this post was submitted on 03 May 2025
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With all the dismal news about America lately, my home, I'm starting to seriously look at where else to move.

Putting aside for now the difficulty of actually immigrating to some countries, I'm curious on the opinions of others (especially people living outside the U.S) on this.

What I'm looking for in a country is, I imagine, similar to many people. I'm trying to find somewhere that will exhibit:

  • Low racism
  • Low sexism
  • Low LGBTQ-phobia
  • Strong laws around food quality and safety
  • Strong laws about environmental protection
  • Strong laws against unethical corporate practices (monopoly, corruption, lobbying, etc)
  • Strong laws for privacy
  • Good treatment of mentally ill, homeless, and impoverished people

Those are the real important things. Of course the nice-to-haves are almost too obvious to be worth listing, low cost of living, strong art and cultural scene, nice environment, and so on.

My actual constraints that might really matter are that I only speak English (and maybe like A1-2 level German). It seems incredibly intimidating to try to find employment somewhere when I can hardly speak the language.

I know nowhere on Earth is perfect, just curious what people may have to suggest. I hope this question isn't too selfish to ask here.

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (2 children)

Denmark seems to fit fairly well and there are some English-only jobs in Copenhagen. I have a lot of colleagues that don't speak Danish.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (4 children)

Funny enough, you are looking at the countries with the most homogeneity and lesser levels of multiculturalism per capita. In this case the most white countries, like Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Switzerland, Luxembourg, et al.
They all have what you are looking for. However, many of there are either fairly expensive, have less than optimal weather or have fairly strict laws, unless you are an EU member or want to ask for asylum, political or otherwise.

Like other have mentioned, at a recent WEF meeting, at DAVOS earlier in the year, the President of Spain stated that he wanted to ban encryption, or have access to encrypted services... Why? For your protection, obviously. Do a search on Youtube and you will find the video. Keep in mind the presentation is fairly long. You may be able to find a clip of it.

The UK and Germany have gone down the drain when it comes to privacy laws and they are heading straight into Big Brother or 1984 territory. No joke. So those should be avoided.

Like other have said, Uruguay and Argentina are pretty good options albeit both Argentina and Chile are not doing too well economically for now. But I do have a friend who is moving to Argentina,, albeit he is fluent in Spanish so for him it won't be hard.

Other possible options are Australia but if you think owning a home is hard in the USA, then you have seen nothing yet in Australia. New Zealand is also a good option, too although like some other countries at the top of the list, moving there can be a tad difficult Re: Red tape, albeit it is a bit easier if you are part of the Common Wealth, which I assume you are not.

Correction: Not the Spanish President, but the Spanish Prime Minister. as my links below. My bad.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

For real, where do you get that the President of Spain wants to ban encryption?! That debate has been held in Germany, France and UK but not precisely in Spain... like nothing at all. In that talk President Sanchez just talked about the massive and pernicious powers social media have in the society (true) and that he supports the EU Digital Services Act (DSA), at highly misguided and bad thing, but not spearheaded by Spain. None of that is wanting to ban encryption... letś no mention almost impossible to enforce properly too. If digital freedom is your aim, options like Australia is a bit off, you are good until you touch sensitive things for the US.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

Where did I get it? I literally said where, there is a Davos presentation he did. Didn't I say that? I did not say that it was debate, it was something that he was pushing for in his speech. Find the video.

With that said, it is not like this is new. You are just unaware. Example:

https://www.wired.com/story/europe-break-encryption-leaked-document-csa-law/

"The source of the document declined to comment and requested anonymity because they were not authorized to share it.

“It is shocking to me to see Spain state outright that there should be legislation prohibiting EU-based service providers from implementing end-to-end encryption,” says Riana Pfefferkorn, a research scholar at Stanford University’s Internet Observatory in California who reviewed the document at WIRED’s request. “This document has many of the hallmarks of the eternal debate over encryption.”__**"

Also you are right, he also want so remove anonymity... for your protection, of course.

https://www.telesurenglish.net/pedro-sanchez-calls-for-measures-against-social-media-threats-to-democracy-at-davos/

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago (4 children)

Thanks for that wired link. Was not aware of it. It is 2 years old but important still. Now, that is not from the president of Spain, but its minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska, a extremist and, I would say, a compromised guy that works more for foreign entities than Spain's interest and should have been fired long ago. For instance, last week he signed a contract with a Israelś company to purchase munition... the outrage in the coalition government was such that Sanchez had to step in and canceled the already signed contract.

On wanting to stop anonymity, 100% with you, but hard to find any leader is not on board with that.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago

Consider your education and professional background and how well you'll integrate in the workforce of whatever countries you're looking at. Look into general unemployment rates as well as for your specific area of expertise. Can you work remotely?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago

afghanistan

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Privacy, food safety and environmental regulation basically mean Europe, but then Europe has crazy anti-migrant sentiment at this point. So, maybe one of the Scandinavian countries that's still relatively welcoming? Portugal might also track, if you don't mind a country that's economically moribund.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Toronto and Vancouver are expensive but you definitely get what you pay for

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (2 children)

Honestly I don't get what the hype with Toronto is. It costs like Vancouver but with Calgary's weather and general vibes.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

Toronto is amazing. It's a lot like NYC but clean, better run, and less densely populated. My friend describes it as NYC run by the Swiss, and I've loved all the time I've spent there

The weather can be hit or miss, but it didn't bother me, even with the endless snow. I'm moving there soon and I'm super excited for it.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Good transit, good jobs, lots of cultural stuff, amazing food. The weather definitely isn't great but it's still consistently a few degrees warmer than Calgary in the winter. Vancouver obviously crushes both of them in this category.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Yeah, similar weather relatively speaking.

I've never been to Toronto, so I can't talk too much trash, but I have been to Vancouver many times and experienced how awesome it is. And, they both cost a similar amount!

[–] [email protected] 16 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

After been in 5 continents in 30+ countries and living in 6... the best for your requirements is Spain. Spain, even the opposing parties are unlikely to touch most of those protections since it has wide support among the population. Now, Spain is not panacea, it still has stigma against Gypsies, older people face job discrimination, etc.

Regarding privacy is OK, more due to inaction than protection but far better than most neighbors in the north.

On corruption... the 'perception' is that there is plenty but no more than I witnessed in countries like Germany, UK or USA... the difference is that corruption in Spain is highly exposed by rival parties/media while in the other countries it is no so sensationalized, that is why of the increase 'perception'. By the way, Scandinavia, that I used to admire, above local governments, I don´t see it much better on corruption levels, specially since late 2000s.

Regarding foreigners, Spain has many offers in certain jobs, where English is a requirement, but not easy at all for more common jobs where the local language is what is mostly used, even if you dominate it well. Now, you will be surprised how many companies are moving jobs to Spain since it is easier to attract talent to Barcelona or Malaga than to Berlin or Grenoble... and they save in salaries.

Now, if you put less emphasis in sexism and LGBTQ, certain countries in Latin America like Mexico or Uruguay, or across the ocean others like Malaysia may be more appealing, it is not that they are expressively against those groups, it is just they demand a more quiet sexual expression from you.

Lastly, countries like Australia, New Zealand and the like have become so corrupt at high level and against privacy and freedom of expression in certain topics, should be disregarded if you emphasis on that. Ireland, is the only exception in the Anglo world, now, like Switzerland and Norway, they are floating in money o every one is okay while economies are good... the test comes, as always, come in challenging times. Till, then, consider those three too.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Spain is one of the main supporters of the infamous chatcontrol and wants to ban encryption. So, please tell me more about Spain and its stance on privacy …

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Chat control, ban encryption? Where do you get that? I follow occasionally Spanish politics and never came across that. It may have been raised by some lone politician but highly unlikely to happen, unless other countries like France or Germany does it first, nor the people will follow with any mandate. The problem is if the main opposition party gets in power... they are more inclined to do that but even there I don´t see it spearheading any of that by themselves.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

The Spanish government has a very strong opinion on this:

https://www.techradar.com/news/spain-seeks-to-ban-encryption-leaked-document-reveals

Spain's vision appeared to be the most extreme, with the nation's leaders apparently seeing the access to citizens' data as "imperative" to allow authorities catching criminals in the virtual world.

Spain wasn't just the strongest fan of the bill, but it also argued how EU-based providers should be ideally prevented from implementing E2E in the first place. Of a similar stance was Poland, suggesting that parents should have the power to decrypt children's chats. Among other supporters for the Chat Control proposalare Cyprus, Hungary, Croatia, Slovenia and Romania.

There are many more news articles about this.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (2 children)

Again, that seems to be a personal vendetta of the minister Grande-Marlaska that keeps going secretly against the government policy (like the recently Israeli munition purchase that wast promptly canceled). No parliament debate on encryption or even public debate has been brought up at all. If it does, the minute it comes up, it would be turned down swiftly by the current coalition government. The President has no made any statement on banning encryption either, nor I think he would either. However, he did talk on identification on social media, but he will not spearhead that, nor it is doable to implement for now.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

It's important to consider trends and trajectories, while countries like Ireland and whatnot may appear to satisfy a lot of these, they are also struggling with the same decaying Capitalist system and are being dragged down by US decay as well. Countries like China that are improving rapidly might be more worth considering.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

China would get a -100/10 for privacy though.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

About the same score as any Western country. Privacy isn't really respected anywhere unless you force it yourself, too much money in big data.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 weeks ago
[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 weeks ago

That's most European countries. Pick one, learn its language and immigration laws, and off you go

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 weeks ago

I'm in a similar boat and was considering moving to Ireland or Chile. In the end, I couldn't overcome the immigration requirements, so I decided to just move to a better state within the US. Not sure if it's the best option, but maybe that could also improve things for you.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 weeks ago (4 children)

Reading the list, NZ does pretty well... Right to the end...

  • good treatment of mentally ill, homeless and impoverished people......
    We don't do that here
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[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Ireland ticks most of your boxes. If any of your grandparents are Irish you can get dual citizenship. English speaking and lots of cultural crossover etc.

Closer for trips back too. Think it's only a 5 hour flight to New York for example.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago

Just maybe don't practice your Cockney accent while there.... The locals seem to hate that accent, for some reason.

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