Why Europeans no longer dream of America | Hacker News Reader

Why Europeans no longer dream of America

ft.com

24 pointssampo11 comments

Visiting the US from Europe in 1986 for the first time, it felt like a vibrant place, well ahead. New York was amazing.

In 2006 I was shocked when visiting family on the east coast to hear that acquaintances there expected me to obviously want to immigrate, get a green card, etc. At the time the US from my POV was already an extremely iffy broken place.

In 2016, and that is, before the elections, nobody was assuming this anymore.

Now I get asked how best to move away.

There is no need to move, but grow a spine and stand up to broken leadership.

It's a myth that Europeans (in general) dream of America. I don't know why so many Americans have such a need to believe it is true.

I don't need to believe it is true. However, a substantial chunk of the US population has European ancestry. I never met the immigrant generation, but certainly three, I think five, of my great-grandparents came from Europe. One grandfather grew up speaking Platt-Deutsch along with English.

Something--many things--motivated these ancestors to move. This may be in the back of our minds.

There is also the matter of a certain inborn prejudice in favor of one's country. If you're not in a really awful setting, you probably think well enough of it, and imagine that others would.

Well. We don't dream of America because we cannot even read its blocked content and paywalls, so we are not too exposed to propaganda anymore.

Although, if you ask me, apart from its chaotic state, attachment to unhealthy religions, political corruption, and overcomplicated health care situation, fighting with visas is something we don't feel the need.

I lived in San Francisco as a software engineer for many years, and I lived the American dream, but it is not a place to live long term. I was tired of living as a second class citizen, kind of an indentured servant, tied to a Visa.

The health care situation is disgraceful and when I had my first couple of scares with the health care system, I packed my things and came back home.

Most of the people that came with me are back to the EU. From my friends' perspective, it is not really the greatest country on earth tbh, and people should travel a bit more to explore the world and compare it against other countries.

> kind of an indentured servant tied to a visa

indentured servant with a 1%er salary?

I believe he's referring to the fact that someone on a H-1B visa needs to keep the job (or else very quickly find another employer willing to be a H-1B sponsor) in order to remain in the country lawfully. This gives the employer a lot of leverage over the employee.

You can be an 1% without being in the US through

I really wanted to work for a few years in the US, but the hassle with visa put me off. I the chose the easy path to work in a fellow EU country instead. Then I got kids quicker than I imagined, and thus all hopes to work in the US vanished instantly because of the dreadful healthcare system.

I find it sad that the ont reasonnable way to go to the US is to be healthy and single, whereas I can settle easily in any EU country knowing that there are safety nets for me and my family.

https://archive.is/BobhF

Paywall. Alternative link?

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