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I'm an immigrant that legally migrated into Schengen from outside Schengen. I currently have a temporary residence permit. I don't come from a country basically

I'm an immigrant that legally migrated into Schengen from outside Schengen. I currently have a temporary residence permit. I don't come from a country basically at war with NATO, I have a job, I earn good money, I contribute to society, I follow the laws, and still this is the most difficult thing I have ever done in my whole life, and it is not particularly close. It is expensive, it is time consuming, it is life consuming, every single step in the process is a gamble that could end up ruining my whole life in addition to taking all savings I ever had. I feel like every day is a struggle just to keep my head above water. Even after doing everything I need to get permanent residence, I still have to wait 16 months for approval, which is longer than my temporary residence permit, and they won't renew that. Immigrating to a country is hard. I don't blame the country I'm moving into, I get it, they have laws, but damn do I wish it was just a little bit easier. Given how hard this is, think about how hard it will be for someone from Russia. If you just had the faintest inkling of how difficult it is, you would understand how absurd your question is. I wish I could have it as easy as just walking in and demanding things, too bad that will guarantee that I never get to permanently decouple myself from the shithole that I was born in. And to be quite fair, knowing what I know now, about how difficult it is, I am not sure if it is even worth it.

dcow 4y ago
Well this explains the situation exactly. People are oppressed into being hopeless. How Russian that seems.
- flanked-evergl 4y ago
  > People are oppressed into being hopeless. The way I look at it is, life is just way harder for most people than it is for people lucky enough to be born in the west, and it is difficult for westerners to comprehend. When you say oppressed, it implies an oppressor, in reality, to not have "oppression" takes centuries of bloodshed and tradition. The reason the country I'm moving from is a shithole is because we have not paid the blood price to not be a shithole, like Europe has paid. And I don't want to be around to pay that blood price, I'm too much of a coward, and I can see it coming, it is palpable, you know it is a matter of years before there is civil war and blood in the streets, there is no other way, there is just so far to fall before life is worthless, and I can see things falling every day there. I know it is just a matter of time before my parents get murdered in a civil war, but I'm powerless to stop it, and they know it also, but they pretend it does not matter. So you just have to do everything you can to ignore it, and do your best to keep gambling, hoping you win the lottery out of the shithole. And again, I'm not Russian, Russians have it 1000x times worse than me, I thank the god I don't believe in every day that I don't have it as hard as they do.
  - dcow 4y ago
    I am not trying to downplay your personal struggle. There’s more to discuss here than a few posts allow. What I will say is that it’s hard to empathize with complaints or totally absolve people of responsibility for their state of oppression when as you say they don't want to pay the price to liberate themselves. If you can live happily in an oppressive regime then good for you, seriously. But when you start getting oppressed, don’t come crying. And when your country starts committing war crimes, don’t be surprised if people criticize your inaction and apathy.
    - flanked-evergl 4y ago
      > And when your country starts committing war crimes, don’t be surprised if people criticize your inaction and apathy. Who stopped selling weapons to Ukraine? Who lifted sanctions on Nordstream II? What NATO country were more favourable to Russia than US, and as a result, restructured their "green" energy policy to be a "little green men" energy policy where they completely tied their economy to fossil fuel supplied by Russia, while laughing like petulant schoolchildren when warned that this will have negative consequences? Yeah, sure, the Russians are all cowards for not dying on mass in another revolution that is likely to go nowhere better than the last. I'm a coward for fleeing my shithole home country instead of staying there and killing my fellow citizens in a civil war that is inevitable. But the blood of the Ukrainians are also on NATO's hands. It is especially on the hands of Germans, French, Americans and citizens. If they made better choices, Ukrainians would not have to die. But instead, NATO gave every signal to Russia that they will do nothing to stop its excursions into sovereign nations, while also making clear that want Ukraine in NATO, and that NATO is primarily an anti-Russian alliance that refuses to lift a single finger to keep Russia at bay.
seer 4y ago
Migrating to Schengen is indeed hard (bordering on imposing) to a lot of Russians, but that’s not the only nice place in the world. For example India right now is quite accepting of Russian immigrants - the place is full of them. There are a lot of places that are still open, and would welcome experienced workers from Russia, granted it might not be as glamorous as EU, but I bet at this point a lot of Africa would look like an egalitarian paradise. You are totally right that it is incredibly hard, but as a russian who had migrated to the EU I wouldn’t say it’s insurmountable - granted I did it way before the invasion, but still I never felt threatened - it was all time consuming, bureaucratic and slow, but I just had to follow the process. Software devs seem to be in demand everywhere so plenty of peaceful and nice places for us lot to settle thankfully.
- flanked-evergl 4y ago
  Software devs are in demand everywhere, and I know one who migrated to the same country I migrated to, from Russia, and I know that he is consumed with the threat of being deported back home, having to face being shot or shooting Ukrainians. I tell him I doubt it will happen, I want him to be able to somehow not be consumed with the prospect of going back to the shithole that is Russia, but I every time I console him, it is a lie, I lie to his face, because I can't even convince myself that I can somehow manage to stay here, but I lie because I know that being consumed with worry is like being in hell, and if I can somehow spare him that I will, even if it is a lie. There may be other places, but it is not easy. Maybe India is an exception, maybe to India it is easy, but to the particular Schengen country I chose, it is anything but easy.

dcow 4y ago

Well this explains the situation exactly. People are oppressed into being hopeless. How Russian that seems.

flanked-evergl 4y ago
> People are oppressed into being hopeless. The way I look at it is, life is just way harder for most people than it is for people lucky enough to be born in the west, and it is difficult for westerners to comprehend. When you say oppressed, it implies an oppressor, in reality, to not have "oppression" takes centuries of bloodshed and tradition. The reason the country I'm moving from is a shithole is because we have not paid the blood price to not be a shithole, like Europe has paid. And I don't want to be around to pay that blood price, I'm too much of a coward, and I can see it coming, it is palpable, you know it is a matter of years before there is civil war and blood in the streets, there is no other way, there is just so far to fall before life is worthless, and I can see things falling every day there. I know it is just a matter of time before my parents get murdered in a civil war, but I'm powerless to stop it, and they know it also, but they pretend it does not matter. So you just have to do everything you can to ignore it, and do your best to keep gambling, hoping you win the lottery out of the shithole. And again, I'm not Russian, Russians have it 1000x times worse than me, I thank the god I don't believe in every day that I don't have it as hard as they do.
- dcow 4y ago
  I am not trying to downplay your personal struggle. There’s more to discuss here than a few posts allow. What I will say is that it’s hard to empathize with complaints or totally absolve people of responsibility for their state of oppression when as you say they don't want to pay the price to liberate themselves. If you can live happily in an oppressive regime then good for you, seriously. But when you start getting oppressed, don’t come crying. And when your country starts committing war crimes, don’t be surprised if people criticize your inaction and apathy.
  - flanked-evergl 4y ago
    > And when your country starts committing war crimes, don’t be surprised if people criticize your inaction and apathy. Who stopped selling weapons to Ukraine? Who lifted sanctions on Nordstream II? What NATO country were more favourable to Russia than US, and as a result, restructured their "green" energy policy to be a "little green men" energy policy where they completely tied their economy to fossil fuel supplied by Russia, while laughing like petulant schoolchildren when warned that this will have negative consequences? Yeah, sure, the Russians are all cowards for not dying on mass in another revolution that is likely to go nowhere better than the last. I'm a coward for fleeing my shithole home country instead of staying there and killing my fellow citizens in a civil war that is inevitable. But the blood of the Ukrainians are also on NATO's hands. It is especially on the hands of Germans, French, Americans and citizens. If they made better choices, Ukrainians would not have to die. But instead, NATO gave every signal to Russia that they will do nothing to stop its excursions into sovereign nations, while also making clear that want Ukraine in NATO, and that NATO is primarily an anti-Russian alliance that refuses to lift a single finger to keep Russia at bay.

seer 4y ago

Migrating to Schengen is indeed hard (bordering on imposing) to a lot of Russians, but that’s not the only nice place in the world. For example India right now is quite accepting of Russian immigrants - the place is full of them. There are a lot of places that are still open, and would welcome experienced workers from Russia, granted it might not be as glamorous as EU, but I bet at this point a lot of Africa would look like an egalitarian paradise. You are totally right that it is incredibly hard, but as a russian who had migrated to the EU I wouldn’t say it’s insurmountable - granted I did it way before the invasion, but still I never felt threatened - it was all time consuming, bureaucratic and slow, but I just had to follow the process. Software devs seem to be in demand everywhere so plenty of peaceful and nice places for us lot to settle thankfully.

flanked-evergl 4y ago
Software devs are in demand everywhere, and I know one who migrated to the same country I migrated to, from Russia, and I know that he is consumed with the threat of being deported back home, having to face being shot or shooting Ukrainians. I tell him I doubt it will happen, I want him to be able to somehow not be consumed with the prospect of going back to the shithole that is Russia, but I every time I console him, it is a lie, I lie to his face, because I can't even convince myself that I can somehow manage to stay here, but I lie because I know that being consumed with worry is like being in hell, and if I can somehow spare him that I will, even if it is a lie. There may be other places, but it is not easy. Maybe India is an exception, maybe to India it is easy, but to the particular Schengen country I chose, it is anything but easy.