Emigration "for rent": how to find a place of residence where you will be really good

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

If you are thinking about emigration, but you are confused by bureaucratic nuances, pay attention to the approach to this issue of our guest author - traveler Anastasia Makarova. She practices emigration "for rent" and is in a hurry to share with our readers her experience in finding the city of her dreams.

Everyone has a different attitude to the issue of emigration. Someone simply takes and transports all their things to the first place they like, while someone cannot decide for years, fearing to make a mistake in their choice.

It is not difficult to understand those who are cautious, because no one wants to get into a situation where all the bureaucratic nuances are done away with, and the place to which you have moved turned out to be far from ideal.

For people who are thinking about emigration, but do not know where they will be most comfortable, there is a great way to make a choice with a minimum risk of making a mistake.

Have you ever thought about the fact that there is emigration "for hire"?

To try on a potential place of residence, you just need to change your attitude to travel, turning it from ticking a notepad with a list of attractions into an interesting experiment to immerse yourself in the specifics of the life of the local population. To do this, it is enough to have a list of those countries where you would like to live, and a list of criteria for their assessment.

Make a list of countries that are suitable for emigration

There are excellent services on the Internet that will become assistants for everyone who wants to get objective information about different countries.

• - a service for comparing states by a variety of criteria.
• - a service that contains a lot of information about every country in the world.
• - the source of any information.
• Studies and comparisons around the world.

You can also pay attention to a parameter called the quality of life index, which includes the assessment of a country according to a list of indicators such as the level of medicine, climate, material well-being and many others.

Of course, it should be borne in mind that even within one state, different cities can be very different from each other. Therefore, after you decide on the country, you need to make a list of settlements that should be tested first.

Indicate the parameters for assessing the settlements that you will study

After five years of searching for the perfect place to live, I have compiled the following list of parameters:

1. Climate

It is enough to come at the most unfavorable time of the year to appreciate its influence on yourself.

2. Ecology

For example, in Berlin, even in the center, the air is amazingly clean and you can drink tap water. This is captivating.

3. Quality of groceries in stores and prices

Australia falls in love with an abundance of organic local products: meat, fruits, milk and its derivatives. Plus, it's all incredibly tasty!

4. Opportunities for the development of the child, especially the educational system

It was a pleasant surprise for me that only highly qualified teachers who have undergone very serious special training and passed difficult exams work in French kindergartens. Moreover, every kindergarten has its own chef and feeds children no worse than in restaurants.

5. The state of the labor market, the level of wages

For all the attractiveness of Canada with its ecology, proximity to the United States and immigration policy, which is one of the most open in the world, it has a very big drawback. If you are not going there at the direct invitation of your employer, then finding a job based on your qualifications will be difficult.

6. Urban infrastructure

This includes the possibility of walking, the availability of public transport, the number of parks, and the like. For example, in Adelaide, the city center is surrounded by a perimeter of parkland, beyond which low-rise residential areas begin. And the tram within this center is free. At the same time, the distances to all important infrastructure facilities are quite large, so it's hard to do without a car.

7. The level of medicine

I was surprised by the fact that in Bali, even in the best hospitals, medicine leaves much to be desired. On this large and long-mastered island by Europeans, the level of competence of medical specialists and the organization of the entire process of providing medical care, in my experience, is much lower than, for example, in Thailand.

8. The level of real estate prices and housing affordability

Even at rather high absolute prices, in the Scandinavian countries they willingly give mortgages at a ridiculous 2-4% per annum by Russian standards. This makes buying your own home a feasible task for a person working for a large company.

9. The relationship of local residents

In Australia, the locals are the friendliest and most outgoing people I have met. Moreover, they are always ready to help each other. The owner of one of the apartments that we rented through Airbnb, on December 24 (Catholic Christmas), on his own initiative, traveled with me to several offices of car rental companies in search of an empty child seat, which negligent employees forgot to supply me.

10. Attitude of citizens to their state

This seemingly secondary indicator illustrates very well the general climate in the country. When the owner of an agritourism business in Tuscany hotly talks about the fact that she and all her acquaintances are unhappy with the government on an autumn evening, it becomes clear that in Italy, as in Russia, most likely you will have to rely on yourself rather than on government support, and regularly overcome bureaucratic barriers using a wide arsenal of tools.

11. General impression of the city, aesthetics

Some people like modern metropolises such as Singapore or Hong Kong, while others gravitate towards a more provincial image of European cities. In any case, if a new place of residence is unpleasant to you from an aesthetic point of view, no social benefits will compensate for this disadvantage.

12. Immigration policy and public attitudes towards immigrants

The first part of this criterion is important for obvious reasons: the stricter the immigration rules, the more difficult it will be for you to go through all the formalities. The second has a direct impact on how easy (or hard) you will have in the first few years - until you integrate into a new cultural and linguistic environment.

Search for the city of your dreams, rate places according to the list of your requirements

Many people prefer country life, but I still recommend first of all to decide on the city where you will go for services and cultural life, and only then to explore the surroundings.

To evaluate a city according to this list of criteria, I need at least 10 days. Therefore, I do not waste time on unnecessary excursions, but immerse myself deeply in the study of local life.

I try to live in regular apartments (I use Airbnb), not in hotels, go to shops, communicate with locals, walk in parks, use public transport. I love Tripster's service as it makes it easy to find Russian-speaking locals and book a tour with them. And already during the walk, you can get a lot of useful information about the peculiarities of life in this city at first hand. All this gives me the opportunity to answer the question "Mine or not mine?" fast enough.

The beauty of this approach is that you get the opportunity to gain a little experience of emigration without having to deal with relocation and paperwork.

This approach will not transform you from a tourist to a local 100%, but it will nonetheless provide most of the information you need to make a decision.

I have ranked over 50 places using this method. For example, Barcelona did not fit due to the fact that neither the city itself, nor the local cuisine, nor the Spanish language evoked positive emotions in me. In addition, Spain has a high unemployment rate and a weak educational system.

Tel Aviv did not work out due to high real estate prices, the difficulties of emigration to Israel and the unstable military-political situation. But the city itself fell in love with itself at first sight with its shady boulevards and amazing openness and cohesion of local residents, and the level of medicine in Israel is a benchmark.

At the moment, my priority city is Adelaide (Australia). It meets a lot of my requirements. The city is small and very cozy, but with full infrastructure and everything that is needed for the life of a modern person. Australian shops sell excellent organic produce and the Australians themselves are incredibly friendly and welcoming. At the same time, Adelaide has its drawbacks: a high level of solar radiation and location on the other side of the world.

In addition, I would not be me if I stopped the search without visiting all the countries and cities on my list before making a decision. I hope this does not take me another five years and very soon I will be breathing in the scent of the cool sea breeze where I really feel good.

I wish each of you to find the city of your dreams or unexpectedly fall in love with the place where you live now. And who knows, what if we find ourselves neighbors?