People who were born outside of Europe, what made you move here and stay?

19 comments

1. I mean I really like it here due to the general safety and feel of the country but lets be totally honest I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for money. I even left the UK because salaries are quite crap in a cost of living ratio context.

2. My parents moved from Korea to Latin America (where I was eventually born/raised) in search of a “better life”.

   They became quite successful and then moved me to the U.S for my education and a “better life”.

   I was happy in the U.S but then got recruited to work in Switzerland almost a decade ago.

   Been content here and have no plans on moving anytime soon.

   Every place offered a “better life” but they also have negatives.

3. Love. My wife is Austrian so that‘s how I ended up here. Now that I have a family I plan on staying until at least the kids are done with schooling

4. Husband’s job moved us from the US to the UK.

   Honestly, it’s kind of the same overall. Concerning safety, I worry less about violent crime here but worry more about petty theft and break ins.
   We haven’t decided whether we will stay or go yet.

5. I didn’t stay. But I moved because I wanted to live for a while where my grandparents used to live, and for the general desire to experience another culture for a prolonged period of time.

6. Dual citizenship. Cheaper cost of living. Safer. Free education. Wanting to try something new.

7. Education prompted my move, job made me stay (for now).

8. Originally it was a student exchange back in 2007. My university (apparently) hadn’t sent anyone to Belgium for a few years and they thought I’d be a good candidate since the department knew I spoke French. It was one hell of a year, and made a big impact on me.

   Then the economy freaked out so I had to go home, but I kept visiting over the years.

   An old friend came to visit Canada 10 years later, and told me she was leaving her room – so she’d be happy to help me get my foot in the door. Combine that with insane cost of living in Toronto, an unsatisfactory job in retail, not much of a personal life to speak of, and the then-recent Brexit referendum, and I took a leap of faith.

   It’s been nearly 5 years, and Belgium has basically provided for my every need in some way. It’s far from a perfect place, but we kinda… “chose each other” (if that makes sense?) so I’m not leaving ever.

9. Didn’t have a choice. SEAsia to UK.

   Depending on who was was recruiting where, I could be wearing an NZ, AUS, CAN or US flair instead.

   Why am I still here? Good question, open to work abroad. Getting sponsored ads to work in Estonia and Austria lol.

10. My parents decided to stay, I was just a baby at the time.

    We are from Perú, we remained because of better living conditions.

11. Lived in Japan a long time, fell in love with a Russian woman who had Hungarian citizenship through her ex-husband. Both of us lived in Japan more than 8 years and then things got weird (death threats and such) for my step-daughter as she entered junior high. We left and came to Hungary.

    It was…bad. High taxes, hard to get a job, etc etc. That was in 2006. Things got massively better after about 2011 and have been pretty good since for me. No plan at all to move back to the States ever. I love having healthcare that doesn’t cost me an arm and a leg, and I like feeling…freer, oddly (I’m Black American).

    For me at least, Hungary had been a place where I’m valued for my skills and not put down for my race. Not many people seem to care; most seem more interested in what sort of person I am or my capabilities.

12. From California, wanted more vacation time, less stress, and to not be car-dependent.

13. Came to Europe for a few weeks during my PhD and really loved it. The age of the land, the beer (Belgium), and the closeness of it all. Then, years later while looking for a job, I found one and have settled down here.

14. I moved from Japan to Belgium 5 years ago.

    First time I came here was in 2011 when I was still in training and I sort of fell in love with this country. (and the chocolate and beer)

    When I got the opportunity to return, I did.

    Last month, my partner (also from Japan) moved in with me (normally my partner was supposed to move in April 2020 but that got cancelled due to the corona virus).

    ​

    I feel more at ease here (less pressure to fulfill a certain image) and I dare to be more ‘me’ 🙂

15. Ancestry because of my Abuelo who was Spanish, I got my Spanish (and EU) citizenship (dual).

    I was a teen when I got it! I felt connected and have pride to Spain and Europe. I love the perks of EU and the countries that I can travel to!

    P.S. I make time between staying in Spain/Europe and Philippines.

16. It just kind of happened.

    I was born in South Africa. Got offered a role in Bahrain, so moved. After 3 years of living there, I was offered a job in England so moved there.

    17 years, 1 wife and 2 kids later, Brexit happened and we moved to Spain.

17. Was in my 50s and realized that if I left SF, I could likely retire. My SO had already retired. He and I began traveling all over the world and deciding what would be important for us. It came down to safety, weather, cost of living, quality of food, and ease of travel. We decided on Greece and moved the day after Trump was elected president. No Regrets. We live in a villa on a beach and have 2 wacky stray dogs that we picked up as puppies on the roadside. Travel is great. Athens airport has cheap flights to cool spots. So many of our neighbors have gardens that we get tons of fruits/veggies/olive oil for free. Tons of our friends/family visit in summer, so it’s a total party. Winter is peaceful.

18. I did a study abroad program in Germany. I originally wanted to go to Brazil (I spoke Portuguese and wasn’t really interested in Portugal at the time.) However, the program that my uni offered didn’t have enough classes that were relevant or that I didn’t already take, so I did a program in Munich, and was shocked how affordable it was.

    Then I returned for an internship at a tiny company and from there applied to grad school.

    Parallel to that I also met a guy and got married.

    So now I work and live here. We debated going to the US, but it doesn’t match our lifestyle. (Love travel so need those vacation days, I don’t like to drive so public transit and bike lanes are a must. Wanted a kid, so needed to have non-abusive parental leave time.)

19. My father was a lobbyist for this Taiwanese NGO that did some stuff with the EU. My dads relationship to his family is this really complicated affair that always sounds like a bad Soap when it was explaind to me, so my parents decided they would try a life in Europe.

    Why did I stay? Well we didn’t really stay in one place. We started living in Milano, then Köln and finally in Denmark. And now I am here as someone born and having citizenship in Taiwan, feeling culturally more italian while speaking better english, german and danish. European is basically the only geographical identity I feel I can really own.