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.
Was personally worked from Spain for half a year last winter and in my experience it is nice, but I found it harder to mingle with the Spanish at times. Their English was not amazing and it seems they have a tight knit community, with which I mean if you are not family it’s hard to get in.
I personally would consider Portugal more. I have a few very nice Portuguese colleagues which maybe helps because they show us around when we’re there, but in general I found it easier to connect to people there. And apart from the climate (Portugal can be very wet and a little bit cooler because of the ocean), they have all the good things Spain has (food, drink, a more laid back way of celebrating live). And they have pasteis de nata, which is a reason to live there in itself.
Just be careful with eating francesinha during lunch.
Spain vs Portugal is a tough one… Spain has better protections on paper but the people can be more vocal when opposing something they don´t like. Portuguese, in general, are far more amicable and genuine, specially outside the too touristic areas, but prospective for jobs to foreigners is slim outside the two main cities. Yes, Portuguese are far more amicable than Spaniards, but, like I mentioned in other post, the test is put when circumstance change, with the flock of foreigners buying property in Lisbon an Porto, they are far less welcoming there now too. For the long term, Spain, has a better track record, if you ask me.