NGL, not asking for a friend. Given the current trends in US politics, it seems prudent to at least look into it.
Most of the online content on the topic seems to be by immigration attorneys hustling ultra rich people. I’m not ultra rich. I have a job in tech, could work remotely, also have enough assets to not desperately need money if the cost of living were low enough.
I am a native English speaker, fluent enough in Spanish to survive in a Spanish speaking country. I am old, male, cis, hetero, basically asexual at this point. I am outgoing, comfortable among strangers.
What’s good and bad about where you live? Would it be OK for a outsider, newcomer?
Wanna move and work remotely for your current company I guess? Why should we welcome you instead of someone who wants to come here to fill up a vacant position that we don’t have workforce for?
You can’t have your cake and eat it too just because you’re angry that the wrong guy got elected. There are people around the world getting bombed, they’re the people who need to get out of their country, not a tech bro that could just move to a State that reliably elected Democrats.
First of all, stop using word “expat” when you’re talking of immigrants but from “better countries”
Ive usually seen “Expat” defined as someone working in another country, but explicitly with the intent to be there temporarily and leave once their time at that job ends, rather than moving there with an intent to stay and join that society. Which, granted, doesnt seem to be what OP is actually talking about in this case.
It’s short for “expatriate.” I’m not saying it isn’t used in the way you described, but that’s not the original meaning.
What OP is talking about has been a thing since the 90s and even 80s and earlier with ex-military.
Move to a cheap country where your pension/disability/passive income/whatever makes you wealthy.
Originally places liked it because it was an influx in cash. But then it became too popular and they were gentrifying places to the point locals couldn’t afford to live and these leeches never worked.
It became big again with the internet when people became able to work and American job while overseas remotely. But by now most American companies just won’t pay American wages. If they wanted someone overseas they’d pay them the low wage they always do.
With those younger people they added the “temporary” because they say they’ll move back someday.
What you’re talking about (if the job is in that country) would be a migrant worker.
But they also don’t like that label, they think they’re better than it.
Yea, I always thought an “expat” was someone who was temporarily sent to another country to work for their company there.
I’d love to see countries mark “expat” as an option on forms…
Just as a trap to filter them all out.
It was literally in the last couple of weeks that I first came across this. I thought it just meant ‘a person living in a country in which isn’t their home country’ regardless of origin, etc. The only thing I thought of it is that it wasn’t necessarily permanent whereas immigrant to me had permanence. It’s wild that, to me, it seems to have come out of nowhere.
I always understood that you refer to yourself and your fellow countrymen abroad as expats. You use the word immigrant when referring to others.
Yes, this is exactly how I would define it.
I also don’t think it imparts a general pro/anti integration with locals (not to say some assholes aren’t out there).
If I was thinking of immigrating elsewhere, I’d want to be near a few other people from my country who’ve been there longer than me, if only to make the transition easier and to get help with any issues specific to people from the same place.
I always saw expats as something between immigrants and tourists. They aren’t trying to switch countries and they aren’t just on vacation. There’s plenty of good reasons for this category, like being sent somewhere by your employer. This naturally creates a community of foreigners who aren’t necessarily worried about fitting in as a new citizen or permanent resident would be.
But yeah, this idea that Western countries have expats instead of emigrants is weird.
Hard agree, expat as a term only exists because white people wanted to separate themselves from those they deem ”lesser immigrants”
I moved to Japan from Sweden, I only call my self an immigrant because that’s what I am
You hit the nail on the head when you said “expats or exiles”
They’re immigrants, and it’s only Brits and Yanks that refuse to admit it
I’m an immigrant. Learn the fucking language yous cunts. Respect the country’s mindset. Pay your fucking taxes.
Why would I want people from a less privileged country coming here and stealing our jobs, putting a burden on our healthcare system and making housing even more expensive?
Congratulations America, you’re now the english language Mexico… with worse Tacos.
This is what so many don’t understand. Other countries don’t want us. Why would they?
If you have some skill that they are short on. That is the main reason. In that way you aren’t just some filthy American, your a skilled worker.
That excludes most of us. For example I’m a pricing analyst. Doubt they’d even need me, let alone all the people working retail or customer service positions.
Yeah most of the auto mechanics probably voted for Trump, but a lot didn’t. We have a ton of people working in restaurants, driving for Lyft, etc.
Most people are fucked.
I would be doing that too, but you got to understand that other countries have other cultures, some things wil be better like free heathcare and better labour laws but other are not “as good”. In europe they do control a lot of things we can access on the internet for example. If someone doesn’t comply with an EU regulation they will be punished, it’s not 'freedom of speach" without consequences like in the US. Also being entitled like many americans are will not work here. So like everything in life some people will be a good match for.one country and others for other countries.
I’m really curious about what you think you’re not being allowed to visit on the internet.
I can’t think of a single thing that’s ‘blocked’.
Unless you’re under 13, of course, in which case I concede there are a lot of restrictions - but that’s a good thing.
more.like some youtube videos or some sites that didn’t comply with GPDR. It’s been a while since I had a problem like this but to be fair I was just giving an example of regulations that exist to protect us, that we support, but that goes against the “american way”
Ah, ok - that’s fair.
I thought you were implying that we had some kind of firewall like China or something!
I agree, US sites geolocking their content is sometimes a pain, but I get your meaning. We do tend to be more comfortable with our governments trying to protect us than the Americans seem to.
