[BobbyTables2]

What I find odd, is that moving between states in the US is relatively easy. Find a job and go.

But if a skilled English speaker wants to move to the Netherlands (whose population is smaller than Florida) or virtually any other European country, they’d have to be fluent in the local language. That’s a really high bar.

Seems like even for multi-lingual Europeans in the EU, this would still be challenging, especially for families. (Asking kids to suddenly attend school in a different language???)

Seems like Europe is the modern day Tower of Babel story.

[com]

I am a fluent English speaker who spoke not a word of Dutch for my first few years in the Netherlands. Got contract work, friends, and in the end language and citizenship.

One example is anecdote, not data, but I know an awful lot of EU and non-EU people both in the big cities and more regional places who landed without any local language and made successful lives and integrated effectively here.

There are harder places to do this but it’s getting easier by the year, especially in the countries that need people who speak other languages for global trade.

[anonzzzies]

Netherlands is a bit of an outlier I feel though, but I am from there; maybe it happens elsewhere too.

[anonzzzies]

It is a massive problem and all under the guise of ‘our culture’. I get it somewhat but equality won’t happen if you keep it this non equal on the basic level. I get that you learn a language when you move (I did a bunch of times), but it will never get better than my english or of course dutch (my native tongue, although I am starting to forget words after having been abroad over 20 years); all my colleagues do speak english but refuse because of culture they say. I feel this is a pretty basic issue and a massive problem.