Ask HN: How to Emigrate from EU and Where?
EU is in a perpetual state of decline and it seems there are no solutions in sight that would change its path in the next decade.
Everything seems so stagnant and the costs of living are rising while the salaries do not increase whatsoever.
What's worse is that due to its economic decline politicians and leaders try to persuade the populace that a lot of things that we enjoy and contribute to our quality of life are now considered luxury or outright sinful. The same kind of rhetoric that is used to sin tax tobacco, alcohol, gambling is now used on things like:
- car ownership - Air Conditioning - Travel - meat and dairy
Southeast Asia is quite nice, especially if you're white.
Live near the beach. Lots of people speak English, Dutch, Spanish. Lower cost of living, decent internet speed. Sin tax can't go too high because of freedom of religion. If you can work remote, the conversion rate is really sweet. If not, the pay is not bad by EU standards and some places are willing to match.
Eu is a big place, does nowhere appeal within it?
Perhaps lookup a digital nomad website as they list requirements for countries around the world to get visa.
Unfortunately, more and more of this stuff is EU-wide and that's only going to be worse. In a decade or two there will be no differences at all from this point of view. That's why it's high time to start looking before everyone else does.
If you want a place where they pour $1B in a short messages app and $30B in an app to hail a cab, the US is indeed the only place you should call home. Good luck!
If we're ranking by ride hailing app funding: Didi - China ($20B), Grab - Singapore ($10B), Gojek - Indonesia ($6B), Ola - India ($3.8B), Careem - UAE ($0.7B).
WeChat - China (nearly $3B) is probably the world's most dominant messaging company.
Plus China funds games and social media very well too.
Where to: US.
Emigrating to the US at the moment isn't too great either.
For talented tech people: It's where the money is.
In the EU the compensation difference between top 1% and bottom 1% performers is generally absurdly small.
I think (outside of outliers) this is a common misconception. while your salary might be higher in the US we are paying a sh*tton of money for things that europeans generally do not, ESPECIALLY if you are a parent like myself.
I am meticulous about tracking finance and so far (my daughter is 11) I have spent $374k which if I lived in Europe would now be in my pocket. This isn’t total expenses, this is only expenses that I have to pay for here that I would not otherwise. I also have another decade+ of raising and schooling etc to pay for
Roughly another $50k per year on average I spend currently on other things that I would not be if I lived in Europe…
As someone with a kid, I'm trying to figure out how. First off the average spend for a kid if we can believe reports is 250K and honestly, feels like there's outliers bringing that up. My parents most certainly spend nowhere near that on me.
But even for my kid, who lives a very middle class lifestyle, I don't see how I'm dump even half that into her and she's half your kid's age. I know for a fact that I have not spent that much. My healthcare spend has gone up 3K/year. everything involved in pregnancy up to birth was 8K. I pay for a private school which is than the daycare. I pay for extra activities. Even then I'm not at 100K and most of it is the privage school, I don't have to pay for, but wanted to to better accommodate my special needs kid when she was young. I'm not even doing that next year. I'm struggling to consider where I'd find another 150K+ to spend on her beyond mandated things like clothing. Are you talking college? I guess I'm lucky my state has a state scholarship and community college is free regardless. It's how I only paid 20K to get a bachelor's. I assume my kid will do the same whatever she picks.
Doesn't matter if your overall profit is higher. Which it is unless you're a very bad programmer.
Hey, if you find a country that is not ~in decline, let me know.
Also ... where are you getting the "sin tax for travel ownership" rhetoric from? Like, I follow several eu green parties, and anytime one of them starts with something on banning air-trafic, they get shuffles to the fringe.
I actually like the EU, and if you have specific gripes, you probably will be able to find a country that is more pareto-optimal than one you currently reside in.
If you are after money, USA is still the place to be. Just look at levels.fyi
But I think you are looking at it wrong.
If you are vaguely depressed about the current situation, running away will not help you. Figure out what you want to run towards.
Yes, Europe has gone a long distance to make sure to be doomed to misery eventually.
Look for countries whith good track of records of entreprenurship, successful non government initiatives etc. i.e. non communist and non totalitarian ones. There are only few of them on this planet.
If you're working remotely, Nepal.
Nigeria, Colombia, Brazil, Mexico, Thailand and Viernam. The future is theere.
Forget the US people ther are only slightly less depressed than the EU
Nigeria, Colombia, Mexico and Brazil are good places for the OP to go to and get mugged. The reality is that these places are just shit and dangerous. Vietnam and Thailand have their own attractions but they are only popular because they are cheaper not because they are better than the EU.
Do you live in one of those countries?
Could you please provide a 1-2 sentence reason for each of these countries for why they're the future? This is an interesting list of countries, and I'd like to hear the reasoning behind it.
Thanks!
That's where people are gonna be , that's where most importantly people young and in a good mood are gonna be.
And most importantly those are places where the roulette is still spinning . You want to be where the roulette is still spinning as opposed to places like US; EU; Japan where it has basically almost stopped.
For example a non small amount of people in Nigeria still become rich because of a clerk at the bank credited money to the wrong account by error (and those who reeive the money they go fast to withdraw them and disappear). If you are an incumbent on the scene you want to be where chaos and randomness is.
Also remember not to get fooled by the money indicator such as GDP , median wage etc... the important stuff such as housing, food, staples, utilities, vehicles etc they adjust based on the locality and thus are measured via PPP not absolute terms .
Also remember what Roman Emperor Augustus used to say :"Better to be #1 in a peripheric area of the Empire than #2 in Rome"
Good luck finding a country that doesn’t seem in decline, or improving from horrible to slightly less horrible but still worse than the EU.
It’s also mindset, even if a country is a 3rd world country, if there is growth and a sense of progress, the population will be in a much more optimistic state.
It’s not the current situation which matters, it’s how people look at the future