@GTR12 said:
I get that partly but there's a lot of variations even in European countries.
I'm assuming living in LA is not exactly the same as living in Georgia either :)
@Sgt_Crow said:
Yes, the amount of school shootings is crazy. Aside from that, since the safety of my son is the most important to me, I just wouldn't feel safe myself living in a place where nearly everyone owns a gun.
I agree the refugee problem is pretty huge in Europe right now, but since I'm living in the Netherlands, I have nothing to complain. This literally feels like the safest place on Earth to me.
Same. Even in Portugal I never really had to worry about crime, and here in the Netherlands I feel safer still, even being an immigrant.
@littleangrydog said:
Have my considerations about Portugal been correct?
It is an incredible country but I realize that many natives from there immigrate to other countries in Europe. I would like to understand why.
In a lot of ways It's a great country; people are extremely friendly, English speaking foreigners are quite well liked (lucky you XD) and it's a beautiful country...lots of culture, lots of beautiful architecture and the beaches aren't half bad either so as a vacation spot it's great but of course living somewhere is not the same as taking a vacation there.
I've been away for a while but when I was working there I worked 40 hours a week in a physiotherapy clinic and was making slightly under 400 euro a month (compare that with where I'm living now where when I moved here I found a temp job that consisted mostly in hauling boxes around and packing stuff and I was being paid 400+ a week). I lived in a 1 bedroom, bathroom and kitchen apartment that cost me 800 euro a month (it was in Lisbon which is more expensive than the interior, but then again that's where most jobs are) so I needed 2 part times on top of my full time just to pay for the apartment and food. Plus, it's perfectly normal in Portugal for employers to offer you a "job" that pays nothing at all (not even transportation) for the first year/year and a half and after that year and a half they tell you it's "not working" and they ask someone else to take your place on the same non-paying conditions. Then you work until you're 65 and get a miserable retirement. Things seem to be changing from what I hear but not quickly enough.
Work aside, the country is still about a generation behind the rest of Europe in a lot of things, like mentality, equality and in a lot of cases, technology and organization. We haven't been out of dictatorship that long (it ended in 1975) and the country is still hurting for it. We still have a lot of racist and homophobic feeling in the majority of the older population, varying from "f*** all black people" to "I'm not racist, as long as my kid doesn't have black friends or ends up marrying one" (same for gays).
People end up leaving for a lot of those reasons. Personally, I left because I met a Dutch girl and at a point it was either me moving to the Netherlands or her moving to Portugal...it was no choice.
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