| It's interesting seeing non-immigrants on HN trying to extrapolate immigrant choices as to why they move where they do, and by interesting I mean very reductive and insulting. I'm the child of immigrants, and my family decided to move to the US over Western Europe or Singapore specifically because the opportunities are greater and Americans are way more open-minded about immigrants mixing their home culture with their adopted culture. At the end of the day, European countries will have to make the choice about whether they want to remain monoethnic entities (which itself was a result of ethnic cleansing during and after WW2) or whether they are open to a multicultural identity. There's no point for skilled immigrants to go to Europe if they have the opportunity or pathway to PR or Citizenship in North America as salaries are higher, opportunities are greater, and the population is way less xenophobic (p.s. r/Canada is NOT representative of Canadians - and I lived in parts of BC where the Reform Party was extremely popular back in the day) Why would a Mexican Engineer want to move to Spain in order to earn peanuts and get called a "Sudaca" when they can earn a higher salary in El Paso or Dallas and still be a couple hours from home. Ime, the personal ranking of countries for Asian immigrants (South, East, and Southeast) is as follows: Tier 1 - US, Canada (backdoor to US via TN) Tier 2 - UK, Australia, NZ, SG, Ireland, HK (before NSL) Tier 3 - Rest of Western Europe Tier 4 - East Asia, the Gulf, Malaysia Most European countries are simply consolation prizes for immigrants. Plenty of people from my region of South Asia worked in the UK and Italy 30-50 years ago, but now prefer Canada and the US instead, or if they're educated staying in India. |
Full disclosure, I’m an immigrant myself, I travel a lot for work and stay for prolonged periods.
There are as many reasons to migrate as there are migrants… myself, I would never wish to live in the US but am very happy to live in Switzerland.
Your tier list is completely whack, there is no way I would list the UK above Western Europe. I have spent 18+ months in the UK last five years.