(Thread is only about cultural/social aspects, not about visas or work permits or legal residency, etc.)
ISTM that it may be slightly easier to be Australian/Canadian/British/Irish/Kiwi in the United States than vice versa:
Many Americans love accents from foreigners who hail from English-is-also-native-tongue countries, such as the British ones, whereas IME those countries aren’t too keen on American accents (can’t blame them, the American accent probably sounds uncouth)
The United States has a more diverse climate to choose from - hot, cold, wet, dry, got it all, whereas Canada would be on the whole colder than the US, and the UK and Ireland would be cloudier and wetter, and Australia is nice in some places but Big Outback in others(?). New Zealand sounds very nice, climate-wise though.
As for cost of living - I don’t know, but it might be a tie; all six countries (USA, UK, Canada, NZ, Ireland, Australia) are highly developed and have a steep cost of living. Income? IDK.
There is a lot of anti-Americanism in the world and that will probably only worsen during Trump’s presidency. There doesn’t seem to be anywhere as much anti-Canadian/British/Aussie/Irish/Kiwi sentiment in the USA.
What other factors are at play? I have never resided abroad in Canada, Australia, the UK, New Zealand, Ireland, etc. so I await my ignorance being fought
I was going to say never noticed, but then I remembered there is a very, very minor amount of regional tension. Prosperous Canadians crossing over the Washington border on the coast to shop and occasionally purchase vacation homes apparently have a negative reputation in the eyes of some locals. Probably no worse than the generalized Pacific Northwestern disdain for carpet-bagger Californians.
But get 100 miles from the border and it is likely most Americans can’t tell a Canadian from a Montanan.
I’m Australian, my husband’s American. We live in Australia and he holds dual US/Australian citizenship.
Him moving here was actually pretty easy, relatively: expensive and it took a few months to go through, but the paperwork wasn’t unreasonable. (We applied after we got married in the US.) He had a hard time finding a job while on his first temporary visa (which did legally allow him to work), but got a job very soon after getting his permanent visa. Despite the similarity between our two countries, there are adjustments in culture, but he’s always been pretty content here in Aus. There are things he misses, but in the main he’s had a pretty easy transition.
I’ve spent some time in the US, though obviously nowhere near as much time as he’s spent here. A few language fuckups–just little things caused by accent (that time at the supermarket when someone tried to give me a lotto ticket when I asked for a lighter, or that time in Georgia when I could not for the life of me understand how much money this dude wanted for some purchases because his accent was that thick). I get tripped up by tipping (much less a thing here than in the US) and purchase prices being displayed before tax (here, you have to show the final price). Driving through some southern areas, I was bemused by the number of churches, all of which seemed to be denominations unto themselves. The multiplicity of police forces is strange there (we just have state + federal here, and the feds aren’t really visible day to day unless you hang around airports).
I’d find some oddities if we moved there, but I’d adjust pretty easily, I suspect, based on experiences while staying there. More so because I’d be moving into an established network–my husband’s family are all good folks who were and are amazingly generous with their hearts.
I’m a Canadian who lived for several years in the U.S.
Finding work was easy. (You’re Canadian? Of course we’ll hire you, you can SPELL.) Being paid triple-time for working on that fake holiday you have in November was pretty nice too…
Culturally it wasn’t a big deal because I frequently hang out with foreigners and others from away, so I was just one more person who wasn’t from New York.
I’ve lived in several large cities in Canada, and have known Americans in all those cities. None of them had issues either, except for the guy from Texas who was really upset about not having firearms.
Climate isn’t as much as an issue as Velocity makes out. After all, the climate for your city is what matters, not the country. If you’re in Detroit who gives a crap if it’s always sunny and dry in California?
I think that it is now easier to be an American in Aus than it was 40 years ago, and more difficult to travel in the US than it was 40 years ago, so perhaps its even now.
There is a cultural misunderstanding between Americans and Australians that means the two get along very well. I think this cultural misunderstanding works better inside the US, where Americans outnumber Australians. Also, when I was young, Americans had an open interest in strange foreigners. Australians did not – except perhaps for the small number who were traveling overseas to meet foreigners and live in foreign countries.
Perhaps most important, Australians have a lot of other people to be suspicious of now – Japanese were succeeded by Chinese, then Muslims, and xenophobia towards Poms, Wogs and Yanks has receded. Distance from WWII has also been a factor.
tavalla’s husband here, and she’s got it pretty well right from my perspective. The immigration process was long and drawn out, but it was a foregone conclusion. Tons of paper, lots of postage, a few thousand in fees. I got my temporary residence permit a few months after our marriage, and moved within a few weeks.
Sorting through stuff was difficult; I ended up getting rid of much of what I owned. I basically flew over with the max baggage allowance; the rest followed by sea mail, eventually. As my dad had been in the Air Force, moving wasn’t that traumatic a thing.
It took a few years for my permanent residency to come through. and a few more before I could apply for citizenship. The test was easy, and I’m still amused that there were nearly as many questions about sports figures as there were for basic civics!
I moved from Central Florida to southern Victoria. It’s dryer in the summer, and slightly cooler in the winter. Lack of hurricanes is a nice thing.
Cost of living in Australia is higher - but so are wages, so it balances out. In absolute dollars, figure on everything costing about a third again as much in Australia, not counting conversion rates. For example, a computer part in the US might cost 100USD, but cost 133AUD.
Occasionally I’ll be tripped up by idioms. For example, to me, a cot is a fold up camp bed. To Australians, it’s a baby bed, what I’d call a crib. Crib is not a word that is used here.
I’d say one of the bigger differences in living in Australia is that there’s generally less and smaller - fewer stores, and smaller ones. There’s nothing like a Super WalMart anywhere around here! Internet shopping is a godsend.
Another godsend is UHC. My God, it’s wonderful! I’m aware I spend a bit more in taxes; to me, it’s more than worth it.
I’ve pretty much never run across any anti-American sentiment, at least directed at me personally. I’m a desk clerk at a hotel, so a lot of people ask me where I’m from; I rarely get asked about politics, and always deflect it; after all, I’m not being paid to discuss politics, and I’m not inclined to do so with strangers anyway.
I’ll always be an outsider here - my accent marks me immediately - but that’s nothing new to me either.
Overall, I’m pleased with living here, and have no intention of moving back to the States. I’ve made a home here, and home is where I am, where my wife is.
