Post American Independence Day
So, the usual bunch of “the United States sucks for these reasons/I hate America” posts floated around as usual.
If you passed around one, or just feel that way quietly, I have a gracious suggestion for you: look into emigration. Obviously this is a big step, but it’s a possibility that most Americans, however much they may dislike their country of origin, simply don’t consider.
Some people simply don’t fit in well or are otherwise unhappy with their country of origin, and the possibility of emigration isn’t in the Overton window for native born citizens in the United States.
Emigration to a Western country that uses English as its primary language is logistically almost impossible if you don’t either have a valued skill or a spouse from that country; I’ve looked into it. I’d love to move to a different country, but realistically my only option is Israel and almost all my complaints about the US also apply to Israel.
My best chance to get out, tbh, is for America to become so homophobic or antisemitic that I qualify for refugee status, and I’d really rather that not happen
Who said anything about Western English speaking countries? I mean, even with the widely praised Nordic countries you’d have to learn another language.
Learning another language is harder/worse than continuing to live in the United State? It’s not easy, but it does tend to be a necessary part of leaving a “shithole” country.
I dislike living in the USA (…though I like the part I’m in now well enough; cities are usually decent), but I can’t leave. Regardless of whether or not I learn another language, marry someone from another country, or somehow manage to find a job I can do that will hire someone with spotty work history on another continent.
I’m disabled and on disability benefits. I can’t emigrate for any country where I’d also be able to survive. There are many, many, many horror stories of families turned back from immigrating within the Anglosphere because they have an autistic child– and the countries I’d want to live that aren’t in the Anglosphere have a lot of the same restrictions. This is because countries where I’d be able to survive tend to have things like ‘universal health care’ and don’t let disabled people enter because they’re a ‘drain on the system’.
So… yeah. Some of us aren’t lucky enough to be able to leave even if we want to. I think we have the right to bellyache anyway. :I
This, yes. Disability makes emigration even more thorny than it already is.
OP is HILARIOUS.
Do you know what it takes to emigrate? Let’s totally disregard language. Let’s assume we speak the correct language for our target country. And just for argument’s sake, let’s take marriage out of the equation
You don’t just move there, get a job, and file paperwork asking to stay. Hell no. Usually, you must have a specific skill or trade that the target country is in need of. This is generally tech skills and medical skills. High paying jobs in America. With that kind of education and employment opportunity, you’re probably not the demographic who really wants to gtfo. You’re probably living a decent life already.
But fuckit, let’s say you’re a software engineer who’s really good in your field but hates American politics and wants to emigrate. So now, you’ve got the skill and you’ve got the language. Next step: Find a company that wants to hire you enough to sponsor your emigration.
I’m not joking. This is how it works for most of Europe, for Canada, for Australia, Japan, South Korea, etc. Find a company which wants YOU over a native worker. Find a company which wants you so badly they’re willing to jump through a whole bunch of hoops and government red tape to prove that you can do the job BETTER than any native workers they could find.
So unless you’re very good at your job in an in-demand field, and very good with people and persuading them to help you, emigration is…Not happening. Not legally, anyway.
The people who are most hurt by current American policies are not Silicone Valley liberals making $120k a year. They’re people who barely finished highschool, or didn’t finish highschool, who are working three minimum wage jobs and still can’t make their rent. For people like that, the people who are so annoying with their constant bitching about how much America sucks, emigration to somewhere with a better social safety net is literally impossible.
Legal emigration is not an option for the vast majority of people. I’m not even going to touch on things like disabilities or single parents or criminal records. Just for your average Joe, it’s an impossibility.
You can’t just move to Canada.
So, I definitely learned something from the responses to this post.
There’s this thing, that I’m pretty sure you’re all being disingenuous to ignore, where the Blue Tribe elite performatively go on about how much America sucks and how much better everywhere else is. But they don’t even consider emigration.
The other group that likes to go on about how much America sucks appears to be… How to put this politely… People who wish to receive (larger) government checks, and so look enviously upon socialist countries. Of course, the trick there is, those countries don’t want to accept immigrants who will be a net drain on their economy, so those folks are shit out of luck.
Of course, the other thing is that, post college bubble, these aren’t discrete categories: Tumblr is rife with disabled college graduates who are thoroughly culturally White collar/Blue Tribe, but also dependent or wish to be dependent upon others. It is not always obvious which category someone belongs to, and I maintain that telling the upper class bullshitters to nut up or shut up is a very reasonable action.
There is this group that... how can I put this politely... really deserve to be hit by a bus, spend months in a hospital, and he condescended to by online jerkwads for being a burden on the polity when they can't work.
