We’ve done “what country other than your own would you live in” threads. I don’t think we’ve done this one.
The question is—If you were forced to leave your country permanently, which of the contiguous countries would you be willing to live in, which would you not want to live in, and why?
–Contiguous is defined as sharing a land border or the closest neighbor(s) for island nations.
–Please state where you live and if you’ve been a permanent resident of any other countries.
–If you have lived two or more places permanently, then those countries are excluded from consideration. You can answer for either of those countries or both. Also excluded are countries where you have dual citizenship.
–This is about your opinion, so just assume your spouse/SO will be in full agreement with your decision and try to avoid considering what place would be best for them. You may consider where you’d like to raise your children if you have any or plan to. Your family and friends will be able to visit freely.
–If you like, tell us whether you’ve visited your contiguous nations. Also, is there any particular part of the country you would choose?
Fun bonus question—what would be your first choice if you could live anywhere in the world? What would be your last choice. (Haiti is excluded at the moment for obvious reasons.)
I’m American and I’ve never lived anywhere but the U.S.
1. Canada would be my first choice by far. They are a first-world, prosperous, industrialized nation. They have many cultural similarities, and I’m already familiar with many of the ways in which they are different. They (mostly) speak English. There are good public schools, infrastructure, and of course there’s universal health care. The laws are similar. We share a lot of media. We even share sports leagues. It has wonderful natural features and it’s big. I’m used to big.
I’ve visited Canada several times, but not for any significant length of time. It would be hard to choose where I’d live. I love the Maritimes but they’re not urban enough for my tastes. I’d vacation there, though. Montreal is fantastic, but I’d have to vote against it because I’d rather not have to learn French. Vancouver seems wonderful, but it’s kind of far for family and friends to visit. (We’re east coasters for the most part.) So I’d probably end up in the Toronto area.
2. Mexico would be my second choice, but I think it would be kind of cool to live there. Something about Mexico really appeals to me. I like the history, the culture and the fact that it’s literally colorful! I don’t think it would be too hard to pick up Spanish. While it’s not exactly fully industrialized or prosperous, there is wealth and industry there. There are many educated people and I’d be able to find good schools for my son and decent health care. Mexicans are generally familiar with American culture and lots of people do speak English. It has a lot of geographic diversity.
I’ve only been to Mexico once. For an hour. I was visiting relatives in Tucson and we walked across the border at Nogales. I know Nogales is a tourist trap and in no way representative of the country as a whole, but I liked it just the same. I’m not familiar enough with Mexico to choose where to live, but it would probably be in or around a city. Mexico City sounds kind of unpleasant, so it would probably be somewhere else.
** 3. Cuba** Ugh. No way I’d want to live there. The effects of 50 years of Castro and communism has turned the place into a shithole. And that makes me really sad because it sounds like it used to be really cool.
Worldwide:
First choice: Canada.
Last choice: North Korea by a landslide.
France. I think they’ve got the best quality of life anywhere in the world, all things considered (food, weather, social conditions, education, time off work, etc.).
I expect that my answer will be different then most other Americans. I’d move to Mexico before I moved to Canada. I hate winter and there is no way I’m living that far north. I think I could be completely content in Southern Mexico living by the ocean and being warm year round.
Worldwide:
First choice: Australia
Last Choice: Mongolia
My reasons are probably pretty obvious: I prefer the most similar neighbouring countries, and I’d rather not live in a third-world country where I don’t speak the language.
Across the whole world, since the UK is excluded (I’ve lived there in the distant past), I think I might go for New Zealand as top preference. Bottom choice is much harder: I think I’d find Saudi Arabia pretty hard to live in, for a variety of reasons.
I’d have to say Canada, since I’d need to make a living, and I only speak English. I wouldn’t mind living in Mexico or Bermuda if I could make a living. My least favorite would have to be Cuba, as well, though Bahamas doesn’t appeal to me much, either. Russia would be in the middle.
Norway shares land borders with Russia, Finland, and Sweden.
Russia is out because of the political situation, although I’m sure it’s a wonderful country, with rich history, fascinating culture, all that. I’d love to go there for a visit. I just think it’s too unstable (and corrupt, and undemocratic) to choose to live there.
Finland and Sweden are both stable, prosperous, democratic, modern nations. My first choice would be Sweden purely because of the language. I already speak Norwegian so understanding people and making myself understood in Sweden would be considerably easier than learning Finnish! Finland would be my second choice.
Can we count Italy as contiguous to Spain, please please please? I can cuss in Northern Italian with the best of them (speaking it politely is another matter), I like the food, compatible senses of humor and the two languages are very close to mutual intelligibility…
If not, I guess I’ll take France, since I’ve already lived there, was able to manage even though my French is real bad, and generally liked it; no experience with Portugal and you’ll take me to Morocco… to be buried, maybe, but I’m not even interested in visiting it (bad experiences with Moroccan coworkers and the country in general doesn’t have the best sociopolitical reputation).
Worldwide: Italy, or go to the other end of the world and make it New Zealand.
Frodo, want me to page Ale, since you seem to be so keen on getting warmed up?
ETA: I’ve been a resident of the US, but I wasn’t a permanent resident. I lived there for a total of five years (4+1). I’ve been a temporary resident of several other countries (as in, “enough time there than in theory I should register at my consulate, working there”) but I’ve only been a resident-for-tax-purposes of Spain and the US.
US here and Canada by a landslide. (That’s actually why I started a thread a couple of months ago asking Canadians about what makes Canada great.) And the husband would totally agree, hell we both already want to move to Canada.
Canada. I’ve only been to Ontario, Quebec and the Maritimes, but I’d probably head out to the Vancouver area.
I wouldn’t mind living in Mexico. My only time there was for about 30 minutes in Juarez. I would avoid that and go somewhere on the Pacific coast.
Cuba would probably be last, though Haiti might have been my choice if it wasn’t disqualified.
First choices in the world would be Canada, Australia or the UK.
There are too many last choices in the world to choose from. North Korea or the Gambia, perhaps.
Well, I’m in the US, so it’s pretty much Canada for me. Your basic “I want to be a defiant expatriate, but I want to live where there’s plumbing, telecom infrastructure, and I can still speak English.” That, and the whole “not getting killed by cartels” bit.
As for the “anywhere in the world” bonus, I’m going to choose the dark horse and say the Marshall Islands…one of them in particular. Perfectly nice place, aside from some minor issues!
Last choice? Ah…either North Korea, or almost any place ending with “-stan.” Although to their credit, I don’t think a lot of the “-stans” have actual concentration camps. :eek:
