Ok, I'm getting more and more serious about getting OUT of the US all the time and I'm wondering if anyone knows which countries are the easiest to emigrate to. My preferred choice would be Australia, but unless I marry a local, it's nearly impossible to get permanent residency or even a work visa there. In typically American fashion I only speak English, so it would need to be somewhere I could get by on that until I could learn the local language, and where someone can make a living working in lower skilled jobs such as manufacturing. Any thoughts?
Limiting to English, options are really just Canada, Austrailia, and the UK. There's India if you don't mind living in the 2nd world but that's probably a bit too different from what you're thinking. Canada is nigh on impossible to get into if you're white middle class(unless you happen to have 2million CAD in the bank, they'll take you then). At least thats the case for white brits like myself, you'd need to know French fluently too. The UK is probably possible, immigration is still relatively slack here, and you get the benefit of being able to move around freely within the EU whenever you please, so I'm pretty sure if you didn't like living and working in the UK after a few years you could just hop over to France or Germany. Don't know about Aus, think they're reasonably anti-immigration right now, but I'm not sure whether that's just people in the subcontinent they're not wanting more of, or anyone. I would start learning French or German if you fancy anywhere in Europe. Links on moving to Aus: http://www.immi.gov.au/ http://www.workingin-australia.com/info/191 edit: More linkage, an Americans experience of the UK is documented here, so it might be worth a read: http://www.avatar-moving.com/kb/doc_uk.html#health - forgive the excessive googled links, but I find this mildly intresting for some reason
Agreed about Ca/Au/UK, but the '2nd World'?? Didn't know the Indians were communist. Don't worry about the paperwork. Just turn up... everyone else does. If you make it quick, there is going to be an amnesty, so you'll be a bona fide Brit in no time at all. Benefits (ie. Welfare) available from day 1. I think you need something to offer them, skills-wise... I'm not sure what the flavours of this month are... Cthippo: I'm getting sick of the UK; give me a short while... I'll find and Aussie who wants to live stateside, and we can all swap. (I fancy moving to Oz). There is always New Zealand to consider too... And Holland. They're very inclusive, and generally speak better English than most people here. Chris
I believe you only really need French if you're going to live in Quebec, specifically Montreal. Though I could be entirely wrong. A couple of guys I knew in college recently emigrated to Canada, and they didn't have a very difficult time at all. Both are white, middle-class males, one in his late 20s and the other in his early 30s. One of them had horrible debt (one of their reasons for emigrating was to avoid their numerous student loans). I memory serves, they live in Quebec and neither of them speaks French fluently, though they have picked up enough to get by. Since you live in Washington, Vancouver might ofer a sense of home that would make the transition easier, as it is a similar climate and region. -monkey
Well, maybe things are different for US citizens. It's perfectly possible. My folks were gonna move out there about a decade ago though and they had to speak French well, and had some tough interviews at the Embassy. Only reason they were getting to be considered was because there was a job my dad could do available, otherwise it woulda been a definate no-no. As for India being communist, obviously not, but when you have a few hundred million people living on less then a $1 a day your country is hardly first world. There are massive differences in India, in some of the poorer villages in remote parts of the north you're going to find conditions of some of the crappier parts of Africa, in rich parts there are air conditioned malls and supermarkets just like any part of the rich west. Anyway, let's try to keep this productive and not political yeah?
AUS was looking for people with certain skills like brick laying not to long ago, if they're still doing that try and get a qualification in one of them and move out there. as for canada i always heard they were easy to immigrate to. just pay a canadian to marry you ^^
My objection is simply that India is in the 3rd world. 1st = Developed/'The West' 2nd = Communist/Eastern Bloc 3rd = Developing World http://www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/third_world_countries.htm [Although these classifications are now rather dated.]
the hardest have to be the US or Singapore.... ive lived in both and it takes hours to get through imigration...... Iraq??? everyones leaving..... so its gotta be easy to go, if someone will fly you there...
Hours getting into the US? Depends when you arrive really... I've managed to sail through the past few times, even with having my fingerprints and photo taken. Worst I've ever had with immigration was actually 2 weeks ago getting into Ottawa, Canada. 1.5 hours in a queue, then after seeing the immigration official, she sent me to the main office to answer more questions. That wasted another half an hour of my time. I'm a regular traveller to Canada! At least twice a year. In my experience, as you move west through Canada from Quebec the requirement to speak French becomes less. You'd be quite likely to need a basic understanding in Ontario, but you'd probably not in Alberta, and I doubt at all in BC.
Canada is very easy to emmigrate to. You are not required to know French and it will only be an asset in Quebec and parts of Ontario. If you do go to Quebec, most people are bilingual so communicating will not be a problem, and as long as you try to speak French they'll love you. Montreal has a very large Anglo population and is probably the easiest "French" city to get by with only English in. All other provinces and territories are English speaking, but as with any other accepting country, you'll find many different languages, and cultures. French will help, but it is very easy to get by without it. I do advise learning it though if you plan to move to Quebec, or Eastern Ontario . Canada is amazing, and as much as I want to travel the world, I'll still call this country home.
They need chefs like crazy in AUS. I see ads here in the paper all the time, get a job and permanant residence. Try google for it. And there are other jobs too, just a limited # of them. Ever thought about working on an oil well? And many countries offer residence visas for people who own freehold properties. Buy a house here and never have to worry about having a refuge again.
Oh yeah, because all our women are sooooooooooooo easy... All joking aside, Canada is probably one of the easier countries to emigrate to. A knowledge of french will only help you land a cushy government job, and is not really beneficial west of middle Ontario (Aside from landing said govt. position.) As a bonus, travel fees are minimal, given your current location.
My understanding is that it's: 1st world = Superpowers (US and USSR) 2nd world = aligned nations (UK, Canada, E. Germany, Cuba) 3rd world = non-aligned nations (Egypt, etc)
I think that the UK and most of Europe would be offened by being called the 2nd world. The 1-2-3 ranking is a outdated to the extreme, since there are many places that clearly fail to fit so nicely into any of the mentioned catagories. Last time I checked, and it was a few years ago, they wanted to redraw the distinctions to include the economy, education and health care as the main criteria. I personaly use the drining water test to seperate 2nd and 3rd world. Can I drink the water? No=3rd world. As for what is a first world country, that distinction has grown considerably and is hard to define.
I think once again the US might be out of step with the rest of the world. These aren't rankings, they are classifications. But they are out of date because the Eastern Bloc is no more, and a few '3rd World' countries are arguably now more developed than some former Eastern Bloc countries. It wasn't a dick-waving competition and had nothing to do with size of armies. It was to do with technical and economic development. We still often refer to the Third World but all international governments and agencies now refer to 'more developed' and 'less developed' countries and the boundaries are most definitely blurred.
I think you just promoted me from a US expat to a whole country. I'm not out of step with the world, I think you mis-read my post. Having grown up in Germany I can say I was living in a first world nation, not a 2nd world nation. The post I was replying to suggested that the UK and quite a few other countries were 2nd world. I dont know about you but the last time I looked most of europe was pretty spot on when it comes to most people's ideas of first world. And seeing as I live in a 2nd world country I can say I know it wasn't dick waving, and had less to do with armies, and more to do with post-colonialism. But I also know that certain aspects of a lot of 2nd world countries are distinctly first world, take Singapore for example. Which was the point of my post, that the 1-2-3 classifications are out of date. I'm not sure what about that made me so out of step with what you said or the rest of the world.
If you can speak Cantonese, great idea. But bearing in mind it's the most densely populated city on the planet.
If you have a degree, or other fairly high qualification, as a white ENglish speaking male you'll easily get into Singapore. Main language is english, and it's a nice place. Not quite a full democracy, but it works.
