Simply put, I do not like living in the United States anymore. For a number of reasons too long to list, I would like to move to another country for good. If you had to chose another country to live in, what would it be and why?
Well, Canada would be my first choice, probably somewhere around Montreal. Here are my reasons:
- They still speak English.
- They’re not too different from the U.S.
- In direct opposition to # 1, they also speak French and I would love to live in a bilingual city. I speak about 10 words in French but I pick up languages very quickly.
- Homosexual couples and interracial couples are much more common and varied than they are in NY. Here it’s mainly black-white or (insert nationality here) with white. There I saw Asians & blacks, Asians & Asians of different countries, Asians & whites, really every mix.
- Metrosexuality is much more common. Around here we have an uber-macho mindset, that all men have to dress a certain way. I liked the atmosphere there a lot.
- I could still visit the U.S. with ease.
- From what I saw, Asians are much more inclined to not cling to their native cultures quite so tightly. Here if you’re Indian you’re expected to just hang out with Indian people, etc. There I saw lots of Indians speaking French, intermarried, and totally living otuside of their normal comfort zone. Speaking as someone who lives far outside of mine, I like that!
Second would be England, but I think I would only move there if I was single again - I don’t know if I could resist that lovely accent for long. 
Thanks Anaamika, you make some very strong points for Canada. Does Canada operate completely sepparate from the US on a political level? I want to avoid any guilty by association between the US and my future home. I feel that Canada might not be moving far enough away!
I confess I don’t know that much abotu Canadian politics. But in my defense, I don’t know that much about American politics, either, other than what gets shoved down my throat. Don’t get me wrong, I firmly believe the system is important, it’s just that the fix seems to be in everywhere, so I get irritated with it really fast. Yes, I live here, too, but I do what little I can to change things and I don’t complain over-much.
But I would not move to a place strictly because of the politics. There would have to be a great deal else there to make it worth my while.
An interesting fact I learned about Canada this weekend: Canadian forces that landed on Juno Beach during D-Day were the only ones that completed all of their D-Day objectives.
Also, they are an extremely nice and polite people, on the whole.
Canada is its own country and has more land area that the U.S. but most of the population lives within 100 miles of the U.S. border. If someone kidnapped you and dropped you off in most of Canada without tellingt you where you were, you might not figure out your aren’t in the U.S. for awhile. It is pretty similar except the Canadian population is only 10% of that of the U.S. and the U.S. is much more powerful so you usually see Canada moving in semi-lockstep as the U.S. execpt for a handful of social issues and things like health care and gun control.
I would pick Costa Rica. It is clean and tidy and pretty cheap. The locals are genuinelly nice especially to Americans and it has some of the greatest biodiversity of the planet. There are hordes of U.S. tourists though so you would still see American people constantly. The climate is tropical in parts but it also has many microclimates in the mountains and cloud forests that can range down to the cool side. It is easy for Americans to move there as opposed to say, Europe and about 1% of the population is American ex-pats who wanted something different.
Wow, Shag, Costa Rica is probably one of the places in the world that would be on my “Never” list. Probably most of South and Central America is like that, I’m afraid. It may be beautiful and lovely but the reputation of being drug havens and absolutely dangerous people just doesnt’ do it for me. Plus I really like the feel of suburbia or the city, I really don’t like the country much.
Anyway I just came to say - please note my experiences are strictly for Quebec and the Montreal region. The rest of Canada seems to be pretty much like the U.S. I myself have only had experience with Toronto, though, I just hear about the rest.
Montreal, they say, feels like the Old World (Europe) to Americans and like America to Europeans.
To paraphrase Olympia Dukakis in “Moonstruck,” “What you don’t know about Costa Rica is alot.”
Costa Rica, in addition to being 25% national preserve and park, has a Constitution that prohibits it from making aggressive war (I think the size of the armed forces is limited to an absolute number, but I could be wrong), and has a very good standard of living. I’ve never heard of Costa Rica being remotely tied to the drug trade. My former room mate in college lived there during high school and said it was damn near paradise on earth.
To add to what plnnr said, you are pretty far off base on that one. Costa Rica isn’t dangerous at all. It is safer than many American cities. It isn’;t tied to the drug trade either. That is Colombia, Panama and other but Costa Rica isn’t part of that. They have no military and very good medical care. You turned to the wrong section of you Central and South America Tourism Guide.
Amsterdam is beautiful, full of art and history lovers, easy to get around, foreign yet easy to find English speakers.
Well, thank you both. I still am fairly sure I am not going anywhere near S. America, but at least I know a little more about Costa Rica.
You might want to first figure out the countries that would have you, then narrow the list down from there. You can’t just pick up and go anywhere you want and most of the “desirable” countries probably have pretty tough immigration standards. That said, if you want to know about Australia from someone who lived there as an American expat, I can fill you in. If you’re primarily trying to escape the current political atmosphere of the U.S., I would say that you’re not going to get too far away from it in Oz. If you could say exactly what you’re looking for (or exactly what you’re not looking for), that might make it easier for those responding to elaborate.
How about Australia or New Zealand? Both English speaking, relatively corruption free countries.
A web-site on American expatriates you might find interesting.
Another vote for (the already overruled) Costa Rica- in addition to being inexpensive, safe, and a beautiful country, it has more American citizens per capita than any other nation. (Their main scandals aren’t drugs, actually, but payoffs from American fruit companies.)
What a great site thanks.
I didnt list my reasons because I just wanted other people opinions regardless of why I want to move. I think if I had listed them this thread may have turned to a more political discussion, which I wanted to avoid. Someone had mentioned that political reasons shouldnt be a factor but Im going to have to disagree with that completly. Thanks for all that have responded so far. I like the Canada idea a lot. Im open to any ideas…pitch your country to me.
This site will tell you whether Canada wants you. (You need 67 points to pass; I only got 65, BUT if I had a job waiting for me I’d have 75 [and there’s no way I’d emigrate without a job waiting]).
And if you saw Sicko you’ll know another way (assuming you’re of age and unmarried).
Well I am active duty Navy…wonder if that would help.
That’s one of those loose ends you might want to tie up before you expatriate, I’d imagine…(assuming you’re wanting to become a citizen of the country)
:: blink ::
Well, I know a number of Canadians who are looking to get hooked…
You don’t have to explain why you are wanting to leave the US, but how about letting us know what is important to you in a country and living environment. Right now people are stuck kind of listing countries they think are cool without any idea whether or not it would be somplace you would be comfortable. If you are a vegetarian, don’t handle snow and ice well, speak fluent spanish or can’t stand mosquitos that can all have an impact on whether or not you would be happy living someplace. I would say you should move to England or Ireland, but if you are afraid of driving in the rain neither of these would be a good place for you.
I just moved from Texas to New York and I love it here, but if I had just blindly followed the advice given to me by others I would have ended up in Nevada or Arizona. That could be fine except that one of the reasons I left was because it was too damn hot in Texas. That takes both of those states right off my list. So tell us, what is important to you in a country/living environment?
Yeah… I didn’t find out that Australia won’t take you if you’re over 45 until I was 45. :smack:
Except that the John Howard government looks doomed, and the Labor guy who seems destined to take his place recently wowed the Chinese by speaking to them eloquently and at length in their native Mandarin. So maybe the politics there may feel a little different in the future? I might be naively optimistic here of course…
I don’t want this to be seen as the politics discussion you’re trying to avoid - just wanted to question the assumption that Oz and the US will remain in lock-step.