Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Why don't you move abroad?

orkohunter.net

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

91–100 of 206 posts

Re: Why don't you move abroad?

#91

Post by guenthert »

anal_reactor wrote: post #80
kabes wrote: post #60

Article resonates with me. I'm Belgian and moved to work in SF in 2016. I really hated it and it took me a long time to admit this, because it felt like failure. I moved back 2 years later and the upside is that I now appreciate Belgium, my friends and family here way more. Before I was just focused on moving away to what I thought was a better place.

I live in the Netherlands, so I'm really holding myself back not to make a joke about Belgium being bad. I recognize the text author's struggles. I live in the shit area, and when my parents were visiting, they saw drug addicts. I personally witnessed a shooting once. I have almost no friends. Despite having learnt the language to B2 level, I have zero connection with local culture. But you know what? In my home coun…

I get the sense that you might like the S.F. Bay Area.

Re: Why don't you move abroad?

#92

Post by rakejake »

nordiknomad wrote: post #48

well, below points are not matching somehow : -------------------------------------- Just like many Indians of my generation, I spent my childhood in a single bedroom rented house. Every evening, my brother and I would sit in front of an oil lamp and study, mostly maths and science. ----------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------ My father has been a software engineer since…

Yes, "generational poverty" seems like a very strong term for something like this and is definitely incorrect contextually. The family background seems squarely middle class to me, nowhere near poverty.

Re: Why don't you move abroad?

#93

Post by graemep »

forinti wrote: post #50

I've had this lingering regret of not moving to Europe when I was young and nobody depended on me, but I am also sure that I would have had to endure racism and xenophobia there (although I do have a European passport).

> I am also sure that I would have had to endure racism and xenophobia there (although I do have a European passport).

Depends where in Europe - not just country but area.

I moved back to the UK seven years ago and have lived in several places since and I have had one incident of overt racism - a dodgy door to door salesman I turned away called me a "Paki". I rarely even feel that there is any underlying feeling of racism.

A lot will depend on who you are and where you live - there are more racists in generally bad areas.

Its not as simple as big cities are better either. I live in an edge of town area with a village feel and a predominantly ethnically English population and its very friendly.

Re: Why don't you move abroad?

#94

Post by DanielHB »

rakejake wrote: post #68

As an Indian who also moved back a couple years back, I do agree that most people don't think about what "they" want, and whether it is possible to achieve it without moving. I know I didn't when it was my turn to move abroad. The pandemic and all the time spent indoors gave me a of time to think about it and allowed me to finally pull the trigger. But a few points: * The magnitude of shit some people are putting up…

> Their entire life is oriented around visa-status

That was the main reason I didn't even try to move to the US. Had plenty of visa-stress in Sweden with a work permit and helpful employer.

Re: Why don't you move abroad?

#95

Post by anal_reactor »

Aeolun wrote: post #86
anal_reactor wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I live in the Netherlands, so I'm really holding myself back not to make a joke about Belgium being bad. I recognize the text author's struggles. I live in the shit area, and when my parents were visiting, they saw drug addicts. I personally witnessed a shooting once. I have almost no friends. Despite having learnt the language to B2 level, I have zero connection with local culture. But you know what? In my home coun…

There’s a running joke amongst foreigners in Japan that if you have issues in your home country, coming to Japan isn’t magically going to fix them for you. They’ll just come along for the ride, and now you get to deal with those on top of having to deal with living in a foreign country.

I was listening to music when I encountered a song which lyrics went something like "More or less where he was staring, he found a new home. Now he's sitting by the new window and more and more often old thoughts are coming to him." and this is really really true. The good thing is that being aware of this makes it much easier to deal with your issues.

Re: Why don't you move abroad?

#96

Post by viraptor »

pluc wrote: post #5

Because visas. You can't actually move anywhere (well, at least in most of Europe) without a job to sponsor you.

There's a number of countries with some form of "has needed skills" visa. There are also options of paying for one. Job sponsors are not the only way.

Re: Why don't you move abroad?

#97

Post by graemep »

gtvwill wrote: post #53

Currently looking at moving overseas. Live in aus and the place is politically an authoritarian corprotocracy with unaffordable living even on a decent wage. Looking to get out. We don't need much and are both fairly handy (in all forms of life) so we are considering a run down property in Europe. We could literally buy a dump,do it up and go off grid with solar and still come out ahead for 50% of the price for a avg…

> authoritarian corprotocracy with unaffordable living even on a decent wage.

Sounds like much of Europe.

People emigrate TO Australia for similar reasons!

Its probably a lot easier and lower risk to move to a different part of your own country. No visa required, you know the language and legal system.

Re: Why don't you move abroad?

#98

Post by guenthert »

vegabook wrote: post #13
hshshshshsh wrote: post #4

To people who are considering moving abroad you should do it. Don't let nationalism stop you. You were randomly born in your country. Choose your country. Don't let randomness and some emotional baggage control where you want to live. You have a finite live. Make most of it.

You were anything but “randomly born in your country”. You are most likely the latest branch in a sedentary tree rooted both geographically and culturally for centuries, and without that tree you certainly wouldn’t exist. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t travel, perhaps plant a new tree, but the idea that you were born randomly is obviously false.

I grew up near a border; a border which changed a lot throughout history. Not to mention that the country I was born into didn't exist as such even a few generations ago. So yeah, I'd go with “randomly born in your country”.

Re: Why don't you move abroad?

#99

Post by gwd »

hshshshshsh wrote: post #4

To people who are considering moving abroad you should do it. Don't let nationalism stop you. You were randomly born in your country. Choose your country. Don't let randomness and some emotional baggage control where you want to live. You have a finite live. Make most of it.

Loving the place and culture where you grew up because it's yours is no different than loving your own family because they're yours, or loving yourself because you're you. Far from being problematic, being connected to a sense of identity is as human as being connected to your family. Loving your country doesn't prevent you from loving other countries, nor does it even mean thinking your own country is the best.

That said, spending some time abroad (as OP has done) is a real benefit. I never realized how very American I was until I lived abroad. It gives you a different perspective on your own culture -- you can love your own culture more accurately, seeing both its strengths and its weaknesses in a different light.

Nothing wrong with moving back home afterwards though.

Re: Why don't you move abroad?

#100

Post by keiferski »

0xEF wrote: post #30

Being in the US, my career is unfortunately the center of my universe because I rely on having it to afford literally anything else. The system here is one build on dependency, and just like in any abusive relationship, they make it very, very hard for us to leave. Our lives are about our jobs, so things like healthcare and taxation are all inextricably ties to our employers. It's not long before you start to realize…

I think you have a lot of very false assumptions about the US and about the world.

1. You don’t need to know how to code to get a remote job. Plenty of jobs in marketing or support are remote. I’ve worked in many such jobs for the last decade (while abroad.)

2. It’s not as if people elsewhere just take vast amounts of time off work because they feel like it and aren’t dependent on healthcare from their job. Most people elsewhere are tied to their jobs because they have bills to pay, making them no different than anywhere else.

3. In terms of “good countries to emigrate FROM”, the US is probably the single best one, barring the ever-present income tax. Salaries are higher than basically anywhere, which makes saving easier. And the passport is stronger than most, making emigration and travel easier too. If one’s life plan were to earn a bunch of money then escape abroad to a cheap country, there is literally no better place to start than America. Maybe Singapore or Switzerland are close competitors, but they have far more institutional and cultural barriers to an average person acquiring wealth.

Post reply on HN