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The thing I’m always missing from these pieces is how. How do the rest of us emigrate, without being anglophone and teaching English, or a “digital content crea

The thing I’m always missing from these pieces is how. How do the rest of us emigrate, without being anglophone and teaching English, or a “digital content creator”? Or for example, “Scott” moving to Japan with his Chinese wife. How do the visas even wok out? Moving to the (rich part of) EU from the non-Western world is certainly not easy. I don’t know if I should read these pieces as “I can transfer freely with full job security worldwide” or “I sold everything and fought hard”. Otherwise all I’m reading is “you should travel. It’s fun.”

throwaway22032 3y ago
It's a UK newspaper, you're not the target audience.
- PaulDavisThe1st 3y ago
  It's an anglophone newspaper with major operations in the UK and the USA, and significant operations in Australia.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
hilux 3y ago
As with most travel and retirement articles in a US/UK newspaper, the target audience for this piece is white people with a US/UK or other rich-country passport. Which is fine. Just recognize these articles for what they are - part of the entertaining filler that makes up most of the paper - and not some hard-hitting analytical piece on emerging global migration patterns!
- adastra22 3y ago
  I don’t think race enters into this? In any case the problem remains: how do you get a non-tourist visa for the country you want to move to? US/UK/EU passport holders still have this issue (except for the examples in the article that are within Europe).
  - hilux 3y ago
    Race absolutely enters into it - the states (in the US) and countries recommended in the Travel section are often much less friendly to non-white visitors. Basically, race is ignored, when at a practical level (for non-white people) it can't be. To answer your question about visas - it is country-dependent. Some countries offer Digital Nomad visas or other long-term non-permanent visas. I agree with you that it's another big omission of the article. Which all adds up to make this a fluff piece.
    - adastra22 3y ago
      I phrased that badly. What I meant is that your ability to emigrate shouldn’t depend on the color of your skin, though obviously it could impact your experience greatly.
- codersfocus 3y ago
  If you haven’t looked at the news about the crises in US and EU, there are many non white people with non rich country passports migrating as well.
stevenwoo 3y ago
When I was in (USA) college there were a few opportunities to co-op overseas. I regret not taking the chance now but the pay was lower (in London and not the concentration I wanted) and I was barely scraping by back then. This was in late 1980s so dunno what it’s like now. I was in a pretty privileged position to have the option and I still could not take it.
jltsiren 3y ago
The basic idea is that you should be useful. If you can plausibly claim that you will contribute to the economy without causing too much trouble, most countries will welcome you as an immigrant. The specifics vary from country to country and from situation to situation.
- 082349872349872 3y ago
  An "employer sponsor" often makes that claim not only plausible but even concrete.
cultofmetatron 3y ago
> without being anglophone and teaching English, or a “digital content creator”? given that you're on hackernews, I guess I should let you know that being a software engineer is the ultimate hack for being able to travel wherever you want. I started freelancing while travelling and then joined the ground floor of a startup. I took a huge paycut vs working for a FANG but I get to change countries every 1-2 months and no one cares as long as I get my work done. 20+ countries in after doing this for 7 years straight.
rtpg 3y ago
Most huge cities have IT companies that can absorb english-only workers. There's gonna be some "hard mode" stuff involved in any case with living abroad of course. And my general impression is that outside the US visa stuff is relatively straightforward if you're going into a skilled job.

throwaway22032 3y ago

It's a UK newspaper, you're not the target audience.

PaulDavisThe1st 3y ago
It's an anglophone newspaper with major operations in the UK and the USA, and significant operations in Australia.

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

hilux 3y ago

As with most travel and retirement articles in a US/UK newspaper, the target audience for this piece is white people with a US/UK or other rich-country passport. Which is fine. Just recognize these articles for what they are - part of the entertaining filler that makes up most of the paper - and not some hard-hitting analytical piece on emerging global migration patterns!

adastra22 3y ago
I don’t think race enters into this? In any case the problem remains: how do you get a non-tourist visa for the country you want to move to? US/UK/EU passport holders still have this issue (except for the examples in the article that are within Europe).
- hilux 3y ago
  Race absolutely enters into it - the states (in the US) and countries recommended in the Travel section are often much less friendly to non-white visitors. Basically, race is ignored, when at a practical level (for non-white people) it can't be. To answer your question about visas - it is country-dependent. Some countries offer Digital Nomad visas or other long-term non-permanent visas. I agree with you that it's another big omission of the article. Which all adds up to make this a fluff piece.
  - adastra22 3y ago
    I phrased that badly. What I meant is that your ability to emigrate shouldn’t depend on the color of your skin, though obviously it could impact your experience greatly.
codersfocus 3y ago
If you haven’t looked at the news about the crises in US and EU, there are many non white people with non rich country passports migrating as well.

stevenwoo 3y ago

When I was in (USA) college there were a few opportunities to co-op overseas. I regret not taking the chance now but the pay was lower (in London and not the concentration I wanted) and I was barely scraping by back then. This was in late 1980s so dunno what it’s like now. I was in a pretty privileged position to have the option and I still could not take it.

jltsiren 3y ago

The basic idea is that you should be useful. If you can plausibly claim that you will contribute to the economy without causing too much trouble, most countries will welcome you as an immigrant. The specifics vary from country to country and from situation to situation.

082349872349872 3y ago
An "employer sponsor" often makes that claim not only plausible but even concrete.

cultofmetatron 3y ago

> without being anglophone and teaching English, or a “digital content creator”? given that you're on hackernews, I guess I should let you know that being a software engineer is the ultimate hack for being able to travel wherever you want. I started freelancing while travelling and then joined the ground floor of a startup. I took a huge paycut vs working for a FANG but I get to change countries every 1-2 months and no one cares as long as I get my work done. 20+ countries in after doing this for 7 years straight.

rtpg 3y ago

Most huge cities have IT companies that can absorb english-only workers. There's gonna be some "hard mode" stuff involved in any case with living abroad of course. And my general impression is that outside the US visa stuff is relatively straightforward if you're going into a skilled job.