this post was submitted on 03 May 2025
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US ex pat here:
I think you will find more success in this if you find a place or two you want to live in and run TO something instead of AWAY from something. It'll always be a bit of both, but this post reads more like (very understandably) "get me out of here" than "I want to be somewhere new".
Being an ex pat has plenty of hard aspects of course. I think some of them are made quite a bit easier when you passionately dive into the culture and life in a new place. At least to me it would be impossible if my head was still in the US.
Of course you're doing nothing wrong! Just some advice if it gets a bit more serious.
Like many in the thread: Canada, Australia/New Zealand, Scandinavia, Germany, UK (not that they're doing fantastic right now), Netherlands would be my top choices with your criteria. Most large companies will be more likely to have English speaking as the working language and you'll learn the local language (s) while living there. Best of luck!
Yeah, some of that is the impromptu nature of this post. I've thought about moving to other countries since high school. I'm very interested in a lot of cultural things that are just vastly more prevalent and thriving in Europe. Sometimes it feels like I was born in the wrong place. So there are definitely places I'd love to run to. I visited Switzerland and it felt like heaven on Earth compared to my state. I wanted to move there long before Trump's first election. But it seems that particular country is near impossible to move to, plus Swiss German seems particularly tough.
I really like learning about other cultures and such, I'm afraid I may have come off entirely wrong in the brevity and laser-focus of my original post.
Very interesting that you say the working language would be English. That's fantastic news. I definitely think I can get to a basic conversational level with languages pretty quickly, but reaching the technical professional level is my big fear. So that's very encouraging to hear that it may not be so dire as that at least in the Netherlands. Thank you for taking the time to respond!
Switzerland has many protections you want and the salaries are very good too. Now, I donΒ΄t consider life there as ideal thought. It is a bit depressing, so much beauty around but something is sad... reminds it of Paris... not to that extreme, but a bit like it. Of course it is a stable economy and you sense that peace of mind when there.
However it is not that democratic as they claim, for instance, twice the country voted for restriction on EU immigration (a silly thing since it greatly benefits the Alpine country and its society) but still the politicians keep dragging their feet and give excuses to disregard the resounding already decade old mandate (and at the benefit of the economy)... so wise yes, democratic not! Likewise, Switzerland has caved much to the powers of US and EU to several international topics so it is not the independent it used to be. Then it is the ethical aspect of collecting monies from spurious sources (Ireland lives of that too, but at least, the Celtics are more transparent of that)...
Yeah, certainly depends exactly where you go. A capital city and a rural town will feel extremely different on English speaking (and cultural/political views at that).
I think it's quite possible to do though. Happy to chat or answer any specific questions you have, especially if they're Scandinavia based.
It's a tough choice to do something like you're talking about but extremely fulfilling. I wouldn't trade the decision for the world at this point. I wish you the best of luck!