[TheOtherHobbes]

This is demonstrably false. Freedom of movement combined with education combined with a semi-standard language (English, no matter how ragged) means that anyone with an in-demand blue collar skill - plumbing, building work, etc - can move to a different country and set up as a small trader.

This has happened many times and continues to happen. I know a number of people who have done exactly this, and a few of them now own multiple properties. They also send money back to their families in their home countries.

Good luck trying to do the same in the US. If the rents in white collar areas don't kill you, the healthcare costs will.

[ChuckNorris89]

You're seriously mistaken. Good luck being a plumber in most EU countries with only commanding the English language. That may work in tech but on a construction site or any blue collar job the customer or your boss will address you in the local language not English or your native tongue and if you don't speak it then you're a huge liability for the business.

Also, all bureaucratic issues with the banks and local authorities for setting up a business if you're self employed are also not done in English but in the local language.

Try getting a blue collar job in Germany, and I don't mean a barista in a hip touristic district where all clients are foreigners. You're expected to pick up the local language yesterday.

The US having English as the default language everywhere means much less friction for everyone including foreigners be them employees or entrepreneurs.

[TheOtherHobbes]

And yet - the people I know who did everything I said are still there, doing what they did.

There's certainly less language friction in the US.

But there is far, far more economic and class friction.

And most people can pick up the basics of a language.

[jusssi]

In construction there's actually plenty of foreign subcontractors. They just bring a whole team, so it's enough if one of them knows the language well enough to understand what they'll need to do.

Edit: In general, I won't disagree with you that language is a real barrier for employment in EU.

[throwaway0a5e]

This comment is completely ignorant of the professional licensing requirements that serve as the hoop you must jump through before making "real money" in pretty much every blue collar field.

What you said is true about tech but a plumber or electrician that crosses borders will start at square 1. They will have to fulfill the licensing requirements in their new jurisdiction. These requirements almost always include requirements that add up to where one must work under person holding level V license before taking test W and then work X years before obtaining license Y which lets them be responsible for work type Z and there will be a corresponding requirement that all job Zs be performed by a party with license Y.

Professional licensing requirements like this are why you have experienced oral surgeons from Taiwan slapping braces on teenagers in California and expert boiler welders from Vietnam building hand railings in London.

[ben_w]

> English, no matter how ragged

Not as true as you might think. I’m from the UK originally, live in Berlin now, and while I can do a lot with English, there are doors closed to me by not being C1/C2-level German.

(I have of course been doing online language courses for ages, but as the locals say: Deutsche Sprache, schwere Sprache.)

[TheOtherHobbes]

Of course there are, because C1/C2 is equivalent to professional fluency. You're going to need that if you're working in (say) law or management.

But that's - what - the top 5% of jobs?

[ben_w]

The case I had in mind was “lead software dev”. Quite a lot of local job ads — even in software — very definitely require better German than I have.