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> I think expats anywhere should integrate That's exactly what I was talking about. I will talk about Americans simply because I know what they do when they l
by romanoderoma 6y ago
> I think expats anywhere should integrate
That's exactly what I was talking about.
I will talk about Americans simply because I know what they do when they live abroad in my country, for many reasons, one being they hang out in the same neighborhood I was born and raised.
Probably there are similar problems with people from my country somewhere, but let me tell you what I know first.
Here in Italy American tourists are less of a problem, they do silly things sometimes, but who doesn't in an mostly unknown country on the other side of the World?
As you said, the real problem come from expats, students for example, but also military personnel who usually form walled enclaves.
If you hang out in certain neighborhoods in Rome, it's very easy to spot the "Americans only" places. There are quite of few of them.
The reasoning is simple: they come here in Europe for the culture and the relaxed way of living (Barcelona is ranked very high among expats from US exactly for that reason) but they don't have the cultural tools to handle the lack of restrictions they have to face home.
Drinking at the age of 16 is quite normal in Europe, it is not in USA and more often than not Americans are the ones sh*tfaced outside bars and clubs or engaged in alcohol fueled scuffles.
One can argue that's what youngsters do, we are not used to that, but at young age (almost) everyone is forgivable.
Except when they kill police officers in the streets of course
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/27/world/europe/italy-police-officer-murder-americans.html https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/27/world/europe/italy-police...
But there's also another cultural issue with them: they are used to be a ruling country, they don't accept to be questioned or put in their place or be simply asked to act as a reasoning person.
Consider that for a US citizen until not long ago Canada, Mexico and many cruises were passport free (but not the contrary), consider the fact that in Europe there are many US military bases, consider that police officers in Europe are not heavily armed and you end up with situations like this one
https://www.military.com/daily-news/2020/01/23/us-troops-vicenza-investigated-after-attack-army-reviews-limits-policies.html https://www.military.com/daily-news/2020/01/23/us-troops-vic...
When I was in LA my friends told me to avoid certain parts of the city because they were dangerous, "how much dangerous?" I asked, I come from Rome after all, I know how to handle myself, "you can get shot" they told me.
Turns out LA this year will top the 2009 for number of homicides and reach the staggering number of 300 homicides in a year.
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-10-29/gangs-homelessness-cited-in-lapd-report-on-surge-in-killings https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-10-29/gangs-ho...
In Chicago on June 2020 there have been 18 homicides in 24 hours.
https://chicago.suntimes.com/crime/2020/6/8/21281998/chicago-deadliest-day-violence-murder-history-police-crime https://chicago.suntimes.com/crime/2020/6/8/21281998/chicago...
I don't know but I suppose that it is something that it is considered I won't say normal, but not far from something in USA they expect from a city like LA.
Maybe not 300 homicides in a year, but 200? Maybe yes.
In Rome, a bit smaller than LA, more or less the same size of Chicago, there were 12 homicides in the whole 2019.
In the entire Italy (60 million people) in 2019 homicides were "only" 276.
I couldn't believe it when I was staying there that dangerous really meant "Escape from New York" dangerous.
My point is it's easy to say to expat to "integrate" when you are living in a violent society and where police on the street is armed to the teeth enforcing God only knows what law.
It's much less easy to adapt to foreigners when they are the ones not integrating and bringing their violent culture at your doorstep.