I know places like Portugal and Spain are going through serious housing crunches right new and I know expats often exaggerate those problems. So where can an American flee oppression without just oppressing someone else?
For context: I’m a progressive lefty, thinking about long term relocation options cause the fash is getting pretty thick around here.
Moved to Germany. I feel very welcome here. Theres a very similar political problem growing in Germany, several large political parties that either want things to get only slightly better or a lot worse, and a growing fascist party that wants to enrich themselves by hurting other people. But it doesn’t feel close to the tipping point like the US is, so I still recommend it.
I always feel welcome, except for a drunk white German here and there yelling at me for not knowing the language (I’m working on it, but languages have always been hard for me).
There’s a housing crisis everywhere and immigrants are not the problem, it’s the fact that housing is a financial investment vehicle and the wealthy are only getting wealthier while most everyone else is getting poorer. You’re not oppressing people by moving to their country and paying taxes. You’re the villain if you dodge taxes, are a landlord (and aren’t fighting to tear down the current housing system), or have 5 million+ and aren’t fighting to help people and fix the system.
What mechanism did you use to get there. Just a work visa? Any path to eventual residency or citizenship?
I worked for a company in both countries - so I was fortunate enough to use the Blue Card visa. If you can make that work, that lets you work anywhere in the EU which is great for back up.
Path to permanent residency in Germany takes 3 years, low language skill, and a civic test. Will be doing that in 2026.
Citizenship takes 5 years and medium language skill. I’m a bit away from that.
Generally, I think the path to citizenship is fair but the easier they make it the better the country will be (to a point I guess).