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Films that made people emigrate

theguardian.com

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Re: Films that made people emigrate

#41

Post by adastra22 »

hilux wrote: post #26
adastra22 wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t think race enters into this? In any case the problem remains: how do you get a non-tourist visa for the country you want to move to? US/UK/EU passport holders still have this issue (except for the examples in the article that are within Europe).

Race absolutely enters into it - the states (in the US) and countries recommended in the Travel section are often much less friendly to non-white visitors. Basically, race is ignored, when at a practical level (for non-white people) it can't be. To answer your question about visas - it is country-dependent. Some countries offer Digital Nomad visas or other long-term non-permanent visas. I agree with you that it's ano…

I phrased that badly. What I meant is that your ability to emigrate shouldn’t depend on the color of your skin, though obviously it could impact your experience greatly.

Re: Films that made people emigrate

#42

Post by 082349872349872 »

PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #32
widenrun wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not perfect, but as an immigrant, I can usually split locals into two groups as soon as I meet them: Those who spent time overseas and those who never left. The conversations are so distinct!

"Oh look at my country's patriots / hunting down below / what do they know of England / who only England know?" (a misquotation of Rudyard Kipling that I've carried in my head for 30 years)

Lungfish probably know a lot more about water than their fully aquatic brethren.

Re: Films that made people emigrate

#43

Post by 082349872349872 »

jltsiren wrote: post #36
refactor_master wrote: post #5

The thing I’m always missing from these pieces is how . How do the rest of us emigrate, without being anglophone and teaching English, or a “digital content creator”? Or for example, “Scott” moving to Japan with his Chinese wife. How do the visas even wok out? Moving to the (rich part of) EU from the non-Western world is certainly not easy. I don’t know if I should read these pieces as “I can transfer freely with ful…

The basic idea is that you should be useful. If you can plausibly claim that you will contribute to the economy without causing too much trouble, most countries will welcome you as an immigrant. The specifics vary from country to country and from situation to situation.

An "employer sponsor" often makes that claim not only plausible but even concrete.

Re: Films that made people emigrate

#44

Post by justworkout »

nonethewiser wrote: post #8
michaelteter wrote: post #2

Those who can should try living in different parts of the world. It really broadens your appreciation for life and other cultures. Of course, how you feel during and after the period depends greatly on where you are and whom you meet along the way. I'm always amazed at how many people from my home country (US) I talk to who say, "oh I can't afford to go there". For less than $1500, usually, you can go to the opposite…

Frankly world travel has made me happier to live where I am. I think the Americans also deserve some slack for lack of international travel. I really think its out of touch. The rest of the world is far away and its not cheap to travel. $1500 isnt going to pay for many nights in a hotel either. Its a lot to ask for your average person, and very difficult if you have a family. Of course this is less true for your typi…

I left America a decade ago and, luckily, the country I ended up in--the first time I ever went outside the US even--turned out to be much better than anywhere I lived in the US. A lot of my life anxiety vanished the moment I walked off the plane and I immediately knew I'd arrived in the place I was meant to be. Despite struggles involving learning the language, cultural differences, and lifestyle changes, the stress was and is miniscule compared to the day to day in the US.

I've traveled a lot since then. A lot of the countries I've visited were other places I'd considered moving, but I immediately knew they weren't for me. They reassured me that I really did find the perfect place to call my home. I've also found some places that I had zero expectations for that were almost as comfortable as where I live now. But generally, no matter where I go, I feel better about the home I've made for myself. Traveling is (mostly) fun, but I'm always glad to come home.

Re: Films that made people emigrate

#45

Post by JoeAltmaier »

adastra22 wrote: post #40
schoen wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Were there actually legal restrictions on those things in many places prior to the routinization of passports and passport controls in World War I?

No. You just got on a boat and went to some other country. No passports, no passport controls, no immigration quotas. In the US at least it goes back a little bit further than WW1, to the Chinese exclusion act in the late 1800’s.

Kind of. You weren't given many rights unless you did it right.

For instance, paupers were often excluded from American cities as early as the 1700's.

As for immigration quotas, early American colonies were more concerned with increasing immigration. America was big and empty. If you had money, you were welcome.

About that. If you didn't have money, you became an indentured servant. Took half your life to pay it off. Not a real citizen until then.

So, sure, you could come to America. But it wasn't all honey and roses. It was different, but not much better.

Re: Films that made people emigrate

#46

Post by paragraft »

I know the article was about movies that persuaded viewers to _go_ to a certain country, but I am reminded of a former colleague who explained to me that it was actually a TV show ("The Mechanism", a drama about political corruption in Brazil) that finally convinced him he needed to take his young family and _leave_ Brazil for a better future.

Of course I had to give it a watch after a review like that. Good show.

Re: Films that made people emigrate

#48

Post by cultofmetatron »

refactor_master wrote: post #5

The thing I’m always missing from these pieces is how . How do the rest of us emigrate, without being anglophone and teaching English, or a “digital content creator”? Or for example, “Scott” moving to Japan with his Chinese wife. How do the visas even wok out? Moving to the (rich part of) EU from the non-Western world is certainly not easy. I don’t know if I should read these pieces as “I can transfer freely with ful…

> without being anglophone and teaching English, or a “digital content creator”?

given that you're on hackernews, I guess I should let you know that being a software engineer is the ultimate hack for being able to travel wherever you want.

I started freelancing while travelling and then joined the ground floor of a startup. I took a huge paycut vs working for a FANG but I get to change countries every 1-2 months and no one cares as long as I get my work done. 20+ countries in after doing this for 7 years straight.

Re: Films that made people emigrate

#49

Post by justworkout »

devilbunny wrote: post #25
lmm wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not flying is one thing, but so many US-Americans are scared of going into an actually different culture - somewhere where they speak a different language and watch different TV. A lot of people - not everyone, but a lot - could easily reach somewhere like that on that 8 hour road trip, but they won't, and they'll all try and talk about how it's "oh there's so much variety in the US I don't need to" which is just suc…

> which is just such a transparent lie Let's give it a generous read, though. Your life will be more interesting, in all likelihood, if you travel a lot (I can see a few narrow exceptions, but not the point). However. If you don't leave the US, you are limited to one absolutely huge country that has pretty much every kind of subtropical to alpine climate, landscape, etc., that you can imagine. You don't need a passpo…

You can go to the most isolated towns on earth and you'll find people who speak English working in nearly any facility. You'll find signs in English even when you're in the extremely rare case where nobody is speaking up and volunteering to help you in English. Needing to read the language before traveling is putting the cart before the horse. The vast majority of people don't get good at a language or even bother learning fundamentals until they're in a situation or region where the language is used.

I've traveled with people who are (forgive me for the bad wording) equally as easily confused as your wife, if not worse, and into the middle of jungles and villages of far off places. In the 19th century this would've been extremely difficult and dangerous. In the 21st century, you're honestly probably safer wandering around cluelessly in more of the world than you are in the US.

And I never felt like I was missing out by not being able to read a random thing in a language I don't know. Tourist locations, especially places like museums and historical sites, will almost always have full English translations of whatever the local language is.

There's no "winging" it. You can plan for a country even when you don't know the language. Just save locations on google maps and go.

Re: Films that made people emigrate

#50

Post by justworkout »

ggreer wrote: post #38
houseatrielah wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

American workers barely get any vacation and they probably don't want to burn what little they have on flight time. Mexico is a very popular and that's a different culture and language.

The concept of Americans being overworked and underpaid is simply incorrect. US PPP-adjusted median disposable income is $46,600/year. Only Luxembourg has higher amounts of disposable income. The average American works 1,765 hours per year, the same as New Zealand. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disposable_household_and_per_c... 2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_average_a...

Disposable income is income minus taxes. That money drops fast when you factor in America's extremely high rent, the fact most Americans need a car+insurance+gas, many pay for their own health care, and other various fees. Plus people who do have some savings are often paranoid and save it because they know car trouble or one trip to the doctor will financially ruin them.

Flat numerical values alone don't tell the full story. It's like assuming Irish are all rich because of their colossal GDP--and not considering that it's due to companies shuffling money around.

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