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I am writing a long post. I hope some people read it. A very distant relative of mine lives in Germany. He is from India (where I live). He met his German wise

I am writing a long post. I hope some people read it. A very distant relative of mine lives in Germany. He is from India (where I live). He met his German wise in Australia where she was working and they married and later they settled in Germany. He has been asking me to come to Germany for work and start exploring work there and I have always been hesitant about it. Lots of things come to mind - a lot of them are unfounded and/or are just the apprehension of the unknown I am guess. One of the fear is I do not want to settle in Germany. I want to live a decent healthy life and probably return back to India (I don't know after how long; I have a strong feeling/assumption that I will be lonely there and may not be able to connect and I am scared of it) so it seems that I will have no savings essentially when I come back as I have assumed based on stereotypical description or media portrayals fo salaries in Germany/EU. How is it for skilled foreigners in Germany as a job market currently? Esp. seeing EU is warming up to self sustenance/dependence etc. Are the jobs there? Are those foreigners welcome? This is a tricky question but is there a trend of preference of source geographies for those skilled jobs in Germany? Also, I am in software with 10+ years of experience and my last drawn salary in India was ~70K Euro (in INR) and 5% bonus and 25% startup stock which value at zero now and I was able to save a huge portion or % of it (I know I won't be able to save that % in EU). Are the salaries really bad? If I am not able to save 1500-2000 EU a month as a single person with no luxurious needs at all there, it may not make much sense for me if I plan to return to my home country eventually). I am kinda apprehensive about the resurgence of the so called "right" there (which is happening, no happened, in my home country as well but I am a native here :|) - how is that? From a distance everything looks very problematic and scary or rather "very risky". What I am stuck at is - I actually believe this is not something I can just play on "I won't know until I actually do that". I guess I am being too risk averse and maybe very narrow-minded or paranoid. I would love to hear this from the locals either native or the ones who are immigrants in tech there. PS. I apologise if anything sounds absurd or untoward. I do not mean to start an argument or something. I just want to hear about it. PPS. If a single person with no family falls sick in Germany and has sufficient money (not "rich" money) and health insurance, can they just be admitted in the hospital (assuming hospitalisation was needed and doctors okayed it) and that person be taken care of? Or will they demand a "caretaker" family or friend to be present in the hospital always (that's kind of a requirement here in India) and the person can trust the system to do that? (This is my ONE BIG fear of remaining in India, esp. in old age as someone with no immediate family at all - I know this is counter to what said that I might return if I immigrate).

ivan_gammel 2y ago
1. Salaries are lower than in USA, but if you have 15-20 years planning horizon you can still accumulate some wealth. For that you find a decent job, around 70-90k€ and after few years get a mortgage and buy an apartment. You can get a mortgage contract for 10 years and have significant reduction in taxes for your property. Just enjoy your life then and in 10 years or more sell tax-free. Your income may be on 100-300k€ scale. If you choose a minimum payment for mortgage, you may have extra cash for other investments. Check Hypofriend.de for details. 2. In Berlin 2-3.5k€ (depending on your rent or mortgage payments) is enough for a comfortable life with occasional travel (whole Europe at your service, flights are cheap). You can put the rest in savings, buy some ETFs. You can use an online calculator to see how much netto salary you can get (google „Brutto netto rechner“). 3. You will have insurance for healthcare which will cover hospital and ambulance and insurance for job loss which will cover up to 1 year while you are searching for a new job. You will contribute to pension insurance so you can retire in Germany too. 4. Germans aren’t all welcoming to foreigners, that’s true, but I don’t think you should be seriously concerned about far right. The success of AfD is based on protest voting, not because every fifth German is nazi.
- shelled 2y ago
  This is helpful. Thank you!
immigrant332 2y ago
IMO you are rationalizing too much because, as you said, you are being paranoid and risk averse. I moved from a third world country to the UK (London) and at some point I had similar concerns as you have now. At the end of the day, living means taking risks everyday no matter where you are. My final conclusion was that if I didn't move I would regret not taking the risk, I wanted to know how it feels to live where I live today. I wanted to live an adventure rather than staying on my home country and developing regret. I don't know you but just reading through your post it seems that you want to do it but fear is holding you back. Are your fears unreasonable? Probably not. Should they dictate what you do with your life? Absolutely not. It's also fine if you decide to stay, just don't allow this to become a source of regret in your life, be in peace with whatever you choose.

ivan_gammel 2y ago

1. Salaries are lower than in USA, but if you have 15-20 years planning horizon you can still accumulate some wealth. For that you find a decent job, around 70-90k€ and after few years get a mortgage and buy an apartment. You can get a mortgage contract for 10 years and have significant reduction in taxes for your property. Just enjoy your life then and in 10 years or more sell tax-free. Your income may be on 100-300k€ scale. If you choose a minimum payment for mortgage, you may have extra cash for other investments. Check Hypofriend.de for details. 2. In Berlin 2-3.5k€ (depending on your rent or mortgage payments) is enough for a comfortable life with occasional travel (whole Europe at your service, flights are cheap). You can put the rest in savings, buy some ETFs. You can use an online calculator to see how much netto salary you can get (google „Brutto netto rechner“). 3. You will have insurance for healthcare which will cover hospital and ambulance and insurance for job loss which will cover up to 1 year while you are searching for a new job. You will contribute to pension insurance so you can retire in Germany too. 4. Germans aren’t all welcoming to foreigners, that’s true, but I don’t think you should be seriously concerned about far right. The success of AfD is based on protest voting, not because every fifth German is nazi.

shelled 2y ago
This is helpful. Thank you!

immigrant332 2y ago

IMO you are rationalizing too much because, as you said, you are being paranoid and risk averse. I moved from a third world country to the UK (London) and at some point I had similar concerns as you have now. At the end of the day, living means taking risks everyday no matter where you are. My final conclusion was that if I didn't move I would regret not taking the risk, I wanted to know how it feels to live where I live today. I wanted to live an adventure rather than staying on my home country and developing regret. I don't know you but just reading through your post it seems that you want to do it but fear is holding you back. Are your fears unreasonable? Probably not. Should they dictate what you do with your life? Absolutely not. It's also fine if you decide to stay, just don't allow this to become a source of regret in your life, be in peace with whatever you choose.