Option A: Relocating to Southern Europe (Portugal)
The Income: A low-skill remote role (Content Analysis) with night shifts (PST hours), paying ~1100 EUR. I also have some passive income to supplement this.
The Lifestyle: Living in a studio or small apartmentin in smallish Portuguese town. For around 800 EUR.
The Perspective: The move isn't about a specific career goal or a passport; it’s about the higher life standards, safety, and the stable social environment of Western Europe.
The Trade-off: I would be far from my aging parents. I would be working an unskilled job that doesn't build professional equity, potentially living in studio at 36, which might be isolating during night shifts.
Option B: Staying in my Home Country (Ankara, Turkey)
The Job & Security: A Finance/Accounting role for a SME. I own my apartment here, so I have no housing costs.
The Professional Play: Pursuing a CPA-equivalent certification. This is a 3-year commitment of internships and exams, leading to legal signing authority and the ability to open my own practice later on with adaquate experience and networks.
The Context: Turkey is facing economic instability, high inflation, and politically unsettling.
The Trade-off: While I would be near my parents and building a protected professional title, I would be staying in a high-stress, unpredictable environment.
The Financial Weight:
I have already spent roughly 10k EUR on the relocation process for Option A (visas, consultants, etc.).
The Dilemma:
One path offers a prestigious, recession-proof career in a struggling, unstable country. The other offers a simple, comfortable life with 'okay' standards in a stable country, but with no professional growth.
At 36, is it wiser to invest 3 years in a professional license to root myself, or to take the jump for a better quality of life even if the work is menial?
What would you do?
THANK YOU!
The problem with asking strangers is the lack of investment and consequences to decisions. So if I say Portugal it has zero context to how your emotions will cope with e.g. sudden deterioration of your parents health, or racism, or language issues. If I say turkey it's based on outsider sense of place as a visitor with no exposure to the political risk.
Decision support is part of operations research. A good oversight (obviously they push their own model but they explain a lot of the systems)
https://www.1000minds.com/decision-making/what-is-mcdm-mcda
for context I made the decision to up sticks and move to another economy in my late 20s almost 4 decades ago and have never regretted it but it does carry bitter pills, breaking of links, parental death and related family tensions, emotional turmoil. Nothing is easy, but my path was easier than yours given the same language both points of my migration journey, and a different world economy
My weightings definitely changed. One thing to bear in mind is that legalisms in migration often penalise age. It is possible your window to migrate is closing.
Also, your asset in Turkey may be an income stream. AirBnB?
I also want to start my own family (by finding someone first lol), so I have lots of conflicting criteria, which makes it difficult to come to a decision. Trying Portugal seems logical at first, but then again I ask myself how many years I would live with such (entry level basic) job opportunities and whether I would regret not being a CPA at age 50, for example. Thank you man!
Decisions:
- If you can’t decide, the answer is no.
- If two equally difficult paths, choose the one more painful in the short term (pain avoidance is creating an illusion of equality).
- Choose the path that leaves you more equanimous in the long term.
Also, never outsource decision making to anyone who doesn't bear the consequences of the decision.
Is it the pain of career building (Turkey) or the pain of geographic isolation (Portugal)? Your insight forces me to ask: which pain is more likely to yield the best long-term return?
THANK YOU!
How stable is the remote role? Are you more likely to be laid off (or the company to cease operations) than turmoil in Turkey? Obviously this is also very subjective speculation, but since you don't mention it, how does it figure into your plans? How well will you be able to find other similar work in Portugal? (Or elsewhere, I would assume your relocation will offer freedom of employment across EU.)
The remote role offers 1,100 EUR. It’s a content analyst position for YouTube ads. I don’t see it as something I would do for year, more like a starter job to enter the market. Without Portuguese, job options are mostly limited to call centers or similar roles where Turkish and English fluency is an advantage. Salaries in Portugal are generally low even highly experienced managers earn around 2,000 EUR.
As for stability, the turmoil in Turkey doesn’t affect me directly, but indirectly it does. The general atmosphere and economic situation make things feel uncertain and heavy. The remote role itself isn’t something I see as long-term stable either, so I’m aware that I’d need a plan B and to improve my language skills to expand my options. I can only work in Portugal as I just have the temporary residence, after 5 years of stay can I start working in other EU nations. Thank you for your message!
Did you move back because you felt lonely abroad or because your family actually needed you there?