Toronto, CanadaJude Angione, Age 60
Toronto, CanadaI’m a lesbian and have been out for 40 years. I came out here on a student visa in 1970 to go to the University of Toronto. I stayed because of politics, family reasons and because Toronto in the 1970s was the center of the universe.
Cara Smiley, 40
Oaxaca, MexicoThe USA had become unbearable after 9/11. The self-imposed ignorance and refusal to discuss the issues became more and more difficult for me to deal with on a daily basis. In December 2001, I decided to live permanently in Mexico. I love and respect the deep-rooted Mexican culture.
I came here as an organic food inspector, working for a company back in the States before eventually starting my own company in Mexico City. I also met a man here and fell in love.
In December 2006, my fiancé and I moved from Mexico City to Oaxaca City, Oaxaca because Eugenio’s family lives here and because it is a beautiful colonial city. In November 2007, Eugenio and I got married.
We purchased 1.25 acres of land about 20 minutes south of Oaxaca City. In November 2008, we started building our house. We have 11 table grape plants, over 30 (baby) fruit trees and a very diverse vegetable and herb garden.
There has been and continues to be a great deal of social unrest in Oaxaca which has, on occasions, led to violence. Every once in a while, Eugenio asks me if I would like to live in the USA again. The answer is always no. I like the life we have created here—our home, our friends and our work. I do not plan to return. While the USA has an incredible cultural diversity, there is nothing like living, immersing oneself entirely, in another country, culture, language, etc. Viva Mexico!
Name Withheld by Request, Age 60
San Miguel de Allende, MexicoI was an advertising art director for 22 yrs, financial layoff after financial layoff...the industry is in horrific shape and no one over 50 is being hired. I freelanced after the last layoff but no one has a budget for freelancers so that went away too. I decided I had to cut my cost of living or I’d tear thru my savings way too fast.
I had started painting in 2003 and that had gone really well. I had several solo shows. So, tired as I was of Chicago’s endless winters and too humid summers, I moved to San Miguel de Allende, in Mexico’s high central desert. It is an “artist’s town.”
I can now concentrate on painting and see how far I get with it. I love it, and every day is a pleasure now.
It would take a huge change, a huge financial change for me to be able to afford to live in the States again. I’m not a suburban type and the big cities are too expensive with no income...not to mention the cost of health insurance when you are self-employed. I have cut my cost of living in half (at least) by living here.
Sharon Hiebing, Age 46
San Ignacio Town, BelizeI never thought I’d be “that person” who would stay in her hometown her entire life, but slowly, that was what my life was beginning to look like. I realized I did not want that, and since I wasn’t getting any younger, I needed to act. So, in January, 2010, I put my pool and spa business on the market. Eight months later, I was on a plane to Belize.
I chose Belize for its wonderful climate (average temperature is around 80 degrees year-round), proximity to the United States (so I could travel back home easily–it’s only a 2 ½-hour flight to Texas), low cost of living (most folks can live quite well on $1500–2500 USD a month), and access to wonderful oceans, rainforests, rivers, ruins, and fresh produce. Lastly, the people were marvelous—some of the friendliest I’ve ever met.
Kelly Kittel, Age 49
Tamarindo, Costa RicaI have been leaving the U.S. all my life—starting in college with study abroad and then the Peace Corps where my husband and I met. We have lived outside the U.S. three times—one year in Portugal and this is our second time in Costa Rica and we now own property here.
I have never been enamored of our consumer-oriented narcissistic culture nor of the military-industrial complex. I never wanted my kids to think the rest of the world lived like they do in the U.S. We have exposed them to travel and other cultures and languages as much as possible and wanted them to see how the rest of the world lives. They all speak at least two languages now. They see how unsustainable American culture is. We expect them to change the world.
For me, it wasn’t a matter of dissatisfaction with American government or society, though I do have complaints. Nor did I make the move in anticipation of the spike in unemployment that would hit just a year after my move abroad. I wish I could boast that kind of insight.
Frank, Age 37
Orosi, Costa RicaMost of my career, I built furniture for hotels and bars around the world. I’d done a lot of really neat stuff. And I started building out nightclubs in Central Florida and I started doing events, too. I was pretty successful. Then they started to shut the scene down. In 2000, they passed an anti-rave law that it’s against the law to dance in public after 2 a.m. And I thought, “This is insanity. The Constitution says we have a right to gather. It doesn’t say we can’t gather if we’re going to dance.” Then they put cameras on every corner, the taxes are out of control, and I started feeling like it’s not a free country.
I wanted to go to Costa Rica for a while. In 2005, I had a girlfriend and she got pregnant. I didn’t see a future for me in the U.S. and I certainly didn’t see any aspect of the U.S. that would be good for raising a child. So we moved to Costa Rica because it’s a better place to raise a kid.
Not just your cost of living goes down here, but your stress level. You don’t have the stress of trying to pay crazy bills and the stress of always trying to get someplace. Being in this environment and being around these people, I don’t miss the States at all. I was over it before I even left the States, and now I don’t go back even for a visit.
Name and address withheld, Age 49
David/Panama City, PanamaI have lived close to Latin America and worked in Mexico, Central, and South America for almost 30 years. My company only manufactures products for use in Latin America and I traveled almost every country extensively. I am in road paving so I see a lot about government, local customs, and quite a bit of countryside.
I realized we were paying welders and fitters $65,000/year in San Antonio with health insurance, taxes, and all the loser programs required. I also found out I could not get the number I wanted nor get them to come to work.
Here, I pay no income taxes. I have no government prying into my technology. If my customer is injured by my machine, no court will judge that he can own my children’s inheritance. I employ a few more people...I have that luxury.
I’m glad I’m here. I wish we didn’t have dollars...and I wish we didn’t have to do biz with the U.S.
Medellín, ColombiaI’m an ex-dot-com guy, not one of those that made millions, just decent money for a few years, far from Silicon Valley. Making about 90K a year before I just realized I was feeling empty and in the Miami area I felt like an aunt next to the celebs—flashy people driving around with Lamborghinis and pulling up to nightclubs in yachts, or maybe it was the after-hour parties at $5 million penthouses.
Something clicked. I had to get out. I was worried about security at first. Everybody reassured me that Colombia was OK, so in 2005, I just sold everything and came down here, sight unseen. I went to Bogotá. At first, I supported myself by doing tech support via cable modem at 500k out of Bogotá back in 2005. After months of rain, I took my friend’s advice and booked a flight to Medellín, “the city of eternal spring.”
I don’t like overstressed fast-paced cities, they just burn everyone out. Well, Colombian people like to work but they like to be social, and take time to talk to you as well. In the States, I felt like the run of the mill apple pie American but here I get special attention, and people treat me much better.
Josh Plotkin, Age 20
Vitória, BrazilI’m a 20-year-old college dropout turned English teacher who until recently was living in Medellín, Colombia, but I just moved to Vitória, Brazil. A main factor in my decision to leave the U.S. was that I fear what is coming next over there. I don’t want to be around for it. Fourteen trillion dollars in debt is a time bomb that is going to explode and my generation is going to get the short end of the stick.
Bob Hand, Age 76
Rio Grande do Sul, BrazilI moved to Brazil not to escape the United States but to begin a new life with my wife, Cidinha.
I like Brazil, its culture, and the Brazilian people very much. My first trip to Brazil was as a tourist in 1973 when I visited Manaus, Brasilia, Salvador, Rio de Janeiro, the historic cities of Minas Gerais, and ended at the home of a friend in São Paulo. We kept in touch over the years as I moved about the USA and settled in Colorado. Then in 2000, I encountered on the Internet a person in a small town in Minas Gerais.
As our friendship developed, my friend told me about the situation with street kids in her town and she wanted to do something to help them become self-sufficient. I liked the idea and offered to help with a project, especially since it would be based on freedom and prosperity, and not on a victim mentality. I made my first trip to that small town in 2001 and thereafter founded a nonprofit organization called BizKidz of Brazil. We launched the project in Minas Gerais in 2004 and I made annual visits to Brazil to support it personally. While there in 2007, I got to know Cidinha, we fell in love, and after I returned to Colorado we kept in touch via Skype every night. On subsequent trips, in 2008, Cidinha and I travelled to Salvador, historic cities of Minas Gerais, then to the south and Curitiba, Nova Petropolis, and Florianopolis. We knew by then that we wanted to be together permanently, and we chose to live in Nova Petropolis, since we liked the city and it would be more difficult for her to part with her family and move to the USA.
I knew nothing about Rio Grande do Sul until we moved here. What I found was a spirit of liberty that has deep roots in the culture of the Gaúcho. Being a libertarian-minded person, I was very interested in learning more about this local mentality, quite different from other parts of Brazil. Last year, I attended the Forum of Liberty in Porto Alegre, and will attend again in April of this year.
David Morrill, Age 61
Cuenca, EcuadorI had spent years pursuing the Great American Dream but came to understand that the pursuit was keeping me in the Great American Rut. I had visited a number of Latin American countries, many of them with my father on bird-watching tours, and came away from Ecuador with the best feeling. I liked the people, landscape and the cities and the fact that it’s only a four-hour flight back to see family and friends in Florida. One of my criteria for choosing Ecuador was the standard of living. A number of other countries were attractive to me, but the level of poverty and sense of desperation was extreme and I decided I would not feel comfortable living with this.
Ande Wanderer
Buenos Aires, ArgentinaI feared I was becoming too complacent with my relatively comfortable life in the U.S. I had my reporting job at a newspaper, a good stable of friends, regular activities and a pretty good life.
But while living in Denver, I also seemed to keep having experiences that made me feel I was living in a punitive nanny state without the nanny (i.e., healthcare). I would walk or ride a bike in an effort to be ‘eco-friendly’ and racked up hundreds of dollars of tickets for having an ‘abandoned automobile’ parked on the street.
One time I was stopped at an alcohol checkpoint. While waiting in line, I took off my seat belt (which I used religiously) to reach in the glove box for my car’s documentation and promptly received a ticket for ‘no seat belt.’ I put an old couch on the porch of my apartment building in a gentrifying neighborhood. It made a nice place for neighbors to gather and keep an eye on the unattended children playing in the street. We got a ticket for ‘unsanctioned porch furniture.’
All this was during the mortgage boom and acquaintances were trying to convince me to look at buying a property even though I knew there was no guarantee of gainful employment for the next 30 years of my life. It seems like I dodged a bullet—getting ensnarled in ‘the American dream’ and working for the rest of my life to pay off my debts, if I even could.
It was also a personal goal to become fluent in a second language and knew that my weekly Spanish conversation group wasn’t cutting it—for me immersion would be the best way to accomplish it.
I accomplished a lot of what I set out to do living in Argentina. I’ve thought about returning to the U.S. or Canada, and have even perused job ads, but thoughts of getting up on cold, dark mornings and trudging to a 60-plus-hour-a-week job have kept the idea dormant.
Vina Rathbone, Age 24
Buenos Aires, ArgentinaAfter graduating college in 2009, I was unable to secure full-time employment. I looked for months and worked as a temporary contractor for various corporate companies. I started to research teaching English abroad as a possible next step.
As a student of anthropology, other cultures fascinated me. I had already traveled extensively in Europe and I wanted to push myself out of my comfort zone. I knew next to nothing about South America, but I did know some Spanish. Buenos Aires has a reputation as a very European and cosmopolitan city, which appealed to me. I knew I wouldn’t be able to make much money here, but I was seduced by ideas of tango tradition and cheap wines, so I came anyway. Had I known more about South America, I probably would have chosen to move to Chile, which has a much more stable economy and political structure, but once I got sucked into the Argentine ‘locura’ (craziness), there was no way out.
Bud Smith (and Sumana Harrison), late 60s
Jujuy, ArgentinaWhen I retired to Boquete, Panama in 2004 I figured I had found my pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. But after four years of living in that very small country, I became a little claustrophobic and decided to do some traveling. I rented my home and property, sold or gave away most of my belongings and bought an airline ticket to Ecuador.
My first day there I met a wonderful lady, another American expat who had lived in Oaxaca, Mexico for many years before moving to Cuenca a few years before. She also was ready once again to move on, and after a few months spent traveling around Ecuador, we hit the road south.
Traveling by bus, we made it slowly through Peru and on into Argentina and Chile, then back north through Peru and Ecuador and north to Colombia, moving with the seasons. As the southern summer began, we would travel south again through Peru and Bolivia and once again into Argentina. A total of 2 ½ years!
We have settled into the far northwestern part of Argentina in the province of Jujuy, about 1000 miles west of Buenos Aires and at the foothills of the Andes. The climate here has four seasons but is mild year-round, the cost of living is reasonable, the local wines are world-renowned as well as inexpensive and the Argentine steaks are to die for!
Tim, 29
London, U.K.I left America for the United Kingdom in 2008 to pursue a Ph.D. in London. I really needed a change and job prospects were looking terrible in a tanking economy. My healthcare costs for even basic allergy and asthma were extortionate and I found myself going down to Mexico every few months to stockpile medicine at less than half the price. Frustrated and broke, I not only wanted to go back to school, I wanted to get out of the country. London was an easy choice: amazing options for postgraduate education, one of the most cosmopolitan cities in the world, socialized healthcare and a shared language. I’m planning to stay through 2012. If it weren’t for the restrictive visas, I’d live here permanently.
Serena Page, Age 36
Paris, FranceI left for Paris in 2002, shortly after graduating college with a minor in French. It was my intention to stay three months, to take French classes and improve my language skills. I liked it so much that I never managed to leave. Three months turned into a year, and then I met my husband who is a dual French-American citizen, and now we are here indefinitely. I’m a “lifer,” you might say.
Bruce Epstein, Age 46
Orsay, FranceI was 38 years old, married, with a seven-year-old daughter when we moved to France in 1995, not so much as to escape the U.S. (though now we’re glad we did), nor because of some lifelong aspiration, but simply because the opportunity arose. We’re still here 16 years later.
Laura, Age 40
Rome, ItalyI worked for Corporate America for 15 years, was burnt out, not married and wanted to change. I moved in 2004. The reason I chose Rome is that I wanted to live in a place that was completely steeped in history. Not like, “Let’s go see the ruins,” and then there is the rest of the town. But someplace where, in your daily life, you’re in constant contact with the ghosts of the past. For historical/documentary filmmaking, which is what I was doing, London is perhaps the best place to be, so a “career move” would have taken me there. As far as languages go, I knew French, not Italian. But defying logic and practicality, I decided to go for the place where I most wanted to live, and try and make it work there. And I figured if it doesn’t, I could fall back on the more practical choices or go back home.
After two years, I let go of 15 years as a filmmaker in favor of being...a tour guide! I had never ever contemplated this job path, but now that I am doing it (nearly 5 years), it is obviously the best job in the world for me as I wanted to be immersed in history and art, and now that is also my job. I’m also living with my Italian boyfriend.
Bryn Martin, 31
Lausanne, SwitzerlandI left the U.S. for adventure. After finishing my Ph.D. in engineering, I was offered a post-doctoral research position at the U.S. National Institute of Health and also at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL). My wife and I considered the possibilities and decided to take the risk. I am also a musician, and I thought it would be interesting to explore the European scene. The decision was also influenced by the fact that the standard post-doc pay at NIH in Bethesda, MD was $36,000 while in Switzerland it was over $80,000. At the time we were expecting our first baby and I was concerned that my wife would not be able to stay home for the first few months after the birth due to lack of money if I took the post-doc position at NIH. Work at EPFL is paradise. I think there is no comparison to any university in the United States in terms of work environment, funding, facilities, and quality of research.
Eric D. Clark, “Age is just a number; I am experienced”
Lisbon, PortugalI have lived in the E.U. since 1987, in Paris for 12 years, then Cologne, then Berlin... and now lovely Lisboa. As a Black/Cherokee classical pianist, I was not interested in rap/r&b/jazz or any of the other genres associated with people of the ethnic order in the States at that time. That was very limiting.
The thing about the E.U. I love is being able to visit the different cultures in a mere matter of minutes from some places: I am privileged in the fact that when I said “I hate this country” (around 19 years old), meaning the States, I actually had been to every state in the union except Hawaii before “getting out.” Hence my decision—that, and there was the fact that there was no real outlet for me then made it easy: this coupled with the fact I studied music written while the country was still in its infancy made it obvious to me.
I visit the States often and find the level of stupidity frightening! I sincerely doubt I could live there again.
Jennifer and Doug St. Martin, Age 33
Lisbon, PortugalThere were many things that pushed us to leave the U.S. For one, Doug is a chiropractor, and we wanted to take the healing powers of chiropractic to a country that had few. The last place we lived, in South Carolina, we loved, but it was difficult to practice there as it was near a school and had a high concentration of chiropractors. When the economy took a plummet, there were less people able to afford maintenance care, so they would only come in when they were hurting. Chiropractic is about being proactive with your health, not reactive, and so it didn’t turn out to be the kind of practice that Doug had envisioned.
We decided to sell and use the money to move where chiropractic was relatively new. Doug was offered a great opportunity to run a satellite clinic in Lisbon, which is owned by a Canadian chiropractor that attended the same school as he did. When opportunity like that knocks, you pack your bags and fly!
I had been in love with the European lifestyle since I had visited a few times. It just seems to fit us better. It is tough bringing money over here because the dollar is plummeting so rapidly and you lose a lot in the exchange. However, it is nice to be making Euros and have it be worth so much more going back Stateside.
We were also disgusted with the direction that food was taking in the U.S. With it becoming illegal in some states to purchase raw milk and raw honey, organics getting watered down by big agribusinesses, and a host of other healing foods under fire, we were pretty much fed up. Here, in Portugal, the food is grown the way it is meant to be grown—untainted by chemicals and GMO engineering. This is an old-time farming country, and people are not ready or willing to change—thankfully!
Finally, we were not happy with the direction the government was going. Let’s just say, it was time to leave and take our usefulness elsewhere. We know the political situation in Portugal is not great right now either, but we are willing to take their mischief over the U.S.’ malevolence right now.
Alessandra
Porto, PortugalI first became interested in living outside the United States during the summer of 2008, while on a study abroad graduate program in Barcelona, Spain. Although New York City had been a wonderful place to live, I had a feeling there was a different place out there for me. I had spent many years searching for the perfect U.S. city to call home. I saw many beautiful places, but I couldn’t find the right fit. Once I arrived in Spain, I felt a great sense of openness and adventure, and something bigger than just wanting to feel at home. I absolutely loved it. I thought, why couldn’t I live here?
Last summer, I began a serious relationship with a Spanish writer and musician that I met while traveling in Portugal. After living in Italy for eight months, I moved to Porto, Portugal to be with him and have an experience together out of our native countries. We will live here for a while, then we plan to move elsewhere in the E.U. I hope that the two of us will eventually settle in Spain to have a family.
Bill Agee, 50
Copenhagen, DenmarkGrowing up in New Jersey and then living in New York City for 10 years, I figured that living in Europe was just a dream. But the reality of living in a quaint yet modern European city has been an amazing and, needless to say, life-changing experience for me. It is an entirely different way of leading one’s life. Life here in Copenhagen is just so much more livable than any place I’ve experienced in the U.S. I take a train and a boat to work. I ride my bike to buy groceries and go to the cinema. I have a balcony where I can sit and watch the rides at Tivoli Gardens, the amusement park in the center of Copenhagen that inspired Walt Disney. And when Copenhagen is not enough, I take a one hour flight to London, Paris, Amsterdam or Prague for the weekend. This is what I left the U.S. for—to experience a way of life that just doesn’t exist in the United States.
Easton West, Age 27
Berlin, GermanyI originally left the U.S. for Vancouver because I wanted to finish design school, smoke weed, make hip hop beats and do art. When I finished school, I was bored of all that and moved permanently to Berlin. I figured that if I am going to have to live and work, I would rather do it in a place that supports arts and culture, but is not a complete hippie let’s-smoke-a-bong culture. I like money but I want to enjoy where I am while I’m making it. I don’t feel like there’s much of a corporate vs. anti-corporate vibe going on here like there is in the States or even Canada. Whether corporate or independent, everybody seems to keep a pretty home-y feel and there’s a nice balance between work and hanging out and enjoying your life. Here, you can still be an alternative-stoner-slacker-whatever, if you want, but there’s more to life here than just that.
Camille Moreno, Age 25
Berlin, GermanyThe first time I visited Europe was on a three-week vacation to Berlin in November of my junior year of college. My whole life I hadn’t given a second thought to Germany, only that the language sounded so much like English that I thought I could probably learn it one day. Upon arriving back in the States, I said to my mother, “mom, I think Europe likes me.” After graduating from college, I decided I would move to Spain to regain my Spanish, which was lost after I moved from Costa Rica to the U.S. as a small child. I decided Spain was hot, and I probably couldn’t get any jobs teaching English until the autumn anyway, so my first summer was spent in Berlin, falling in love with the city and learning German. In mid-September, I carried on to Spain, where I lived first in Granada in the south. That didn’t seem to rock my boat so after about a month I joined WOOF (World Wide Organization of Organic Farms) and found myself working on an apple farm in the Basque in the north of Spain. That is until the farmer and I had our differences and I moved on yet again to Vitoria-Gasteiz, not far from the farm. By Christmas I could tell that Spain just was not for me, as well as the fact that I couldn’t seem to get a visa in Spain without first returning to the States. The whole time I was in Spain I had been on my German visa. So I decided to return to Berlin and make it happen. I have now been here three years.
Athens, GreeceI left the U.S. for graduate school reasons. If you’re a scholar of antiquity writing your dissertation, you don’t get proper street cred until you’ve lived in an ancient country. I went to Athens because the American School of Classical Studies at Athens was best suited to my research, which is based in Turkey. Rome would’ve been my first choice, but my area is the Greek-East. Anyway, the scholarly community in Athens is singular.
Tinuola, Age 33
Prague, Czech RepublicNew York City was the only home I had known since immigrating to the U.S. with my family from Nigeria. I went to high school and college in the city, and after graduation worked there as well. I could not imagine living anywhere else. But by the early 2000s I felt “stuck” in almost all aspects of my life; I was uninspired, frustrated/angry, and unhappy. I wanted a change, but wasn’t sure how it would happen.
The flexibility of my job—though I had become bored and often felt isolated—was too comfortable to give up. The real estate boom was in full swing, and my income was no match for the astronomical prices of apartment rentals or sales in NYC.
In 2006, I moved to Prague.
Maybe the most surprising aspect of moving to the Czech Republic is the subtle shift in my identity as a black person. Before moving to the USA, I grew up in Nigeria. I was black—yes, that was the color of my skin—but that was not my identity and certainly not the basis for which I was judged or perceived by others. So imagine the contrast when I moved to the States and discovered that being black came with a host of “issues” and expected behaviors and mindsets.
In Prague, where clearly I am a minority, my blackness suddenly doesn’t carry the same connotation. On the trams, old women, with a twinkle in their eyes, reach out to touch my dreadlocks. “To je moc krasna.” Very beautiful, they say in soft, lyrical voices. The children just tug from behind, and I exchange a smile with their very apologetic mothers. There are few who look like me, so when I walk around people stare. But in my awareness of being the object of attention I don’t feel or get defensive—unless provoked, and there have been a very few unsettling comments or encounters.
I’m a black woman, yes that hasn’t changed, but I’m having or living a human experience much as I did as a child growing up in Nigeria.
Budapest, HungaryIn 1999, I decided, after nearly 30 years in the financial business in the USA, that I was tired of the continuing intrusive presence of Big Brother in my life. Merely having a ‘choice’ of two bad candidates for President every four years was no choice at all. There were accumulative restrictions on personal liberty being enacted by the federal government and throughout the States, including: seat belt laws, no smoking laws, kid helmet laws, etc. I am perfectly capable of taking care of myself, thank you, and do not need a government to legislate my personal responsibility.
So, at age 55, I quit my job, sold my house, sold my car, sold my stuff and began to plan for my future outside of America. I decided my work would be English teaching, so I took a TEFL class (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) and moved to Budapest, Hungary, to begin my second life.
One will never get rich in this field, but all I wanted was to live a happy (happier) life, to travel and to enjoy whatever time I had left. In many respects, I have had a richer, more fulfilling life than in the past. My horizons have broadened considerably, and my quality of life has become...well, true quality.
To all those stay-at-home, squeamish, fearful Americans, I say, “Take the plunge and make your life so much better than just sitting in a tract house and hoping you can make your house payments and feed your kids for the next year or two.” I did, and I’ve never looked back. And never will. Best damn move I ever made.
Chris Jacobs, Age 24
Tartu, EstoniaI chose Estonia for three reasons. The first reason was that I had been here before as an exchange student and knew how things worked here. Second, my girlfriend lived here and I wanted to be with her. Third, I came here once in 2010 to complete an internship with a company that offered me a current job here after my U.S. graduation in Dec. 2010. I lived in Tallinn for a little while, but actually moved to Tartu where my work is located, got an apartment in Old Town part of Tartu, near the University and have enjoyed my life here since.
J.M., Age 33
Pushkin, RussiaOriginally, it was just the new opportunity. I had been traveling to Russia since early 2003 for work (I was with a major American truck-builder). It took me all of two weeks there to recognize it as a place and a people with genuine potential. Traveling back periodically to visit, we’ve been able to see the U.S. with fresh eyes, and have decided it’s no place to raise kids or a family—to say nothing of the economic and political problems there. Furthermore, the environment in Russia is so much more civil, open, and generally free than in the U.S., that it made for an easy decision.
Even in big cities (with the exception of Moscow, which is like any other megapolis anywhere on the planet), the small-town attitudes of civility and neighborliness are nearly ubiquitous. Russia is an immigrant country for the last 1000+ years, and it shows in the way they take to new people and the ease with which they help them fold into their society. We’re not planning on returning. In fact, we’re working on arranging things so that my wife’s and my parents will be able to come over here when they are ready to retire.
Name withheld by Request, Age 29
Dubai, UAEFrom an American perspective, people really don’t understand why someone would get up and leave America for somewhere else. For me, when I graduated college, I knew I wanted to try something different and have opportunities to see the world. Staying in the U.S. would have hindered me. I’ve been here seven years, met my wife here, and we are still enjoying the tax-free lifestyle. I don’t know if we will be here forever, but it was definitely a good place to ride out the economic crisis.
Scott, Age 50
Riyadh, Saudi ArabiaI prefer the lifestyle here overall as it provides many things for me. First is a good income which is stable and guaranteed by my employment contract. It allows me to take paid vacations with airfare (while my previous employment allowed only one week off per year until three years of employment). Most contracts in KSA allow one month per year with airfare plus time off during Ramadan and Hajj. I also now have the ability to support my family due to the money I am earning and lack of significant expenses here—no taxes, no utility cost, and cheap gas for my car. And finally, I feel part of the global community, not just someone in a small town in Oklahoma. I have made friends with all types of people and professions, which I would not have the opportunity to do living Stateside.
Hyogo Prefecture, JapanI attended the Villanova School of Business and was required to study a foreign language. I wanted something different—to stand out from the legions who study Spanish or Italian. I liked sushi and video games, so Japanese seemed a good choice.
Every year a representative from the Japanese Consulate in New York would visit Villanova to give a presentation on the Jet Programme—an initiative sponsored by the Japanese government that seeks to recruit college graduates of various nationalities and academic backgrounds to come to Japan and teach foreign languages and act as cultural ambassadors. So really from my freshman year I knew I wanted to come to Japan and teach English.
During my time at university, I studied abroad in Japan twice and made many Japanese friends both in Japan and in America, further strengthening my resolve to get into the JET Programme. I did, and left for Japan in July, 2008. I never regretted my decision.
Marshall Creamer, Age 25
Hong KongI left the United States because I had a deep desire to continue my travels around the world (I studied abroad in Italy my junior year of college, that experience changed my life) and to experience something new. I had a lot of things motivating me to leave the U.S.: money, the opportunity to travel, and the ability to be in a different political situation. I am a Libertarian, so Hong Kong has a lot that appeals to me.
Edna Vuong, Age 31
Beijing, ChinaI had been out of school for about two years and found that working as an architect was very different from studying architecture. Working was more technical than creative and I missed designing. It just happened that it was right before the Olympics and at the time there was lots of work in China. The projects they were working on were totally unrealistic and would never get built in the U.S. but the Chinese government was intent on impressing the rest of the world so developers were willing to spend the money to make things happen.
I was getting comfortable with my life in New York and was afraid if I didn’t make the move right then, then it would never happen at all. I quit my job and got a one-way ticket and moved there in February, 2008.
China attracts a lot of young architects who are still in school or fresh graduates who are unable to get jobs at home. Basically, I was bored and I’ve always wanted to live overseas. The work in China was exciting and there are tons of jobs for foreign-educated architects.
Jennifer Ashley, Age 29
Chengdu, ChinaI left because I thought that I should experience life outside the U.S. Since I’d just graduated college, it seemed like a good time, before I tied myself down to a career, relationship, property, etc. Much of Asia, but China in particular, was/is a haven for native English speakers to find work teaching English. I figured one year would be a good length of time. It wasn’t nearly enough, I realized, when that year was up. Seven years later, I’m still here.
Paul Tenney, Age 31
SingaporeI had serious misgivings about the direction of the U.S. as a country. Personally, I was finding it difficult to imagine getting ahead financially there, but the notion of becoming an “expat” always struck me as something of a cop-out. I hadn’t ever seriously considered living in another country. I had never even left North America prior to taking the opportunity to move to Singapore. As much as I thought of myself as cosmopolitan and globally-minded, I see now that I was very much, like most Americans, fearful of leaving the U.S.
As far back as 2008, a year and a half before I was ultimately given an opportunity to move to Singapore for work, my company announced its intention of opening an Asia Pacific office that would be based in Singapore. “Singapore,” I thought. “That’s on the other side of the world, not to mention a backwards police state.”
The post remained open.
In early 2009, amidst a crumbling U.S. economy, my career wasn’t going the way that I hoped. My job was becoming overwhelming with no sign of relief. I found myself bored in San Francisco with no real sense that things were going to pick up, and some elements of my personal life were not going particularly well either. May 29th, 2009, I got a call from one of my biggest clients—they were moving their business away from our company. The writing was on the wall. There was still an opportunity for someone in the company to relocate to Singapore, and I made up my mind that I would volunteer for the job.
I really knew very little about Singapore or what exactly expatriation would be like. Once I did arrive, I had absolutely no regrets. It was remarkably easy to adapt to my new environment, and for the most part I hardly even think about the fact that I’m living “in a foreign country.” With minor exceptions, all my travels through Asia and Europe since I’d left the U.S. have hammered home the point—life isn’t really all that different wherever you go. Don’t be afraid.
Tyler Watts, Age 29
Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), VietnamI left the U.S. in 2005 as I had become interested in Vietnam and its culture and people and wanted to spend some further time working and living there. I originally anticipated staying for two years and then coming back to America, but have since extended until now.
I chose Vietnam initially as I had traveled here as a student twice and found the people and the country pulling at me like a magnet. I would say this has to do with Vietnamese culture and its welcoming nature, its curiosity, and the people’s extreme kindness. It also has to do with the young population (the figures are astounding with some saying about 60% of population under 30) and the sheer energy of a country that is developing so fast. It’s an exciting place to be and it’s a useful time to be here in helping Vietnamese attain their ambitious goals.
Art F., Age 65
Sihouanoukville, CambodiaIn August of 2001, the company I was working for went into a financial crisis, and laid off many workers, including me. My termination package wouldn’t last long with a $2000 monthly rent. Things were getting really slow in the Valley, and when 9/11 happened the job market collapsed. I sold what I could, moved the rest into storage, put my Harley in my son’s garage, took myself and my cat to Puerto Vallarta, a town that I had been to many times. This was the first time I retired.
About one year later, I moved back to the U.S., and got a very low-paying job in a printing plant, to help pay my credit card bills. This job I kept from 2003 until I could not stand working for idiots anymore. I retired again in April of 2008.
I set my sights on Asia. I was there in 1967–1968, courtesy of the U.S. Air Force and was able to take several R & R’s (fve-day vacations) to Bangkok. I fell in love with the country, and the people. I went back to Thailand in 2005, and again in 2006 and did some investigation into the cost of living, and found it very low. I also have a friend there. In 2009, I contacted him again, and he told me that he had moved to Cambodia—much cheaper than Thailand. I decided to take the plunge. I sold everything I could, packed the rest and stored it at my son’s house, put everything else into two suitcases, and bought a one-way ticket here.
Now I have a three-bedroom, four-bath house, $300 a month. I have no car, and therefore no car payment, though I am planning on buying a moto (scooter) soon. I’m renting one now for $80 an month. Once the women in this town find out that you are staying in Cambodia, and don’t have a girlfriend, you will be swamped. It didn’t take long before I found one and it seems to be working out.
Ted Hung, Age 29
Melbourne, AustraliaI didn’t leave the U.S. for a better job, I left for a better life.
People were so focused on making money that they forgot about what was really important in life. It felt like success was measured by how much money you made, how fast of a car you drove, how much plastic surgery you’ve had, and how hot your wife/husband is. It just seemed like such a fake society. Here in Melbourne, the culture is really laid back and it permeates all aspects of life and work. Melbourne was and still is one of the most livable cities I have ever been in. Australians are friendly, the culture is diverse, and there are so many beautiful natural wonders here.
Macaela, Age 29
Wellington, NZI originally came to New Zealand to do a one-year backpacking tour. I was 23 at the time and in a job I couldn’t stand and there was absolutely nothing stopping me from heading overseas! NZ was the only English-speaking country I could get a year-long work visa. Anyway, I got over here and realized I guess I wasn’t cut out for backpacking, and have been in Wellington for the entire six years I’ve been here. But seeing the country is so small geographically it’s pretty easy to do long weekends all over. Plus this place makes road-tripping and camping a breeze—plentiful backpackers and campgrounds! I’m (finally) getting around to applying for residency. It’s pretty unheard of for someone who has been here for as long as I have to still be on a visa, but it’s do-able.