I have completely lost faith with America. Ignorance and intolerance have won the day. Is there a better country? I am completely serious, and am looking for factual information about a country where I could move my family. I hope the moderators will remove inappropriate responses.
I have two children, a 5 year old and a 6 year old. I am a corporate patent attorney, but have been looking for a reason to change professions anyway. My wife has a BA in English and a masters in elementary education.
Is there a country where we would have a decent chance of finding jobs, where our children have access to good educational opportunities, and that has a government (and a populace) that does not oppress individual rights and freedoms? I have a preference for someplace that speaks English, but I am willing to learn another language. I’m leaning slightly towards countries in the European Union (Norway?) only because I think 8 years of Bush will be the impetus for the EU to really consolidate as a global power.
Thank you for your thoughts.
p.s. any insights into how I would go about following through with this (e.g., where I should go for relevant statistics, how to go about getting a job, what I need to do to deal with immigration issues, how to get my kids into local schools, etc.)
You could consider Auistralia or New Zealand. There are lot’s of advantages to both countries. The disadvantages are that it is fairly hard to migrate to either (perhaps harder than it is to migrate to the US), and you might have trouble having your qualification as a lawyer recognised (they do, after all, have different legal systems).
British Columbia is beautiful, Vancouver is a wonderful place to live. And should you want to re-enter the states you are not far from home. I know quite a few ex-pats living there.
In fact I remember seeing some sort of UN ranking where Vancouver was the no. 1 easiest place (as in ease of integration into society, setting up new life … ) for expats to live. Sydney, Australia was #2 I think.
Here’s a clue: starting a GQ post with “Ignorance and intolerance have won the day” and then imploring the mods to remove “inappropriate responses” doesn’t make a ton of sense.
As to the topic, I have an acquaintance who has lived in Cyprus for many years and loves it. It isn’t Europe, but it is in the EU. (Well, the “Republic of Cyprus” is, but not the whole island.) I’m not sure I would feel completely comfortable taking a couple of children to live there, but the guy I’m talking to has four and he’s OK with it.
RR
I’m subscribing to this thread for similar reasons, although with much different demographic status. I will be interested in the conversation and hope to find some good responses. If it winds up in IMHO, I’ll understand. xo C.
If you are okay to stay within your field then you might want to consider a country that does a fair amount of trade with the USA so that you could offer your services of understanding American Patent Law. Canada seems like an obvious choice, and language is generally not much of an issue. Ireland and the UK might also fit. You might start with trying to find an employer to sponsor a visa and later apply for permanent status if it seems a natural fit.
Seriously though, I think Canada would provide the least amount of culture shock and provide the easiest transition for your kiddies - I work with and am friends with a number of ex-pats.
Regarding location, I agree Vancouver is lovely. If things were a tad cheaper, I would live there myself.
Finally, regarding immigrating - it would be your education and work experience that you’d be selling yourself on (as opposed to your wife’s). If you have a few assets and a relative or two living here, that will help also. It takes time, and their are tonnes of hoops to jump through, but it is totally possible for someone in your position.
I would think about a location and then start looking for job leads in those cities - Shibb is correct - you have very marketable skills. Ottawa, Calgary or Toronto could be viable options - Ottawa is the capital, Toronto and Calgary have all the head offices (more or less).
Get a nibble or two from prospective employers and you’ll be in good shape. FWIW, the Canadian economy is in much better shape than the US’s and I think your job search here would be much easier than south of the boarder.
Well guy, if it’s of interest - I just filled out the “Skilled Worker Assessment” for you, based on the information you’ve provided in this thread, assuming that you don’t speak french. With no job of any sort lined up and no family in Canada, you scored a 74. In oder to be eligible to apply you need a 67 - so, baring any sort of criminal record - yer in. (Well, there’s a bit more to it than that, but at least you now know that Canada would consider you for immigration which tends to be the biggest hurdle.)
I’ve read recently that Australia doesn’t particularly want disappointed American leftists. And in any case, they’ve just elected a relatively conservative PM who supports Bush. The left there is pretty upset and you probably wouldn’t like it any better than they do.
And I heard someplace (no cite, sorry) that for every American that emigrates to Canada, two Canadians emigrate to America. So wave to them on your way out. Which I hope is soon.
Well, Australia has a Prime Minister who is proud to call himself a “Liberal”, and all of the state governments in Australia are controlled by the Labor Party, which is still nominally socialist. If Australia were the 51st state, I have no doubt that its electoral college votes would be going to John Kerry, even after around 10% of the popular vote in Australia probably going for the Greens.
I appreciate the various links. To the others that are contemplating the same things, I ran across the United Nations Development Programme , which has an annual report that includes something called a “Human Development Index.” The top 10 for 2004 were:
Norway
Sweden
Australia
Canada
Netherlands
Belgium
Iceland
United States
Japan
Ireland
“The human development index (HDI) is a composite index that measures the average achievements in a country in three basic dimensions of human development: a long and healthy life, as measured by life expectancy at birth; knowledge, as measured by the adult literacy rate and the combined gross enrolment ratio for primary, secondary and tertiary schools; and a decent
standard of living, as measured by GDP per capita in purchasing power parity (PPP) US dollars.”
It would be fairly straightforward for your wife to get a work permit to teach in Britain - there’s such a need for teachers the government has a website specifically for overseas recruitment, and this will give you some idea of positions available (bear in mind there’s not many listed at the moment, because the recruitment of teachers goes in cycles, happening towards the end of each term). Here’s links to the government education departments for England, [/url=http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Education]Scotland and Wales (although for the latter, she’d probably need to show a willingness to tackle the language to stand much chance of getting a job…probably not what you had in mind when you mentioned learning a language )
I’m not sure how easy it would be for you to be allowed to work - but you could always be a househusband for a while (In all seriousness, steer clear of London , the southeast and a few other expensive areas such as Edinburgh, and you could manage to live on a teacher’s salary alone.)
You might be interested in the OSCE. Check out their vacancies at http://www.osce.org
They pay very well and AFAIK, your income is not subject to local tax. If you’re a non-resident of the US, you are entitled to a foreign income exclusion tax of $80,000 IIRC.
I think that both you and your wife would be very employable - teachers are always in demand and with the recent free trade agreement which will basically subject Australia to US Intellectual Property law, there may well be space for your skills as a patent attorney in Australia.
Education in this country is of a very high standard (to give a comparison, my parents moved to the US with my little sister 3 years ago, she went up a grade (from year 9 to year 10) and she still found it a doddle. When she came back to Australia, she went back down to her age appropriate year level and struggled to catch up. And if you’re planning on staying long term, university education here is far less of a financial burden because of HECS.
And we speak English. Sort of.
I think this is the greatest place on earth, but then I’m biased ;). I’m sure that there are plenty of others on these boards who will be able to give you reasons why their country would make a great place to live.
rowrrbazzle: That’d be for the money. Extremely high salaries aren’t as common in Canada as in the US (nor are extremely high court settlements). Taxes are higher, and the Canadian dollar has been devalued relative to the American dollar for quite a while. Right now, the Canadian dollar is relatively strong, but there have been times the exchange rate has been much less than the actual purchasing power of the Canadian dollar. (This is good for corporations who export to the US, since it makes their products very competitively priced, but it’s bad for individuals.)
Doctors and many technical professionals stand to earn substantially more in the US than in Canada, which is something that might influence their quality of life more than politics. Of course, it’d always be possible to go somewhere for a few years and come back.
Glad to see that Ireland made it onto the top ten list.
That said, there is, unfortunately, no coherent immigraton policy, unlike our antipodean friends, the weather is usually rainy, and the health and transport systems are shagged. Other than that (and I genuinely mean this), this is truly a brilliant country in which to live.
But it’s still a nice place.
)
(In all seriousness, steer clear of London , the southeast and a few other expensive areas such as Edinburgh, and you could manage to live on a teacher’s salary alone.)