You can leave. I encourage Americans to look at alternatives. My country (Belgium) as well as most of Europe will welcome you and many other highly skilled migrants for in-demand jobs such as programming and other tech adjacent jobs.
Cost of life here is lower and life is nice. You get your pick of a country; many are different and give you access to different cultures across the EU.
Of course don’t get me wrong, things are veering far-right here as well, but it’s nothing compared to the US and you’ll be shocked how much nicer life is when you can walk to get groceries instead of having to bring your pickup truck.
In a few years, when things have calmed down (they eventually will), you can go back and help fix whatever mess the US has been left in.
And as usual if you do want to take up the opportunity of moving to Europe and you’re serious about it, feel free to email me (see profile), I will do what I can to guide and advise you.
Can you walk and find groceries in all areas of Belgium? I live in the US and I can walk to two large grocery stores, but I know there are large swathes of the US that you cannot do that. Is that any different than Belgium?
Belgium has significant opportunities for software developers? Interesting. I thought many were struggling for these jobs.
By the way, in the United States, most of the backlash against immigrants is against low skill, immigrants sneaking across the border. I find it interesting that you mention that you are welcoming of people that you need, yet you imply that those that don’t want unneeded laborers are right wing. You just made the same error. So you’re right wing too, right?
In most of Europe if you are in any kind of town or a village of more than a few hundred people there will at least be a small supermarket within easy walking distance, say one kilometre. And if you are in any reasonable sized town, say a few tens of thousands or more then there will be multiple supermarkets within that range.
Belgium is one of the most densely populated countries in the world so you won't find many places that are too far from a supermarket to walk to.
In the US, small grocery stores are called convenience stores. Almost all small towns have one or more of these within a kilometer of most people in that town. Now you aren’t gonna find fancy organic produce at these stores, but the quality of food in the US is probably not generally as good as what you have in Europe.
Anyway, comparing a small country like Belgium (approximately the size of the state of Maryland) to a huge vast country like the United States is not a valid comparison.
> Almost all small towns have one or more of these within a kilometer of most people in that town
I find this hard to believe based on my lived experience in the southeast US. Where I live, there are stores a moderate walk away (still over a km) that are completely unreachable from where people live because they require crossing 4-6 lanes of traffic with no crosswalk or pedestrian route.
> Anyway, comparing a small country like Belgium (approximately the size of the state of Maryland) to a huge vast country like the United States is not a valid comparison.
> I find it interesting that you mention that you are welcoming of people that you need, yet you imply that those that don’t want unneeded laborers are right wing. You just made the same error. So you’re right wing too, right?
I don't welcome or reject any "type" of migrant, because I don't work in politics nor at any of the public institutions in charge of this. What I said is factual: Belgium, as well as most countries, /will/ be welcoming of high-skill migrants for jobs that are in-demand (and are likely to be a budget positive), and less welcoming towards people who do not have a prospect to get a job (and are likely to be a budget negative).
This isn't a political statement, nor is it me being more or less welcoming of people. If you want my personal feelings: the people I'm less tolerant/welcoming for are those that have been so used to picking political fights with everybody, and who are in such an advanced state of Facebook-brainrot, that they see political statements everywhere, such as in a harmless HN thread offering assistance to people who want to move. Those, I don't want in my country. They can go take a swim in their favourite Gulf.
Nice try. You were the one making political statements and criticism of the United States when you don’t even live here and probably only receive information about it through hacker news or mainstream media, which is not representative of what’s really going on here. I asked you questions and then you tried to hide behind the politics of your nation when you made personal opinions regarding immigration policy in the United States.
And then you bring in an ad hominem attack against me for responding to your nonsense and trying to educate you about the reasons behind some of the frustration in the United States regarding immigration. It seems as though you don’t care or wanna know so I’m done and that’s fine.
I didn't make a single political statement nor criticism of the US in this thread, you're just applying things you read from other people, to me. As I said: Advanced state of facebook brainrot.
I have long-enough lived in and have enough ties with the US to know how things are over there. OTOH I think it's incredibly unlikely you'd be able to teach me anything about how immigration works here in EU. Especially when you're busy trying to pick a political fight.
Hey, you want a political statement, here's a tip for you: It's possible for people to not be a single-issue right-winger. It's possible to be economically right wing, have negative opinions about how the EU is handling immigration, and /still/ be pro social safety nets and worker rights, and even so still think France for example has too many worker rights.
Cost of life here is lower and life is nice. You get your pick of a country; many are different and give you access to different cultures across the EU.
Of course don’t get me wrong, things are veering far-right here as well, but it’s nothing compared to the US and you’ll be shocked how much nicer life is when you can walk to get groceries instead of having to bring your pickup truck.
In a few years, when things have calmed down (they eventually will), you can go back and help fix whatever mess the US has been left in.
And as usual if you do want to take up the opportunity of moving to Europe and you’re serious about it, feel free to email me (see profile), I will do what I can to guide and advise you.