What if you’re wrong and they’re just trying to make conversation by getting to know you the only way they know how, albeit awkward?
10 Likes
Apologies, no - I meant that there will now be a visa waiver program (EITA) whereas before I believe you wouldn’t have had to pay anything. And as a UK passport holder myself, I’m also affected by that if I do a trip to Europe.
1 Like
Sounds like you’ve been to the south of Sweden 
.
1 Like
Then the person will be missing out on a bunch of incoherent opinions I guess.
2 Likes
Oh yeah, the thingy that costs like 20 eur?
1 Like
I think it’s cheaper than that, under €10 per person.
1 Like
I think we’d make great friends 
1 Like
Wrt housing, this isn’t the case in Germany and France. Even in the middle of nowhere most folks live in attached flats and apartments. In Germany the price for a condo/flat in a downtown tier 2 city (basically anywhere but Munich/Frankfurt) is the same price as a place in a farm town 30 mins away. I’ve lived in both situations. Berlin is different, of course.
You certainly can drive everywhere in the countryside, but it’s nice that they (nearly) always have the option of busses.
I think in Italy and Central/East Europe you’re correct but I’m not experienced in those countries.
There is a massive difference between France and Germany :
There’s no such thing as racism in Europe. It’s xenophobia. Xenophobia is everywhere and it’s pretty bad. From the South to the North, from the East to the West. And you don’t need to be “black”, “brown”, “asian”, “hispanic” or anything. In Europe usually it’s always “us” and “them”.
Even in the most progressive countries like Sweden or Norway, people won’t tell you that straight to your face, but oh boy you won’t be welcome if you’re even a tad bit “alien”.
4 Likes
Othering takes many forms and racism happens to be one of them. And it is rampant in Europe; as they said, worse than in the US. A person of color can be born in France and speak native French the same level as the best of them and they’re still going to face deep seated structural and social racism.
But it is true that Europe is deeply, deeply xenophobic. In fact Im moving back to the US after over 15 years in Europe in part because I am done with it. For the OP, aside from the practical differences in living standards that you’ll find info on anywhere, if you’re moving to a non-native English speaking country, I would seriously consider committing to learning the local language. That will ensure an easier path to fostering a social network, without which can be a very lonely time.
4 Likes
Initially moved in 2007, then back to the US in 2017. Tried another 4 years and moved back to Europe in 2021. Without getting into detail, the shortest possible way I can say is not a fan of US “culture”.
I like the national parks (and allocation of resources towards parks & nature), that would be it.
1 Like
School Shootings by Country 2023
The USA has endured hundreds more school shootings than any other country in recent years.
19 Countries with the Most School Shootings (total incidents Jan 2009-May 2018 - CNN):
USA - 288
Mexico - 8
South Africa - 6
The rest 4 or below.
It’s not a stereotype, it’s a fact.
4 Likes
whatever you do don’t move to Ireland, unless you already have a well paid job sorted beforehand. the cost of living here is nuts now. & lack of accommodation is a big issue too. there’s f*k all gafs. I’ve heard it’s a nightmare. 
1 Like
I’ve seen enough people mention how xenophobic many European cultures can be that it has basically made me abandon this idea. There’s also the struggles of needing to learn a second language as an adult, something which feels like it’s basically impossible unless you are immersed in it… which feels like it’d be difficult while dealing with the social isolation of being foreign.
One thing that I’m curious about that I haven’t seen addressed here: do some European countries tend to have pretty strict requirements of skills foreigners need to have to immigrate? I’ve read before that it can be difficult to get in as a resident if you can’t prove some sort of useful skill or trade, particularly if you don’t have a college education.
1 Like
We don’t really class as European any more 
but London is a very multicultural city where I don’t think there’s too much risk of feeling “alien”. As for the rest of the UK I’d guess big cities would be generally fine, outside of them maybe more risk of xenophobia.
I was born here so couldn’t say for sure but I have friends from all around the world here who seem quite happy. London and the UK has its ups and downs but it’s quite a fun place and quite well located for visiting the rest of Europe and may be easier to relocate to than some places both due to the language, and the fact that a lot of international companies have major presences here.
1 Like
i’m not suggesting that it isn’t a problem, but your likelihood of winding up a victim of one is nearly infinitesimally small. small enough that it’s not even worth worrying about on a daily basis at any point, ever.
let’s say that some ungodly number of people got killed in each of those 288 incidents you’re referring to… for the sake of uniformity, let’s say 100 people died every time there was a mass shooting, which is a WILDLY wildly wildly incorrect overestimation… (the worst so far at one time in the US is Las Vegas country music festival at either 59 or 60, and the worst overall in the entire world was Anders Breivik in Norway with 77)…
so, if there were 288 mass shootings with 100 victims each, that = 28,800 victims… you said Jan of '09 - May of '18, which is 9 years 4 months… for a total of 112 months. 28,800victims / 112months = 257.14… so… 257 victims per month on average if every single mass shooting had 100 victims… which is 8.5 people per day, in a country with over 300 million people. let’s round that up to 9. if 9 people out of 300 million die every single day due to a mass shooting (its nowhere near that high), then on any given day you have a 0.00000003% chance of being taken out while browsing canteloupes at the market.
with less than a 0.00000003% chance of being in a mass shooting on any given day, i don’t even think about it.
then again, i don’t have kids… but still… for Europeans to hang on to this shit and act like every neighborhood in the USA is like Beirut on a bad day, is a wildly inaccurate assumption / stereotype.
3 Likes
As a someone with American friends who have kids, I assure you its a real worry they have. And numbers can’t logic away these feelings: that it could happen at your school because no one’s doing anything about (or actively obstructing action) coupled with shooter drills and metal detectors is a constant reminder it could. That’s reason enough to warrant the fear.
6 Likes
That was statistics for school shootings only. Deaths via firearm overall is much higher. The fact that schools have metal detectors in place and training to deal with shooters is bizarre to say the least. Surely you must see that this is an odd way to live? The threat is real.
Regardless, I enjoyed my decade in the USA and it is a country with many positives, just like I mentioned earlier in my post. However, in my experience (which is what I stated in my original post) it is not my preferred place to live.
2 Likes
i don’t doubt that it’s a worry for parents. i’m not disputing that. schools seem to be the places where they happen most frequently, and the perpetrators are generally “kids” themselves… but irrational fears have a way of dominating people’s though processes, rather than logic and reason.
i had a female co-worker who thought it was INSANE that i suggest she should let her kids walk to and from school. she lived in one of the safest, lowest traffic areas of town and she had two sons that were in high school. when i pointed out to her that she’s more likely to get into a car accident with them in the car on the way to or from school than they are to be messed with / abducted / hurt while walking home, she had a difficult time understanding what i was talking about. her brain couldn’t process it, but from a statistical standpoint, it was absolutely true.
2 Likes