry. Given that I was only 19 at the time, the process was relatively straightforward in my memory. My parents took out loans to send me to university which I will always greatly appreciate. I also had a partial scholarship from my Uni which helped a lot, since international student fees in Canada are ~3x more than domestic tuition.

University was overall fantastic. A lot of ups and downs e.g. having to learn how to be studious, as I didn't study much in secondary school, and having to deal with depression, which was fun. Canadians are very friendly and welcoming, so that side of it was great as well.

I graduated in 2018 with a B.Sc. in Chemistry and got my Post Graduate Work Permit (open work permit, lasts 3 years) in 2019. I had a lot of trouble getting it, which was partially my fault, but this process is mostly straightforward in Canada as long as you are a full-time student throughout your studies and don't screw up applying for your work permit after graduating lol...

Anyways, now that I've gotten at least a year of skilled work experience, I've applied for my Permanent Residency and I'm waiting on that to stop stressing about immigration problems. I had a lot of lab experience from university so it only took me about 4 months once I came back to Canada to get a job. WORK EXPERIENCE IS SO IMPORTANT. Anyone doing university at this point should be in coop to be honest, it is the most pain-free path forward. I wasn't actually in coop but I did have the mind to know that work experience is key, even though I started off wanting to go to grad school afterwards.

I was also introduced to programming in late 2018, and now I've been self-studying since then and I'm now applying for junior developer jobs, and at least getting interviews, so that makes me happy. Although the process of job searching is incredibly draining, I'm determined to make it work!

So overall, I'm extremely grateful that I had the opportunity to move to Canada. The majority of my fellow Trinidadians don't get such an opportunity. The quality of life here, especially where I live out in a more rural area, is so much higher than my life in Trinidad, which was still decent by Trinidadian standards.

I wrote a lot more than I thought I would, but I hope this little post helps someone out someday. My experience being an immigrant in Canada has been quite great. There will be a lot of headache, mostly with regards to immigration. But from hearing stories about immigration in the US, Canada is a lot more accessible, assuming you come as a student or are skilled in a field with at least 3 years of foreign work experience.

Met my now wife playing online games back in 1999. Moved to The Netherlands from the UK in 2006. Learnt the language, integrated and settled here.

We're absolutely killing it here - it was the best decision of my life. We live in a safe stable country which isn't dominated by the wishes of the selfish elderly. We have a fairly well functioning state with a strong social safety net. We're both business owners, have a nice home and three happy and healthy kids.

The UK in comparison feels like a third world country - everything seems to be falling down, and working-age people - particularly those under 40-45 have been absolutely screwed by the last 10-15 years of policy. Basically, if you were 25 in 2000 and bought property then, you have a huge amount of equity. It was very common for people a little older at the time (30-35) who had the means to buy a second property, for rental. Policy in the last years has been about protecting (mainly final-income based!!) pensions, protecting property prices and indulging in the racist fantasies of the retired at the cost of the working age.

In The Netherlands housing is also an issue for anyone under 50 - thanks to the "free market" being allowed to buy up all of the housing stock. Particularly the foreign investors who operate with schemes that ensure that they basically don't pay any tax are the biggest problem. It's impossible to compete with an American corporation who pays $0 on every $100 they earn, whereas you have to pay $40 of every $100 you earn in tax.

Where exactly? Continental Nordics are three (or maybe four, depending on the definition) different countries.

House prices in the part of the UK that have decent jobs are crazy. Public services have been slashed, heavily, in the last decade. The health service has been cut so much that to get a comparable service as in Scandinavia you'd need to buy expensive private coverage.

Childcare is really expensive too (because pensioners don't need it).

Education: in the UK is really pays to send your kids to a private school.