85
submitted 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) by mfed1122@discuss.tchncs.de to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

With all the dismal news about America lately, my home, I'm starting to seriously look at where else to move.

Putting aside for now the difficulty of actually immigrating to some countries, I'm curious on the opinions of others (especially people living outside the U.S) on this.

What I'm looking for in a country is, I imagine, similar to many people. I'm trying to find somewhere that will exhibit:

  • Low racism
  • Low sexism
  • Low LGBTQ-phobia
  • Strong laws around food quality and safety
  • Strong laws about environmental protection
  • Strong laws against unethical corporate practices (monopoly, corruption, lobbying, etc)
  • Strong laws for privacy
  • Good treatment of mentally ill, homeless, and impoverished people

Those are the real important things. Of course the nice-to-haves are almost too obvious to be worth listing, low cost of living, strong art and cultural scene, nice environment, and so on.

My actual constraints that might really matter are that I only speak English (and maybe like A1-2 level German). It seems incredibly intimidating to try to find employment somewhere when I can hardly speak the language.

I know nowhere on Earth is perfect, just curious what people may have to suggest. I hope this question isn't too selfish to ask here.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] benni@lemmy.world 32 points 1 day ago

I think this is a very valid question. Sometimes the grass really is greener on the other side.

I like it here in Germany. Laws and social safety are relatively strong. Oftentimes I see an article about some chemical common in food being a cancer risk, and then I research it and see that it is a US-centered article and that the EU already banned the chemical years ago.

Right wing populism is strongly on the rise here though. Racism and LGBTQ-phobia will strongly depend, with smaller villages and regions in East Germany being worse on average.

If you're a top earner, you most likely won't get the crazy high salaries here that you might expect from the US (even if accounted for cost of living, childcare etc).

Bureaucracy is annoying.

Rent can be very high depending on the region.

Job market strongly favors German speakers. I heard the Netherlands are more open in that regard. I think this will be your biggest hurdle.

[-] Flagstaff@programming.dev 7 points 1 day ago

What I learned about Germany most recently is that it's super-mega FOSS-prioritizing, which is awesome!

[-] janonymous@lemmy.world 9 points 1 day ago

It's not Super-Mega FOSS-prioritizing, but there are some efforts into that direction.

[-] Flagstaff@programming.dev 1 points 1 day ago

Oh, well, still: good enough!

[-] benni@lemmy.world 10 points 1 day ago

Just noticed I used "strongly" three times in the post. Gonna need to find new adverbs.

[-] mfed1122@discuss.tchncs.de 5 points 1 day ago

My German teacher had a fairly profound impact on my life, I knew him for four years and he was absolutely enamored with everything about Germany. Like the German equivalent of a weeb. Some of that has transferred to me, I like basically every aspect of German culture I'm familiar with, especially the sense of humor. Since I already have some language familiarity, it's always been near the top of my list, until recently with the AfD stuff giving me a bit of a fright. Although I saw they were recently classified as extremists, which was reassuring (thanks Lemmy for being such a good news source!)

It's of course too bad to hear about the rural racism, especially since I'd prefer a rural place of living, but it seems those two things always go together to some extent.

I'm certainly going to enroll in classes for whatever language corresponds to my target country. I really want to be an exemplary citizen of anywhere I go. I feel it's an honor to be accepted for a visa somewhere so I don't want to take that lightly. My biggest concern is just that I won't be that great with the target language despite my best efforts.

Thank you very much for your insights and kind words!

[-] andallthat@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago

also in my experience, while a lot of Germans are happy to chat with you in English in a social setting, business talk is usually expected to be held in German

this post was submitted on 03 May 2025
85 points (100.0% liked)

Asklemmy

47846 readers
839 users here now

A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions

Search asklemmy ๐Ÿ”

If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!

  1. Open-ended question
  2. Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
  3. Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
  4. Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
  5. An actual topic of discussion

Looking for support?

Looking for a community?

~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_A@discuss.tchncs.de~

founded 6 years ago
MODERATORS