▲comrade123446 minutes ago
[-] I'm American and moved to Europe (Switzerland) 17-years ago. Sometimes I laugh to myself when I think how whatmy long-dead immigrant grandfather (from Vilnius to Midwest USA) would think of my reverse move.
Growing up we always thought my grandparents were the weirdest people. They roasted and ate whole chickens, not cut up chicken parts from the grocery store. They drank tea and ate weird Russian tea cake cookies. They made their own sausage. They hunted ducks and deer. They ate raw beef.
Since moving to Europe I buy a lot of my food from neighborhood farms, roast whole chickens, make tartare, make cheese and sausage... hunting and fishing isn't so easy here though - I can do that when I visit relatives in the USA though.
Ironically enough, Vilnius is now a very beautiful, safe and high quality of life city that is a better place to live than, probably, quite a lot of American cities..
How times have changed..
ceejayoz29 minutes ago
[-] When I was a kid, "starving children in Ethiopia" was a reason to eat your whole dinner. My formerly Swiss grandma once said "starving children in Europe" and I was very thrown for a moment.
reply▲sublimefire12 minutes ago
[-] IMO metrics are not well represented when looking into chart, eg european resident/student permits are not the same as green cards, they had to include students in us as well. another thing is the use of eu+uk+switzerland would it not be better to use eea instead (think about iceland and norway)?
it is an interesting stat, but it might be good to understand the diff among US folks getting passports vs residence permits vs studying
Surprisingly, the vote on limiting Switzerland's population to 10 million may actually pass. Usually votes for things that will hurt the economy don't come close to passing but right now the limit is a few percent ahead.
reply▲sidewndr4655 minutes ago
[-] how would that even work? mandatory contraception or something?
reply▲It's just a buzzword to say limit immigration with rising population.
I'll leave out my opinion on the topic but Switzerland has become noticeably more crowded in the last 20 years.
sidewndr4624 minutes ago
[-] I was surprised to learn that Switzerland's population is still that small.
reply▲The birth rate in Switzerland (just as in many highly developed countries) is already way below 2.1 children per woman, which would be required to sustain the population. Any population growth comes from immigrants. Xenophobic people are scared by that.
reply▲ceejayoz55 minutes ago
[-] Immigration and naturalization restrictions.
reply▲esperent46 minutes ago
[-] So if they hit ten million do they start kicking people out for every native baby born?
reply▲Switzerland's fertility rate has been below the replacement rate of 2.1 babies / woman since the 1970s. There is zero chance of births pushing it above the 10M count. If anything, immigration is the sole reason the Swiss aren't going extinct.
reply▲HPsquared51 minutes ago
[-] "A good economy" means different things to different people.
Expensive houses and low wages, vs appreciating assets and low labour costs.
I moved to Berlin a few years ago. Anecdotally, my friends and family back home are jealous.
reply▲I am jealous of the lifestyle of most of Europe, but not the rigid labour markets and lower salaries. I wish we had more people-oriented cities in North America, though. I don't want to be anti-automobile, but the hostility to the "15 minute city" idea was quite depressing to me.
reply▲Is a green card the equivalent to a first time residence permit in Europe? It's notoriously hard to get a green card: it'll take 3 years for a normal skilled worker who's already in the US and that's assuming nothing goes wrong in the process, and something always does. Plus many visa categories don't even have a path to a green card. "Long term stay visas issued" might be a better comparison.
reply▲Each EU country has its own rules about immigration.
A green card is probably equivalent to a permanent residence permit, those vary quite a bit between countries, and skills. Some countries might give a permanent residence in as few as 3 years, I believe quite a few have the 4 years threshold. Depending on what skills you have or how much you invest in the country you are moving to this timeline also shortens.
agentcoops10 minutes ago
[-] Generally continental Europe -- except the Scandinavian countries -- makes it relatively easy to get long-term residency and even a passport. The UK is considerably more difficult, but very easy to work in for an extended period of time (intra-company transfer visas etc).
reply▲It's not that hard to get a temporary residence permit somewhere in the EU if you're well-employed. Every country has its own rules and some are more lax than others, but there are plenty of e.g. "tech worker" visas you can get. You often don't need a job to officially sponsor you.
reply▲Just depends where and where you're from. Even though it's the EU each country has its own rules.
reply▲sidewndr4656 minutes ago
[-] Can't you basically buy citizenship through "investment" in one of the countries?
reply▲geremiiah42 minutes ago
[-] If you're rich enough, you can buy a small local business, like a local pizzeria, and hire x amount of people or invest x amount of money and you get a permanent residence visa through investment. This path is available in pretty much countries including the US.
reply▲comrade123454 minutes ago
[-] I think more than one. I think Portugal's program is over but you can still do it in others (Greece? Romania? I can't remember). You can do it in the USA too.
reply▲thefounder30 minutes ago
[-] reply▲sidewndr4625 minutes ago
[-] Wow, that's rich. Literally. So even money can't get you in anymore. You'd need money & influence.
reply▲CGamesPlay42 minutes ago
[-] Many countries, this is often called a golden visa (term predates the current US president).
reply▲Fairly steady trends since 2000 with a drop during covid, America becoming less popular for Europeans and Americans
reply▲I've been pulling it off, but I have dual citizenship with EU/USA but still get paid in the US because it saves me 2k a month in taxes.
There are also workarounds in avoiding paying the higher EU taxes.
reply▲> it saves me 2k a month in taxes. There are also workarounds in avoiding paying the higher EU taxes.
Interesting how in a different comment you say
> I want the same for all Spaniards and will gladly pay high taxes if my family, friends, and my neighbors can also have that same opportunity.
iainmerrick12 minutes ago
[-] I hadn’t realised that’s a thing (although I probably shouldn’t be surprised) -- I thought all these dual-citizenship tax agreements worked such that you aren’t double-taxed, but the total amount paid needs to meet the minimum for each country.
For example, I thought if you’re resident in the US you might pay your main taxes there, but you’d need to “top up” in the EU.
What’s your specific workaround?
agentcoops13 minutes ago
[-] If you're living and working in California or New York, as I suspect a large number of hacker news readers are, EU taxes on income are generally not prohibitively more expensive, especially relative to increase in quality of life. 'Native' salaries are considerably lower, however, and tax treatment of equity-based compensation is very much not in favor of employees...
reply▲Do you spend more than 6mos in the EU?
reply▲hyperpower15 minutes ago
[-] So you want to take advantage of European quality of life, social nets and infrastructure, but you don't want to help pay for it? How very American.
reply▲How much do you pay for health insurance in the US?
reply▲The community note gives more information on the comparison
reply▲fragmede56 minutes ago
[-] > The chart compares permanent green cards issued to Europeans moving to the US with first-time residence permits (often temporary, for work/study) issued to Americans moving to the EU, which are not equivalent metrics.
For those that don't have Twitter.
shaky-carrousel40 minutes ago
[-] A classic example of mistaking the finger for the moon. There's a trend there, no matter what.
reply▲idiotsecant58 minutes ago
[-] I suspect there are a lot of American hegemony trends that look like this. The US is burning good will and soft power that took centuries to accumulate in days or hours. This was a long term trend but the current American government is really stepping on the gas.
The american century is over, but I'm not sure what comes next will be better, we will see.
josefritzishere42 minutes ago
[-] Aside from the authoritarian problems, the US is also clearly sliding into some kind of severe economic recession. I'm just envious of people who have that ability, really.
reply▲I'd even go as far as saying the authoritarianism has a causal relation with the impending recession, the acceleration of the de-dollarization of foreign commerce, and the unavoidable collapse of the "Pax Americana" that came after the fall of the Soviet Union.
Moving to Europe is a smart move, but, having complete freedom, I'd think about someplace in the southern hemisphere. I believe Chile and Brazil will be stable for the next 20 years or so and have good overlap with US timezones. And both are quite far from most of the impending clusterfuck happening in Eastern Europe.
Notice that a lot of the graphs count people from the Americas. Not USA.
reply▲Americans enjoying their huge American salaries while working remotely from poor European countries
reply▲What makes you believe you'll be able to do so?
Most European countries have surprisingly strict visa requirements - and those apply to Americans as well. Unlike a short holiday trip, you can't just move because you feel like it!
The most likely path for the HN public is probably a "highly-skilled worker" visa, but that requires you to have a sponsoring employer in Europe - which means you won't be getting that fancy American salary. And you'll also have to pay local taxes...
I'm always surprised by how many American tourists have to turn back because they thought they wouldn't need a visa.
reply▲In practice almost no companies let you do this.
If you know of one that does and is hiring, please share...
coreyh1444451 minutes ago
[-] It is also the EU Countries and Visas. Before I moved to Denmark I just assumed they'd just welcome Americans with money but you can't just have any job, you have to be paid by a Danish company, over a certain level or found a startup with very specific requirements, etc.
reply▲I don't know how they do this, but Paris is full of Americans living there.
I think they stay for a few months. Maybe they just don't tell their company and the company still think they are working in the same place.
Visa-wise, they are probably just committing fraud by staying on a tourist visa.
reply▲At least Europeans won't send them to labor camps in El Salvador.
reply▲> In practice almost no companies let you do this.
And, if they do, they might have legal issues brewing they are not aware of.
QoL is more important than hustle culture to most people
reply▲Yeah, pretty much. You can make enough money in 10-15 years in tech in America to last a lifetime in Europe, even without the remote job.
reply▲You still might need a resident visa.
reply▲With 6-9h timezone difference? Even if a company will allow this (and few will), it's very hard to pull off, and your social/family life will suffer big time.
I know people who manage to do this, but it's difficult, and not really worth it unless you have a seriously amazing job.
> and your social/family life will suffer big time
Not sure about family, but you can get new friends here. When I go to the office, on my walk back home, I often pass by some very nice pubs overflowing with extremely happy and friendly people, and that is when I leave at 17:00.
You'll also get nice things like the metric system. And, in Ireland, one of the sanest political systems on the planet. It's so sane it's almost boring.
Most remote jobs don't require you to keep the exact same hours, but rather to have some overlap. So it can effectively only feel like ~3h timezone difference.
reply▲Where is the Frisco, TX of Europe?
reply▲Maybe during Covid. Now many companies are making employees RTO
reply▲sleepyguy56 minutes ago
[-] My kid moved from the US to Vienna for work. Loves it, says there is no reason to come back...I know a few more folks whose kids left after Uni to work in the EU and have no plans on returning. For a young person who values working to live more than living to work, the EU is very attractive.
reply▲agentcoops19 minutes ago
[-] In my niece's (relatively rural) US high school class several students decided to attend university in Europe with no family ties to the countries in question. It was pretty common in my generation to see, as you note, kids moving to Berlin etc after their studies, but this strikes me as relatively new. Anecdata that seems supported in some of the public numbers [0].
[0] https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaeltnietzel/2025/07/21/reco...
Many countries in Europe have free universities: avoiding a few hundred thousands in debt maybe be worth moving in the long run.
reply▲ramesh3153 minutes ago
[-] It's an infinitely higher quality of life if you're not in the 90th income percentile in the US already. You'll never make that much, but you'll never have half the worries we do here for lower income people.
reply▲I'd say even if you are on the 99th percentile, the quality of life will be much better. You'll make less money, but you also won't have to spend on things like health insurance, good schools, and so on. Your house might be smaller though, unless you opt to live further from urban centers, which will demand a car, but it'll be a safer and more efficient one.
reply▲I, for one, welcome our new American fellows.
reply▲They are nice people fleeing an oppressive regime. We must work hard to integrate them into our societies, despite the large cultural differences.
reply▲irishcoffee55 minutes ago
[-] I had an issue at work, stuck all night on the phone trying to get a license activated. The first fellow I talked to was Australian, great guy. Really helpful, patient. He discovered the issue was indeed on their end.
I took a nap at my desk for an hour (the license was needed on an airgapped system sneaker-netted over via an encrypted drive so I couldn't do this from home and the deadline had arrived).
Woke up and called back, different fellow, European. Every answer, in perfect english, was about 3 words long on average in a very dismissive tone.
I'd rather move to Australia.
gdhkgdhkvff45 minutes ago
[-] That’s quite a takeaway from an interaction with only 2 different people.
reply▲irishcoffee16 minutes ago
[-] Oh, well I guess you can just read this forum to see how Europeans feel about Americans too, the Australian guy was the interesting one. I wasn’t surprised by the European.
reply▲Expecting a place the size of Europe or the US to be culturally homogeneous would be a huge mistake.
reply▲The US and Mexico share the same continent, and the populations are exactly alike!
reply▲ineedaj0b14 minutes ago
[-] the inflow to the US is historically low, and this increase of US to EU immigrants is a very good thing imo - the US should be more US, the EU more EU, China more China etc etc.
reply▲Isolation breeds difference, but not diversity.
reply▲geremiiah29 minutes ago
[-] Almost all of these are 1st or 2nd gen European diaspora, or the spouses of such people, who 1. still have financial ties to the European country from which they originate through inheritance of assets from their parents/grandparents 2. have citizenship through descent.
The amount of "unaffiliated" Americans who move to Europe is probably negligible.
You'd be surprised. I personally know plenty of American LGBT+ people who are at least considering moving to the EU, simply because recent political developments has made the US an increasingly-unsafe country for them to live in.
reply▲sebastiennight14 minutes ago
[-] Wouldn't this (unsubstantiated claim, but let's play along) be
more troubling though?
It would be one thing if people who are "unaffiliated USA citizens[0]" moved to an imaginary place where the grass is greener. You could argue they don't know about all the problems of that place.
It's maybe more concerning if the people who flew Place A, because of all the problems of Place A, looking for greener grass in Country B, are looking around and going "hey you know what? Place A wasn't so bad after all. The grass only looked greener because it's plastic!" and then go back.
[0]: let's acknowledge we're just talking shades of the same color, when referring to a country that's 250 years old. Nobody's "from there" really
> Nobody's "from there" really
I once had a Native American on one of my teams. That, and a lot of my fellow Brazilians here are at least partly of the original people.
Which came from Asia, through an ice bridge between Asia and North America a couple ice ages back, so, in the end, I guess we are all Africans.
Doing research prior to moving is extremely important.
At the time I moved to Ireland, I learned a vicious gang war was happening in the northern regions of Dublin. Up to April 2016, when I arrived, four (four!) people had been murdered in that unprecedented violent event.