March Memeness: relocation

[tielan]

1. If you had to move to another country, where would you go? Why there? (Assume you can afford it.) (from james)

If I had to move away from Australia? That's pretty easy. I'd go to New Zealand.

I mean, the climate is not ideal - a bit cooler than I like - and there's the earthquakes and volcanoes, but it's better on the freedom and happiness indexes than Australia, the accent isn't so far off, and I feel like I'd experience less overt racism the way I likely would in any of the Scandinavian countries - at least in the cities.

If you barred me from both Australia and New Zealand, then I'd probably go The Netherlands. My stepbrother and his fam are there, you can get to all over Europe from there, and they've got a solid setup for growing food (food and medical production capabilities are a big consideration in my view in the coming years).

Comments

[beatrice_otter]

Heh. For similar reasons, if I had to leave the US I'd pick Canada as my first choice of countries to emigrate to.

[timespirt]

Me too.

[tielan]

Canada is probably next on the list, but the deterrent is mostly the weather.

[lilysea]

I really like New Zealand, altho I worry about the cold weather

and also separately about all the steep hills not being very power wheelchair friendly

but its a beautiful country

with a gorgeous natural environment

and most of the people seem really nice and really friendly

(apart from the current right wing New Zealand politician dickheads and the people who voted for them)

[tielan]

Yeah, the cold is a tough thing.

I did consider about the right-wing politics in NZ right now, but everywhere is going rightwards, so the safest options are countries with a big left-leaning community and strong democratic norms. They might endure right-wing shit for a while, but they'll eventually swing progressive again electorally. I think that's the best we can hope for.

[lilysea]

I was really shocked and suprised by the NZ election results after years of Jacinda Ardern (one of my all time favourite politicians)

[senmut]

Awesome to hear!

[tielan]

I mean, Australia would have to do really really awfully to have me consider relocating. It's not perfect, and a lot of the time it's not great, but it has treated me reasonably - and I've been fortunate here. I love my country. I just wish our politicians and broader community was less of a cunt sometimes.

[james]

Ooh, New Zealand is definitely an awesome sounding choice. If I weren't opposed to being on an airplane for that many hours, it would be on my 'to visit' list.

[tielan]

Someday I'll make it to NZ for more than a layover. :)

If I wasn't contemplating going to Europe for the Olympics, I'd definitely be thinking about going to NZ for International Hobbit Day!

[wpadmirer]

Wow. That's tough. I'd probably choose Canada. I hate the cold, but if money weren't a consideration, I could probably live in Vancouver and not hate it.

[tielan]

Vancouver is a great city - it felt quite a bit like Sydney, except colder and well, west-facing instead of east-facing. I'd definitely consider moving there (obvs if money wasn't a consideration), but yeah, the winters in Canada are not an attraction. Even with snowfields (which I am really too old to contemplate going down).