It kinda seems fair to me for someone who wants to immigrate to another country to at least write that country a check for some taxes they never paid.
I mean, I am 56. If I move to Canada and use their healthcare system I am getting a really good deal. As I get older I will need more healthcare and I have not spent a lifetime paying into that system. If I were a Canadian I would be pissed seeing me move there without paying. If I wrote a check to the government to cover those years of taxes then fine.
The things you are talking about seem a way to do basically the same thing (bring money to the country if you want to live there).
I’m treating the thread as if the OP was “What Countries Take American Ex-Pats?” Which we talked a lot about in November of 2016…
When Trump was elected, some of us were fantasizing about moving. We said “If only Canada had Mexico’s climate…”
Yes, if you can take Seattle’s climate (mild winters, but grey and drizzly), you’ll love Vancouver. My impression is that it’s run very intelligently as well.
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I have a friend who’s living in Switzerland. He had to show he had $200k. It’s not a fee to be paid to someone, it’s still your money, but it shows you won’t be a drain on their social services.
Half of the US is too hot for me. There’s no way I’d choose a place with “Mexico’s climate”. Toronto has perfectly cromulent weather. That would be my choice, if Canada would take me. Ottawa has chilly winters, but is within my “i could live there” range.
Despite the fact tens of thousands of United States draft dodgers and military deserters came to Canada to escape the Vietnam War, the U.S. government did not launch a formal protest to the Canadian government. “‘Hell, they’re your problem, not ours’” explores why, for example, U.S. diplomats would criticize Sweden for accepting dodgers and deserters and not Canada …
… There is more to the discrepancy in the U.S. reaction than Sweden being a neutral country in the Cold War, Canada being a member of NATO, or how deserters and draft dodgers would be treated in different countries. I contend that Canada played a much more significant role in U.S. national security and economic interests than any of the other countries listed as havens for U.S. war resisters. How the U.S. responded to their draft offenders and military deserters seeking sanctuary in foreign countries depended largely on that particular country’s relationship to the United States in the context of the Cold War and the Vietnam War in particular.
The article is an interesting read on the whole issue of war resisters and draft dodgers during the Vietnam era.
Not all of Mexico is hot, Sonoran desert. Mexico City is at 7,300 ft, so like Denver, but wetter. They have lots of desert in the north, but much more varied as you go south. Lake Chapala, in the mountains, has a large American expat community. They also have humid and tropical if you’re into that sort of thing. Just because it’s south doesn’t mean its going to be hotter.
Another awesome thing about East Hawai’i (as in, the eastern part of the Big Island) - we have a significant LGBTQ+ community here, because we’re pretty well known as welcoming and tolerant. Gay couples and trans people move here knowing they will be accepted.
It’s a relief to me, in terms of the overall balance of my existence, because as an American expat for many years in a lot of intolerant countries, I rarely had the privilege of interacting with people who were allowed to be themselves if they weren’t cis-gendered straight folks. The fact that my life now includes friends and acquaintances who are openly whatever the hell they truly are feels great for all of us.
Here (pdf, in German) are the German asylum statistics for 2022. They show 28 asylum applications from US citizens; one was granted, in two further cases, “subsidiary protection” (another category in EU asylum law, legally different from but similar to refugee status) were granted.
Yes, today there are a number of US states that offer legal protection and social acceptance of LGBTQ folks. I was just looking at the new speaker and wondering what happened if he gets his agenda at the federal level.
Same with me. I live in King County, WA. It’s pretty friendly to LGBTQ+ folks, and while I’m a white male cishet whatever, I have a very diverse set of friends and I love that everyone is comfortable just being themselves. It’s a much better way to live than living in fear and/or hate of things different or revealing that you’re different.
Won’t have much luck selling that Wyoming plan then… it is fairly terrible here in the winter. Temperatures range from lower than -40 in the winter to higher than 110 in the summer!
(But please, I support bringing some left-leaning folks to Wyoming; it really wouldn’t take many to swing the state, all things considered!)
