I have two grandparents who were born elsewhere. Italy could be a possibility if I read the laws correctly but I don’t know the language. And I’ve never been there. My grandfather was born in Prussia so if that ever becomes a country again I’m in. Really we can’t pinpoint which side of the border he was from. Germany only passes down citizenship from parents anyway.
Mostly it’s because I don’t have the resources to even contemplate. I don’t think things are going to go Mad Max. No one is coming after me. I have enough to be comfortable here. I don’t have enough to move my family somewhere else
My experience on quite a few trips to Mexico is that if you make a halfway serious attempt to speak Spanish, don’t flaunt wealth, have some perspective about cultural differences, stay in locally owned independent places rather than gigantic corporate all-inclusive resorts, show some actual interest in Mexico as a sovereign country with a deep and complex history rather than just as a cheap and sunny place to live, and treat Mexicans like actual human beings, things are just fine.
I’ve already fully intended to move to Taiwan, even as of years ago, during the Biden administration. I just got dual citizenship last month. I even have a remote job that will let me earn enough income.
The only event I’m waiting for to let me move has nothing to do with politics, it’s health. I have mycotoxicosis and inflammation-syndrome last year from living for too long in a moldy house (I should have left 7 months sooner.) As a result, my body is now ultra-sensitive to mold. I also have the HLA-DR3 (DR17) and DQ2 genes that make it harder for me to detox from mold than most folks. Taiwan is a hot and humid place, and hence moldier than America. I’m still researching if I can somehow thread the needle and find a clean mold-free dry apartment in Taiwan and mask up all the time and use a dehumidifier and HEPA purifier. Otherwise it might just not be safe.
Allow me to reply to your question to Jackmannii please. As a longtime expat you might not face much of xenophobia. Those Americans who do are the ones refusing to learn the language of their host country expecting everbody to be available to be adressed in English (and make fun of people who are not fluent in English). They treat native people in a condescending way, insisting that everything is better in the US, that other cultures are just trash, no need to be respected. This is not so much due to jealousies as to an attitude of superiority in contact with natives. This is certainly not the case for all Americans, there are those who treat their hosts with respect.
We’re getting too old to go the ex-pat route, so we’ll hunker down and hope that orange motherfucker dies soon. There are others who might try to take up his mantle, but they don’t have that weird ability to mesmerize the morons.
Information about Italian citizenship by descent is widely available in English, even if you don’t want to pay professionals to figure it out for you. And a subscription to something like Ancestry.com can go a long way toward locating the necessary genealogical documents for not much money. It definitely helped me with my application, though for complicated reasons of family history, some of the most crucial documents were not publicly available (but I had acquired them many years ago as part of my genealogy hobby).
My parents were both born in Hungary, so I’m certain I could get Hungarian citizenship if I applied for it. I have some cousins who have done it. However, I heard from them that it’s a long, bureaucratic process, and very difficult if you don’t speak Hungarian. (I don’t, but my cousins do.)
I know English but sometimes I don’t write like I do. I didn’t mean I couldn’t find the information in English. I meant it wouldn’t be a good fit because I don’t know the language and I have never been there.
I have the manifest of my grandmother coming to Ellis Island. I don’t have any other of her birth records. She was not supposed to be born in Italy. Her parents were already living in New York. Her mother was back in Italy visiting family. We don’t know if my great grandmother knew she was pregnant before she left. She was told to not travel by a doctor so my grandmother was born there and came through Ellis Island as an infant.
Portugal is fairly friendly for immigrants. We have friends who made the move three years ago and they love it. Costa Rica still welcomes expats, I think, as does Mexico. We had friends who spent a year in France. It was a bureaucratic nightmare. They had to file papers every three months, all of which had to be in French, so they had to find a bilingual lawyer to prepare them, then take them personally to the appropriate office in the appropriate arrondissement and wait for an audience with a bureaucrat who may or may not speak English and who may send them across the city just because he could. That said, they enjoyed their time there.
My eldest son lived in England for a few years with his English wife. Work was difficult; I think he had to jump through a lot of bureaucratic hoops.
I’m pretty sure that Canada doesn’t want retired Americans. When I looked into it some years ago, I think one had to have a job waiting there.
My wife and I have been to Portugal, several time.
And are seriously considering, doing the repat thing there.
And all you say ring true, expect wide spread hatred from the locals.
But we typically live modestly, follow the local customs, and try to pick up at least enough language skills, to do the normal niceties, when traveling.
Then again I might just be naive?
I have given serious thought on and off of moving to Israel. I realize it is not really better there at this moment, but the prime minister’s best bro is not giving Nazi salutes before large crowds.
Anyway-- I started giving it thought during the first Trump administration, but my son was a lot younger. He is now 18, but still in high school. I am not leaving while he is in high school, and I am not taking him with me while he can be drafted (unless he wants to serve).
My husband does not want to move to Israel.
So I have to think very seriously where my marriage stands vis-a-vis remaining in a progressively fascist country.
I would welcome my son to come to Israel any time he wanted, and coming while he could still be drafted is up to him and his conscience-- I just would not ever insist he come.
If they ever begin rounding up Jews here-- or even just remove “protected” class as a legal concept, so discrimination is no longer a crime and may freely be practiced, and written into company policies and contracts, I think my husband would leave, but for him, that’s what it would take.
Moving to Israel is about more than just getting the hell out of fascist America, though. I even sometimes wish I had gone in my early 20s. If I were not Jewish, and did not have another country to think of as mine, I’m not sure what would make me leave, nor where I would go.
I’d qualify under Israel’s “Law of Return”, having one Jewish grandparent that I could document. I’d expect to have to learn modern Hebrew and become a lot more familiar with Jewish religious laws.
If you think of living in Portugal you might seriously consider learning the language well otherwise you will have little chance of integration. Think of people coming to the US not knowing English, you would be in this situation. Portuguese is not difficult to learn, not like Chinese or Russian. In contact with bureaucracy or in case of medical need a scarce knowledge of Portuguese might lead to misunderstandings and problems.
People usually are polite, communication style is not as rough as in the US, so except for extreme situations you will not find open hatred in the population. You are just not really welcome. Try to make friends, speak their language well, this might help.
Out of curiosity - for the folks here who want to go to Portugal but don’t speak Portguese - what makes it more appealing than an English-speaking nation like the UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, some Caribbean nations? Is it the climate, cost of living? Easier emigration?
All three from what I’ve heard. Also my understanding (second hand, I’ve never been) is English of some degree of moderate fluency is pretty universal in the under-40 crowd at least in the Algarve in the far south. However these kind of circumstances can change all the time - what was once more affordable or easier can become less so fairly quickly if government policies shift or relatively well-heeled ex-pats drive up real estate prices.