What’s it like living in a microstate?

8 comments

1. I’ve never lived in a microstate, but I think things are pretty normal. I live pretty close to Liechtenstein and visited the country a couple of times. People are VERY friendly, didn’t expect that kind of friendliness. On the other hand everything is very expensive. People also say that Liechtenstein is the home of the rich swiss.

   It was also funny that you have a sign at one end of the country saying that there’s a McDonald’s on the other end of the country. I think everyone can get used pretty fast to living in a very small country.

2. [deleted]

3. [deleted]

4. I know some living in Andorra. Having good jobs (banking). Other than that is ski resorts and related industries. Many youth come down to study in Barcelona or just come down for long weekends for the fun, as nightlife there is a bit basic. Other than that, normal healthy life surrounded by mountains.

5. In terms of the geography of Europe, I wouldn’t think there would be much difference to living in a macrostate. Most likely, people interact with the surrounding countries most days.

6. Most European microstates are parasitic tax havens for Europeans from real countries avoiding paying their fair share for the first world infrastructure in their home country, so microstates usually have a grotesquely oversized financial industry.

   For reasons not explainable by conventional economic geography, a big percentage of Europe’s financial services aren’t done in actual trading cities as London or Frankfurt or Milan but in the Alpine villages of Liechtenstein, on remote Channel Islands or in the cosy smalltown atmosphere of Luxemburg.

7. Hello from Luxembourg! I think it is fun. You run into people you know regularly, because especially due to Corona the event radius is quite limited. My countries inhabitants are fewer than in the last city abroad, that I lived at. The next border is 4km away from here (France), Belgium and Germany both about 25 min by car (I frequently cross over for shopping) and the farthest away from here are the Netherlands, at about 1.5h. Public transport is free here. As a people, the Luxembourgish are friendly and polite (and have to be, since we are all likely meeting again!) and being born here you have kind of a natural network of people you know. This can be incredibly useful, if you need something specific. I wasn’t born here but my neighbour was, and he is a really good resource for all kinds of knowledge. For me, being old enough to remember hour-long waiting times at the borders, this effortless crossing and diversity of nations and cultures here is an absolute blessing and I enjoy it.

8. All I can say is:

   * Balanced building/green areas no matters the whole speculation
   * Growing your own food, every retired man here has some land to farm
   * Cool car plates usually ruined by cringy personalization effort
   * “Easy” diplomatic career
   * Fancy passport for awkward airport control situation
   * Border is just some bush or a line on road guarded
   * Bureaucracy still a mess
   * Watch the news and find out that guy you knew in middle school is now president.
   * “Buy local” discount card to everyone
   * Your home dates back to first ‘800s as minimum
   * You realize at quite early age how “stranger” and “migrant” is a relative word and how stupid are racism and discrimination (though I wish more did remember this as adults)
   * Also “nationality” and “patriotism” get quite a different meaning
   * Joking about that Corsican guy forgetting to send the cannons he promised
   * Double history class: one for local and one for italian/general history; same with law
   * Everyone will be mad at you because 40 years ago someone else decided going full Monaco while closing eyes at where the money came from was a good idea…