Thoughts about immigration to Canada, Germany, or USA
I have been thinking about emigration for a long time. (Mom, if you’re reading this, I haven’t decided anything yet. Don’t worry). I published an article a couple of months ago regarding obtaining a Ukrainian passport. At that place, I considered the hypothetical possibility of becoming a citizen of Ukraine through naturalization. In the case of a global collapse in Russia, there is an option to evacuate there. But it would be better and more helpful to get some other interesting passport.
Since I have been working for a German company, it would be logical to immigrate to Berlin. With relocation, I can get good support from the employer. But there is one big problem. In Germany, there is an excellent opportunity to get a blue card and grow to citizenship quickly enough if you have a specialized engineering education. I do not have one, and I can only apply for a work visa, according to which citizenship will not be obtained very soon.
I don’t want to live in another society without full rights for 10 years, but this is a strategically good option. But there are big advantages of relocation to Berlin — multiculturalism, the absence of a hard need to know German, a good startup atmosphere, a 2-hour flight from St. Petersburg, and a huge number of Russian-speaking immigrants. There is also a sufficient amount of material on the Internet with instructions on how to settle and live after relocation.
The second option I’m considering is Canada. Everything is quite convenient here: a society built by immigrants, a common border with United States, and a passport is quite slightly lower in rating than a German one. Also, one of the important advantages is English-speaking environment, in Germany outside Berlin it is still better to speak the Goethe language. In Canada, knowledge of English will be enough. Yes, there is also official French, but you can live a normal life without it. There are also good social packages, in old age you will be supported by the government. Nature is very close to Russian, and there is a huge Russian-speaking community. I’m looking in the direction of Vancouver. It’s more expensive than Berlin, but it’s just a stone’s throw from California.
One of the advantages of this area of immigration — the similarity of Russian nature — at the same time is a disadvantage, it is cold there. It took a very long time to fly to St. Petersburg, now I looked at the aggregator’s website. There’s 18 hours flight, of which 5 hours waiting for a transfer in Frankfurt am Main. That is about 12 hours in the air. To obtain a passport, it will be enough to work for 3 years in your specialty, and then continue your activity in any corner of the world. At the same time, you will gain confidence that there is a place behind your back where you will not be framed with drugs (the police will not plant them in your pocket.), and where society gives you the opportunity to speak out and confidence in the future.
I am also considering the third, most unrealistic option — to win the US green card lottery. You understand that this is almost unrealistic. There are many articles and blogs about the pros and cons of living in the States. So, I will not dwell on this in detail but just note one thing. For an engineer, America is a great place to live. At the same time, we all grew up under the incredible influence of its culture, which will allow you to assimilate quickly.
Well, in the end, I want to give three interesting links with materials that I use when thinking about the issue of immigration. For the most part, I use any information from the Internet, but these are especially noteworthy and they give specific numbers:
- https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/ is a great site for comparing the cost of living in different cities around the world.
- https://www.glassdoor.com/Salaries/index.htm — information about salaries of different specialties in different parts of the world.
- PDF file of Henley & Partners company with indices of passports of different countries of the world.
