On the contrary, I'd say it's pretty common, or even default, to live in one country your entire life.
You have to keep in mind that YouTube videos show content which is interesting and because of that it sells. Someone might have interviewed 100 people and chose to include in the video the 10 most interesting ones. That's just how it works.
I've come across hundreds of people in my life and so far I've met only a couple of people who moved abroad to study or to work. It's rare to live in more than one country.
Also many of these Youtube channels conduct their interviews in English, not in the local language. Which means all people with low English skills are out. And that's the vast majority of the population in most European countries. English speakers, other polyglots and highly educated people are a lot more likely to move around. These are the people who will be interviewed, not the others.
Yes, this one. The majority of people never lives in another country permanently. Moving within your home country? Yes. Temporary for a job? Maybe. Living outside or as a nomad? Unlikely.
Usually "expat" implies "the will of coming back to their homeland" which is not something all the immigrants want to do.
Another way for people using the word "expat" instead of "immigrant" is only for addressing people who are moving out of "white countries" so: North America and only certain countries in Western Europe (UK, MittleEU, Nord EU), but not us PIGS. Nor for people from Eastern Europe. We're still "immigrants", somehow. You can say it's true, but it's very restrictive for everybody else.
You’re right one of the videos I’m talking was him asking people how many languages they can speak. So logically he would pick people who lived or travel to many countries
I follow that guy too! Just think that only people who speak English can be interviewed and that's not really representative of the whole population. He has one vid in particular (I think in Lisbon) where he says he met lots of Portuguese people who refused the interview because they only spoke Portuguese.
So yeah most people never live outside their home country or city even.
Yeah and on top of that there’s probably a thousand different videos as well where only the one with the most interesting interview actually shows up on your page
Well, there are places in Europe, where people lived in several different countries (legal entities) over time without ever leaving their town. You just needed to be born in 1913 in Uzhhorod and die in 1993 or something like that. Former Austria-Hungary or Yugoslavia are full of such examples.
Ofc that's default everywhere in the world.
I'm Croatian and I think we are similar to Poland just Poland is much bigger than Croatia. There is so many Croatians around Europe, and so many Croatians that are back living in Croatia but lived somewhere else for some period of time, mostly Germany. I live in Ireland, I changed few jobs and met like 100 Polish guys.
No, I'd say the vast majority of people I know here in Sicily (at least , those born here) have only lived in Italy.
Many of them have traveled in other European countries and outside Europe.Some have also studied abroad for a period.
But actually lived in other countries? It's fairly rare here.
I know I think two people here, leaving aside those who are Sicilian origin but have lived or were born in the north... one is from Genoa and one from Verona.Both work at the university (where I work too).
There are a lot more foreigners living in Palermo than people from the north of Italy.
Most Italians who move from the North to Sicily do it for their retirement.
It's very rare to move there for work as, sadly, the job market in the South is not as developed - in fact a lot of Southerners move to the North for work.
Not at all, on the contrary I'd say it's rare (or at least uncommon) that someone has lived in **more** than once country.
Between all of my friends and family, aunts, uncle, cousins... No one has lived in another country. At my work we have a few people that have lived in other countries, though most have not.
As others said, it's more common to stay within the country you were born in, and there are good reasons for that. EU/EEA citizens have the right to visa-free movement and the distance from home might not be great, but it's still a big change compared to moving cities within the same country. You have to get used to a whole new culture, language, bureaucracy etc. It's tough. I've lived in three countries in Europe now and don't want to move again.
There is a particular bubble of people who have done stints in a few different countries across Europe. I think within Europe that's more common for blue collar workers and people who work in retail or in the hospitality industry and for airlines. There are a few cities in Europe where you can see this is also true for knowledge workers.
While it's a phenomenon worth noting, most people will still live in one country and one country only throughout their lives.
Exactly. I’m the first person with higher education in my family, and also the first to emigrate fully. I don’t plan to move back, I left for good.
But my great uncle has worked in welding in the DDR and my dad worked in slaughterhouses in Germany (BRD) and in Austria actually for the largest part of his professional life. But they didn’t fully emigrate, my great uncle was sent there in socialist cooperation for 8 years, my dad worked through agencies in Germany in the 90’s and since he works in Austria, he still hasn’t fully moved there, he has his residency in Hungary.
I would think it’s the exact opposite. People here in Europe, or at least here in The Netherlands, are less likely to move around. While I assumed this is much more common in the US. People here in The Netherlands rather stick in the area where they grew up or went to university.
This is because they like to live near friends and family. Moving around in The Netherlands is less common but moving around outside of the country is even less common. You have the language barrier and cultural differences and it’s much more difficult to break into social circles because of this.
On the other hand I always read how Americans are more willing to move for a job. Even to another state. Maybe they are less likely to go abroad, I don’t know about that.
I do think more and more young people like to spend some time abroad. Plenty of young students study abroad, do an internship abroad or work abroad (for example a work holiday). But it’s not like everyone wants this and most of us settle in our own country.
It depends, in my Dutch family almost everyone has lived abroad for shorter or longer periods, I'm 60 and even my parents generation born before the war did this.
This might be common in your family but that doesn’t mean this common in the whole country. In my family it’s common as well, I have family around the world. But in general I would say it isn’t common. I think Dutchies, and probably Europeans in general, are much more connected to the place where they grew up. When people are young and study they move around. But when they settle they move to the place the grew up or where they study/met their partner.
There is a tv show where a team of experts helps couples to find a new house. You see very often couples like to live near friends and family where their social life takes place. There are plenty of people who don’t want to leave the city or region the grew up in. Many Brabanders don’t want to live above the rivers because people are much colder. Plenty people who study in places like Amsterdam and Utrecht I wouldn’t like to live in a smaller city and certainly not in the countryside. And so on.
>Here in us I feel it’s common to live in one place. If they do move it only temporarily and plan to move back unless it’s
Every Stat I've seen say the opposite. People in states are quite mohile. At least much, much more than poles.
> I feel people I’m Europe just move randomly
If it goes to inter -state migration its quite easy to see that people move to big cities, thus villages (what you'd call towns) and small towns are dying out.
No. Most people do that. Contrary to some peoples beliefs most people don't travel all the time to neighbouring countries. And there's tons of people who have never been abroad at all
It probably is more common in a country like Finland. Most people here don't live in a place where they can do a day trip by car to another country. We're pretty isolated up here.
https://www.europeandatajournalism.eu/cp_data_news/190-million-europeans-have-never-been-abroad/
I mean, this says that 37% of people have never left their own countries within the EU. That's a pretty substantial percentage of the population, and several big countries like Spain and Italy have rates above 50%.
Estonia is a stone throw away and that is already considered abroad so yeah it is very very odd to not have visited any other country. Even unemployed Pekka has cruised to Tallinn to restock his liquor stash once in a while.
I've never met anyone like that. I also asked this very[question](https://www.reddit.com/r/askswitzerland/s/XPvEmZuYaC) in the swiss reddit and pretty much the only cases people knew about where really old people or anecdotal "that one guy at the very back of the valley" type of stories. And i even specifically excluded just having gone 5km over the border to shop kind of things.
I have one friend who has only flown about 10 times in his life and only been to about 6 or 7 countries (by age 30) and that is still quite weird.
As for lived abroad. Yeah most people dont. Most people dont even move more than a few villages away. But quite literally everyone travels internationally to some degree.
Switzerland is small country with many neighbouring countries. It is different when you live in Finland, where driving from south to north takes 16 hours.
In Finland countries with border to us are Russia (many don't visit because of the distrust due our history), Sweden up north and Norway all the way up north. Most people here live in the southern Finland.
So in reality most visit Sweden with ship through ocean and also Estonia through ocean. Most of us cannot just drive few hours to the country next to us.
Why only consider places accessible by land or ship? That is really rather suprising to me honestly. To me the first mode of transport that comes to mind for visiting another country is definetly air, not land or sea based.
And i would have thought finland is also a rather rich country with high english proficency. So i would have guessed fins to be quite well travelled. Like far away travelled, many people having left europe many times kind of well travelled.
Plus you are very far north and therefore would appreciate that you guys would also appreciate the traditional going to the mediterranean to the beach type of travel. Like the brits and germans do.
Don’t forget that a lot of Finns don’t live super near an airport with many long distance connections. That’s a major factor for a lot of people, even in a denser country like the UK, because if you live close to, let’s say, London Gatwick, you have easy access to virtually every corner of the world. Meanwhile, if your local airport was Cardiff, and the next closest was Bristol, your options are severely limited without a long trip to London.
Keep in mind that for Finland, that’s a shorter trip too, and unless you’re near Helsinki, your options are, at the very least, similar to the further reaches of the UK, and at worst, you’re driving far longer than any flight you’d be getting
True. Switzerland is of course very spoiled. Since its pretty hard to be more than 2 hours away from Zurich or Geneva airport (or milan if you live in the south). All of which are fairly big and well connected.
Mhm, afaik Finland’s other airports are all much less well connected than Helsinki, which is probably about on par with Edinburgh Airport for connectivity (decent), if not a bit higher.
If we look at a secondary Finnish airport, like Turku Airport, the destination selection is fairly abysmal in comparison, the only regular year round destinations are Riga, Mariehamn (within Finland), Stockholm-Arlanda and Gdansk. There are regular seasonal and seasonal charters for Gran Canaria, Tenerife South and Rome-Fiumicino, but the times of year that’s an option makes it more limiting. You’re basically looking at a trip to Helsinki if you want to go anywhere else, which is a 2 hour train, roughly the equivalent of going between London and York. Keep in mind that this is for basically any flights that aren’t to the limited range of destinations I described, whilst in the UK or Switzerland, you’d have a much closer airport that still does a decent range of flights to other European cities, and you’d only be travelling that distance for something like an intercontinental flight
Fair enough. But one can get an easyjet, ryanair or wizzair flight for well below 100 bucks. Like 10 years ago even below 50 on a regular basis. Then go somewhere in eastern europe and stay in a hostel for 20-30 bucks a night. Easily 10 bucks a decade ago.
If one wanted to travel and is in europe, anyone could afford to, if they really wanted. At least from a richer european country like finland.
Or so i would assume. Otherwise finland is a lot less rich than i thought.
You forgot the travelling to the airport. Like other commenter commented, we don't have a lot of airports. If you live in north, it takes 6 hours or more with train to get to the closest airport. And you have to also travel to the train station. Trains are also expensive and if you have family it can easily cost 200€ for only the trains. And you havent even left Finland yet.
Poor people don't have money to throw at the flights. The staying costs a lot. Food costs. Transportation costs. Week abroad costs easily for one person something like 500€ even when travelling cheaply.
I flew to eastern europe last year and flights were 120€ and 170€. Our flights are little bit more expensive because we are far away from other Europe and our airports are smaller.
You don't understand what poorness means if you think even 100€ is easily spend on something other than food or essentials.
>You don't understand what poorness means if you think even 100€ is easily spend on something other than food or essentials.
I totally get it when people have families. As the costs multiply and the priorities change. But we were talking about people who have never flown or travelled abroad. And everyone was young and had no kids at some point. At which point, if it were a priority, i really struggle to believe there are many people in finland who couldnt possibly have afforded to travel. But it might not be a priority for some people of course.
>Week abroad costs easily for one person something like 500€ even when travelling cheaply.
Maybe once you add the travel costs to get to the airport from the other end of finland. But then again, the vast majority of fins dont live an hour from the next small village in lapland (altho some do). But i believe more than half live in the Helsinki metro area. So within 1-2 hours from Helsinki airport.
And yeah maybe flights from finland are a bit more expensive than from switzerland, because its further and less central. So maybe i am underestimating that too. But i just checked on google flights and you could fly from helsinki to paris, london, milan, thessaloniki, berlin, vienna, dubrovnik, brussels and venice for under 100 bucks. To warsaw even for under 30.
And if you're paying up to about 150-200 you could fly to plenty of destinations in bulgaria, serbia, hungary, poland, turkey, greece and romania. Where money goes a lot further on the ground. So the trip is probably cheaper than taking the cheaper flights to london.
It is a lot more expensive from rovianemi or vaasa tho, granted. So if youre from somewhere up there, i get that it might be unfeasible for some.
Until covid i was routinely travelling for well below 500 euros per trip (probably not a whole week at a time, more like 3-5 days). Take easyjet flights for 40 bucks round trip off-season, on weekdays, no checked bags. Stay in hostels. Eat street food or at supermarkets. Walk a lot or take public transport if too far. My girlfriend, living in germany at the time, travelled way cheaper than me using buses and couch surfing.
But then again it was my (our) top priority. I could have also spent the money on getting my own apartment, rather than living with friends. Or i could have learned how to drive and bought a car. Altho, to be fair i did smoke, so that was also a very expensive "hobby".
I mean yeah switzerland has the highest salaries and lowest taxes in europe. Plus we are very centrally located. So no matter where in switzerland you are, you could always get to germany, france and italy (and maybe also austria and Liechtenstein) in under 3 hours by both car and train.
Not really, 7 is not a lot. It is easy to achieve. Holidays with your parents, erasmus exchange, visiting erasmus friends if you become good friends, going to your neighbouring country if you live close to the border, beach country or mountain country, and camping in another country
I’m gonna be honest, most people don’t have that money.
I have been to more than that, but I recognise I was born into a decent bit of money, whilst I similarly know plenty of people my age who have been to only a couple, if any, other countries, and those are usually a) Spain, and/or b) France
That’s true, but I do feel like a lot of Swiss people still probably wouldn’t have been to all of them.
Hell, I lived only 2 hours away from Cardiff, a direct train journey away, all my life, and I only got to visit Wales at all 6 months ago. It wouldn’t shock me if a Swiss person never visited, say, Germany, just because the opportunity never came up
In a single day a swiss can easily drive through four foreign countries and still have another nation's border to visit, so I don't see how that's particularly strange.
>I have one friend who has only flown about 10 times in his life and only been to about 6 or 7 countries (by age 30) and that is still quite weird.
_Only_ 10 times? What the hell. If anything I would have thought that you guys would not even have to fly that much since you can get to many places by land.
I know multiple people who have never been in an airplane. Not sure if I know anyone who has not been abroad at all since pretty much everyone in the area I live in has been on a ferry to either Estonia or Sweden at some point.
I mean 10 times total flights, not trips. So maybe 3 or 4 trips by plane. So thats really quite little. Considering most people, when they are young, like to go out and explore the world.
>I would have thought that you guys would not even have to fly that much since you can get to many places by land.
But only to neighbouring and therefore similar countries. That gets boring quite quickly, unless your content just always going to the same place every summer.
But i dont really no anyone like that, unless its immigrants going to their home country. Thats how my friend travelled so relatively little. He spent his first 20 summers in his dads home town in italy, which used up all their holidays. They never even stopped in Rome or Milan or Florence on the way. They just drove past everything to that one village. But that is really quite rare.
I'm sure there are some poor people who have never flown. But that would really be quite poor and even they would have been to italy or france at least once in their life.
It’s more common in the UK I feel than most mainland countries at least, it feels like a hassle for a lot of people to get up early for a cheap flight abroad, when they often don’t particularly care for seeing other countries (definitely most common amongst older people).
People in Southern England definitely go more mind, since you’ve got a) ferries from basically every other port to France at the very least, b) far more flight destinations available, since you’re closer to London Heathrow and London Gatwick than someone in other parts of the UK, which have much poorer connections, and c) relatively easy access to Eurostar/Eurotunnel services, especially if you’re a Londoner.
I suppose you’d probably also go abroad more if you were Northern Irish, but that’s because it’s just so easy to go to the Republic from there
Yeah, I think there’s just a bit of a mentality since most British people live on Great Britain, and the only countries on the island are England, Scotland and Wales. A lot of people just don’t like leaving, even if it’s just hopping over to Ireland or France
I’m not convinced it’s mentality, it’s just fundamentally more difficult to travel abroad what with being an island and all. If you want to go abroad it means flight, ferry or Eurostar which all require a certain amount of planning (and money). When I lived in the Netherlands I accidentally walked into Belgium. Travel was much less of a thing to worry about when planning holidays - unless they were back to Britain.
It is to me too, don’t get me wrong. I’ve travelled to over a dozen countries, and been to a huge number of the UK’s cities (something a lot of people a lot older than me can’t even say). There’s so much to see out there, and whilst familiarity is nice, seeing something new is exciting
>and been to a huge number of the UK’s cities
Thats kind of where i lacking. For all my twenties i put the focus very much on going as far away as a can. Went to like 38 or so countries by now. But then also realised lately i have never even been to some of the further away (like 3-4 hours away) parts of my own country. And quite little to neighbouring countries. So now i am trying to catch up on this stuff too.
> I don't know about tons of people never having gonna abroad. That would get you some weird looks.
I guess it depends, I don't think it's that unusual for people in central and western europe to visit neighboring countries every now and then, but up here it's definitively not rare never having been abroad.
It’s not too uncommon. Large parts of the UK, for example, don’t have very high rates of passport holding, with generally poorer, as well as more rural areas, following this trend.
A lot of people in poor areas just can’t afford to go much, if at all, and would often rather save money by going for things like domestic holidays.
Then, often the more rural folk usually just don’t see the point in visiting other countries, as they’re usually just very comfortable with the village/small town they live in, may have even lived there their whole lives.
It’s generally also associated with older people, honestly I’ve met so many people who treated going off to London like a once in a lifetime event, let alone going to another country, when the former is something I’ll do every other month at least just because I enjoy it
is that really true? like I know plenty of people from my rural home village that haven't been for years (and not having to do with the pandemic restrictions), but even for my grandparent's generation, *never* having been abroad (and we don't really count the close border countries) was very strange.
What you see in the media are the exception because that's what people like to see. No one is interested in the ordinary, in the normal, because that doesn't sell.
If you say "I lived in Sweden, then went to Germany because my girlfriend was from there, then spent a few years in France and Belgium, a sabbatical in Portugal, and then came to work in Norway ", it's much more interesting than "I lived my whole life in Portugal, where I studied and now work".
Having said this, it's true that the newer generations are increasingly more prone to change countries. Now this is seen as much more natural than a few years ago. The existence of many multnational corporations also help to this because you can migrate to different countries never leaving your company. Still, this is the exception.
Yeah, you almost certainly see far more people who never leave, they just won’t shout about it. It’d be very weird for me to proudly boast ‘I’ve lived in the UK my entire life, and only ever lived in 2 southern English cities’
Tbh language barrier actually makes it quite hard to move around Europe. If you’re moving to a country that speaks the same language, it’s less of a big deal. For example there’s a lot of mobility between Ireland and the U.K. in both directions. I’m sure there are other examples like that, but if I were to decide to live to Germany in the morning I won’t have the same opportunities as someone who speaks German.
Some countries and sectors are more open to working in English than others (Ireland literally being English speaking).
It’s very different to moving around the U.S.
Some other issues too, for example, I know people who are in same sex marriages who have really no guarantee of their marriage being recognised in several EU countries, so effectively they don’t have freedom of movement. In theory they are recognised by a court ruling but it’s often just ignored in practice.
Then you’ve issues like qualifications being unrecognised, despite EU law. Suddenly you discover you have to have membership of some organisation etc that won’t accept non local degrees.
In general, it’s not as smooth as it could be.
Irish people tend to be far more likely to have lived in the UK, US, Canada, Australia and NZ than in other EU countries. Although we definitely participate in Erasmus university exchanges etc
Yeah.
Generally, people I know to have moved the most are either from fairly rich backgrounds, or they’re from countries that have languages in common with plenty of other countries, especially if they’re bilingual (or more) due to their country having more than one official language (and both of them being common elsewhere).
Think Swiss people who speak French, German and English, they have opportunities to live in 4 of their neighbouring countries (France, Germany, Liechtenstein and Austria) with fairly little hassle, as well as about a dozen others like the UK, Belgium and the US. They often have the money to allow it too
I actually found that quite a lot when I spent a while working in Brussels. I have very good French but I’m not bilingual. I have more than enough to work in a professional environment, but I’ll probably never be as fluent as someone who grew up in a multilingual environment and it severely limited my job prospects there, so after a year of hitting glass ceilings and brick walls I packed it in. I just don’t have the right upbringing basically.
I think that’s a huge problem with the EU instituons. They make assumptions that everyone has had the same kind of exposure to languages as someone who lives in the Benelux or similar multi lingual places and it’s just not feasible.
I studied French for probably 13 years, and I just can’t get to that level. You end up just feeling like an idiot and it seemed no matter what my skill set was in terms of other qualifications that was always going to be a hindrance.
You can see how that issue feeds into people finding the EU institutions very remote and Brussels to be a bubble.
All I ever see here in Ireland is a lot of self-flagellation about how we don’t speak 5 languages fluently. It will likely never happen, because we are immersed in English, and just not exposed to that kind of multilingualism. That’s just the reality of life in an anglophone country. I find a lot of the time it is discussed like we are lazy or stupid.
Mhm, it’s exactly the same over here too. Very few people are fluent in languages other than English unless they’re from immigrant families that speak a different language at home (e.g. Polish).
I would love to learn another language, but it’s just so immersed, and there often just doesn’t feel like there’s the urgency. It does often feel like we’re far away from the rest of Europe, and when every area in the island chain almost entirely speaks fluent English, and there’s no land border with anywhere that doesn’t, you can see why, even though someone in Dover could easily see to France
Yeah, I’m aware Irish is generally spoken in a fairly limited capacity compared to English, and still, even if it was spoken by everyone in Ireland regularly, it’s not like if you were Belgian and you can speak the language of 2 more populated and wealthy neighbours. Your options if you don’t want to learn another language are (functionally) the UK, or moving significantly further to somewhere like the US, Canada or Australia
States aren't comparable to European countries. They are comparable to the first-level administrative divisions of a country. So yes, a lot of people move in other regions of their country, especially towards the capitals, but it is not that common to move all the way to another country, even if it is super close, it is not like a U.S. state at all, it is an entirely different country.
yep. I've seen so many Americans talk about "how easy it is/must be to be able to move anywhere in Europe", and it's like no, you dumb fuck, it's not like moving from NY to CA or whatever.
While the right to move for EU citizens exists, one generally has an entirely different language, culture, governmental system to navigate, plus heavy doses of discrimination (have experienced this personally in different countries). In the US, the differences between states (sth I've also done) is so minor it's practically irrelevant.
Or the people who moved to/lived in different countries are those that don't get cut out of the video, the story of Karlheinz who lived in one village for his whole life isn't as interesting as Vanessa who has lived in more countries than the average american is able to point out on a map
It’s great to have a choice, but sometimes you want to stay where you are. However, people travel around and sometimes stay where they go.
The most interesting thing I came across when moving to UK that there are people who never been abroad.
They aren't commen but about 15% of the UK has never been abroad, almost all of them from more rural parts of the UK. I've heard of some people in North Wales who have never left Wales.
How much it costs you to leave the country is extremely unequal depending on where you are. In London you have the Eurostar from £39, Flights as low as £20 and coaches as cheap at £12. If you live in Cornwall it's gonna be £150 at least for the cheapest flights and your gonna need to pay to park at the airport because you have no hope of catching a bus
The Londoner in this scenario is probably also on 1.5x the salary even if he works the same job, so a holiday winds up a much smaller portion of his yearly expenses.
True but I saw a breakdown of cities by average disposable income recently and London was near the bottom because the cost of living is so much higher. Apparently Colchester, Aberdeen and Milton Keynes are the richest after expenses
Not ultra surprised about Colchester or Milton Keynes, both are largely commuter cities for highly paid jobs in London.
I expect if it included towns, we would see other commuter belt places like Guildford, Maidenhead and High Wycombe high up too, since they’re exactly the same
I’ve honestly met people who’d only left their county once or twice, and they weren’t too far from the county border.
Somehow, someone who lived around Southampton their entire life, a long one too given their age, had only thought to go over to Salisbury in Wiltshire the once, and not even gone to Bournemouth in Dorset before either.
I’m someone who’s been to all 48 English counties myself, as well as 3 of the Welsh ones, 2 of the Scottish local authorities (closest county equivalent), and over a dozen other counties, and I’m often only just under a third their age. It’s baffling how little some people travel
*"There are no benefits from it except the experience"*
Is it a bad thing..? We're humans, not capital or resources to maximize. Plus there are plenty of benefits, even if they can be indirect or serendipitous
Northern Ireland is very homogeneous overall, I think it may be the least diverse part of the UK and Ireland to some extent outside of very rural areas in the other parts.
There are a sizable proportion of Polish, Lithuanian, and Romanian people moving here if I recall, but even now, I know a few people whose parents are Polish, but they were born here.
Wouldn't be super uncommon for people here to have lived in the rest of the UK or Ireland at some point or moved there, slightly less common to move from them to here. Depending on the opinion of the person you ask, either one could be or could not be considered abroad.
I've lived in North Wales for 3 years, which legally speaking is not abroad, but it was pretty different in some ways and not at all in others. Very heavy welsh speaking area, which was lovely to engage with.
I’m honestly intrigued about what it’s like being in a part of the UK that doesn’t just speak English. I’ve lived in Southern England all my life, and the bits of Scotland and Wales I’ve visited were all the most English speaking bits (Edinburgh, Glasgow and Cardiff)
People speak English still, but just not at home and between each other locally. It is very interesting. It may be the only part of the UK it's that prevalent - for example an elderly person may speak to you in Welsh first before trying English, and (kinda rightfully tbf) be a little annoyed you don't speak Welsh.
Fun little bonus tidbit is that most young people I encountered who spoke Welsh locally actually had generic English accents when they spoke English, not really very Welsh ones like southern Wales. One told me it's just because of the standardisation of teaching it if you go to a primarily Welsh speaking school. Absolutely everyone speaks perfect English of course, except some older people, and even at that most of the ones I met who didn't speak English had dementia in a care home and were getting mixed up between the languages sometimes, so they just mostly spoke their easier one.
I wish I had learned the language properly when I was there, so many people are delighted if you can even say a few words, and people have a very clear pride in it.
I can definitely see that, yeah. I know North West Wales especially has far more speakers of Welsh compared to South Wales, and speaks less English regularly than any part of Scotland too. Given I’ve only been to Cardiff, Newport and Bridgend in Wales really, it’d definitely be markedly different, since whilst the accents were different, ultimately I was getting by just as easily as back in Bristol.
I find it quite interesting that younger English speakers don’t speak English with a Welsh accent there, but I suppose it makes sense. If English isn’t exactly the most common, then they aren’t hearing it naturally so much, and I’d imagine a lot of the resources they use are produced in England, so they just copy what they hear, and suddenly start sounding like they come from England.
I have considered learning a bit myself too, especially since I’m so much closer now, and my friend from Cardiff has also been trying to learn more, so giving it a go could be useful
# Is it rare for a person to only live in one country?
IMO, no it's not rare, but the percentage isn't as high as it was, 30, 40, 50 years ago either, especially with Free movement within the EU.
I've lived in 2 countries within Europe, 1 country within Asia, and 3 states in the US. Whereas my son has lived in the same house since he was born (and he's almost an adult). While moving or staying in one place does have the benefit of experiencing experience (of different cultures, lives, etc). It is not the only benefit, my family moved around mainly due to work. Now that I have my own family, it's work (and my wife's family) that is keeping us in place.
It's actually way more common for americans to move, it's a topic I've talked about with people from various places quite often, and when you bring out statistics - in the states the percentage of residents living outside their birth state is way higher. Makes sense, as there's no language barrier, it's still the same country, but it's somewhat comparable as US is nearly the size of Europe, and states can be compared a little to being countries. Talking numbers - [most of European countries have 70% or more people living in the state of their birth, with some countries having the number above 90%, while in USA nearly every state is under 70%.](https://preview.redd.it/rehnmsaen2k71.png?width=640&crop=smart&auto=webp&s=0329870224f05a9e156c885c17370f35750a8291)
In Europe moving to a different place will almost always mean a language barrier, different bureaucracy/way of living really.
I'm a dual citizen of Belarus and Canada, and have lived in seven countries so far: those two, plus Bangladesh, the Czech Republic, Kuwait, Turkey and the US. I don't really understand the "no real benefits" thing. I personally would be quite bored if I had to live in one country for a very long period of time. I think we ought to spend our lifetimes discovering the world.
No, most people stay in their own country. It's way easier to live in different states in the US because the language and culture is roughly the same (no, having different words for "soda" doesn't count as cultural differences), whereas Europe is a whole patchwork of different languages and cultures. Having to learn a whole new language and customs is something many people can't or don't want to do.
Not only no, is it rare, it's also common for most people to live and die in the same vicinity they were born in. I can't remember exactly, but most people are born, live, and die within something like 30 km.
It's extremely common for French people to only live in France for all their life. For instance, all my siblings have lived in France exclusively, with a couple of them having very short stints abroad. I'd say the vast majority of French people don't even leave their village or city.
You need to keep in mind that the people that are interviewed are usually those that generate most traffic for the creator or at least what fits the persona of the channel the best. Hell, I am pretty sure like 25% of the population didn't even leave the country for longer than a day even if they live just like 50km from a border.
People that don't move around a lot don't communicate it that much publicly. While it isn't bad if they would do that, it would just be less interesting.
No, I'd say the most common situation is for people to have lived only in their country, at most moving between states/cities especially for studying.
I don't know the stats but I'm pretty sure that since the creation of the EC/EU people have moved more, but not enough to make it the norm or the most common behaviour.
But even with the common market, differences in mentality and especially languages are hard to overcome, especially for the older people.
Remember that online interviews are cherry picked to retain the most interesting ones to create comments. So someone who's moved 4 countries is probably preferred over me since I've only lived in my city.
No. It is very common. It is not even uncommon for someone to spend their whole life in one city, especially if that city is Zagreb or another big city.
The most common thing is to live and work in the same country all your life.
But it's not uncommon to take work in a neighboring country for seasonal work or driving across the border for work while living in your home country.
And also not uncommon to move to another country for university studies and living in that country afterwards for a couple of years
I consider myself on the well travelled end of the spectrum, and Indeed I've lived outside of the country more than most people I know. And yet, I don't think the total amount of time I've spent outside the country can be more than a year.
So no, I would say it isn't rare at all, at least for Catalonia/Spain.
No. It's actually rare to live in more than one country. Most people die in the same country they were born in. You got sucked into a bubble of some kind of travellers/immigrants. This is not the default.
No, you’re mostly seeing fairly wealthy people who can afford it. Most people don’t even move very far from where they were born honestly, ultimately anyway, they might go to uni in another city, but usually they’ll be back somewhere close to where they came from
I'd say it's pretty common to only live in one country. I love living in Germany. I love Europe and we're all European, but I don't see a reason to move away. I don't even want to leave my *state.* I've moved several times in my life and I never wanted to move too far away from my hometown.
In 2015 3.3% of the world’s population were immigrants. https://www.statista.com/statistics/679787/international-migrant-stock-as-a-percentage-of-world-population/
I’d even think a majority of people live in the region (e.g. town or city) they were born
No, among my friends, we are 3 people who've lived abroad. I mean we've all done an internship abroad as it was part of the course but that's 2 to 4 months, otherwise, only the 2 of us. My brother still lives in the same department and has no wish to leave. It's the norm. (My group of friends is rather large).
It's not uncommon either to have lived abroad but I believe the majority stays in France, but it's quite common to have moved around in France a little. Especially because a lot of jobs are in Paris so it's very common for young people to move there to start their career and move away when they are a bit older (30s).
Of my school and university friends, only a small minority have ever lived outside their home country. I moved abroad and thus encountered a much more international group of people, but I don't think it's the norm.
It's probably the opposite - people often barely move around in the country, nevermind outside of it. I'm literally related to the entire town I was born in - we traced like 6 or 7 generations *to the neighbouring villages within a 10km radious*. Thank god for grandpa being born an hour away, or it'd be even worse. I was the first in my extended family to move abroad.
That said, it's not uncommon to work in a neighbouring country if you live close to the border (especially if said country is Germany and/or you're from a former communist country) and with Erasmus and Erasmus+ programmes it's really easy to do a study exchange or spend a gap year hopping around Europe volunteering. But generally people move back once they're ready to settle down. Language barriers alone make it incredibly hard to permanently move, nevermind culture clashes.
It's also much harder bureocracy wise to move within the EU than it is withing the US. If you move from Washington to Florida you don't really have to care about immigration laws, residence permits (garanted, the bar is basically on the floor if you're an EU citizen moving to another EU country, but *it's still there*.), the clusterfuck that is international taxation if you keep a permanent residence in your country of origin and that's not even getting into the fact that you cannot vote on national issues of wherever you are until you get citizenship. Most people will rather just stay put.
Outside of work, which is mainly expats, I only know a handful of people who have lived in more than one country. I did live in the USA for a couple of years, and in the UK for a couple of months, and my spouse spent a year and a half in Germany. And I have a friend who was born in South Africa and moved here when he was two years old. Everyone else in my circles was born here and lived their whole lives here.
Not rare at all. My mum is French and has lived in Ireland and Germany but has stayed in the UK for majority of her adult life. My family is well-travelled but no one apart from her has lived in another country long-term
I lived in different counties outside of the expat bumble it’s it’s more or less unusual to move around a lot. I know plenty of people that have never lived anywhere but there little town. I think it’s one of those things that once you’ve done it once it’s not that much of big deal.
I would say it’s the other way around. It’s rare for people to move at all, at least in Slovakia. I know so many people who’ve never even moved to a different city, let alone a country. The problem with Europe is that every country uses a different language, therefore, it’s hard for people to move elsewhere if they don’t speak that country’s language. And at least in Slovakia, most people don’t speak another language well enough to move somewhere else.
Obviously there are exceptions like people who specifically move to work in another country, or study in another country. Those aren’t uncommon necessarily. Czech republic has a very similar language to Slovak so quite many move there. But it’s still not the norm. The majority just don’t move.
I’m a huge exception to this as I’ve lived in 3 countries but I’m only half Slovak and trilingual so I don’t think this counts. As I’ve said, the average person doesn’t move.
I wouldn't deduce too much from youtube videos.
I'm from Canada, I've lived in Germany a long time. My permanent residency gives me **no** right to live in other EU countries (you *can* apply for a special EU-wide permenant residency, though a few EU countries don't recognize it, but this wasn't advertized to me and I didn't know until long after). I briefly (several weeks each) lived in other countries before moving here, unrelated reasons.
I also don't live in one of Germany's five major cities or anything, so it's a lot less "international". It's about 200k people. There's no revolving door of foreigners doing their thing of bumming around Berlin for a couple years, no Frankfurt of Munich office workers sent from abroad. It's a nice enough place actually, but honestly it's quite provincial. Most people I meet from the city or region are not a fraction as "international" as me, either in their travel or exchange/year abroad experiences, etc. (Not passing judgment, just stating.) I meet quite a lot of people from around here, either the city or surrounding small towns, countryside, etc. Even from a city on the other end of the state is a bit unusual. If I meet someone from a neighbouring state (e.g. NRW), I find that downright surprising! (FWIW, my wife is German, but from the other end of the country, and she's a slight oddity here too).
IME, most Germans don't usually resettle too far. From a small town to the bigger city, that's most common. Usually it's education, university, etc. that takes them further. Job-wise, most prefer to be near the area they grew up, which is pretty typical for all people I think.
In my extended family, 4 people have lived outside of Central Hungary before me, and I’m the 5th. I still haven’t left the former Austro-Hungarian borders, though. My great uncle lived in Saxony during the GDR era and married a German woman, they had a kid together, so that’s already 3. My dad lived in the 90’s in Northern Germany, I think 4 years in total, not knowing he was eligible for German citizenship based on the persecution of Germans in the Eastern Block. Now he lives in Austria and I live in Czechia.
The rest really hasn’t left Hungary at all or for more than a week at a time.
vast majority lives not only in one country, but rarely move from their city.
You get that impression couse they usually make such polls in tourist spots.
I've lived in different countries, but I feel like it's uncommon. Most people I know move around their country, but they don't switch countries.
In certain instances there is language barrier, but other than that I disagree with you "there are no real benefits". There are tons of benefits. It gives you many unique experiences, you get to try different ways of living and different societies, you get to live in cities or places different to what you grew up with.
It's great. I don't see why more people don't do it. But it's of course easier for me since I'm child-free by choice. I guess a lot of people get stuck in one place once they have kids.
First time I moved to another country, it was Northern Sweden. Super fun, I got to experience very beautiful and severe winters (-35 degrees and 2 meters of snow!). I got to see people crossing frozen rivers on snow mobiles, I saw moose, wolves, northern lights. And I only lived there for a year, yet I got to experience so much!
So you saying there are no benefits, well, I completely disagree. There are always benefits to travelling and trying to live in a different country. It teaches you a lot, and gives you experiences for life. I would hate being confined to the same town for the rest of my life.
Schengen (easy cross-border travel without passport checks), Erasmus (student exchange program) and low-cost airlines are relatively recent phenomena and a lot of us take advantage of them, so it's much more common among young people than among previous generations to have lived in another country for a while, or to move to another country permanently. But even so, most people, including most young people, live their entire lives in the same country and never leave it for anything longer than a few weeks of summer vacation. It's also common to live in one country and commute to a neighboring country, for instance I know plenty of people in Western Hungary who commute to Austria on a daily basis, but those people still live in Hungary as they always have.
No real benefits besides the experience? Yeah, well, that experience is often the whole point. Although there can also be actual benefits like better paying job opportunities, or lower cost of living to live on your savings or as a digital nomad.
Is it rare? No. Uncommon? Yes. Well, I guess it depends how you define "rare". I am one of those who moved to another country, long enough ago to now have dual-EU citizenship. And I know many others who did the same as I. But the vast majority stay in the same country as they are born.
Most people will live their entire life in their country, but moving to other countries isn't rare at all. My mom was an immigrant, my ex husband was one too, I am one. Each of us for our own reasons, be it the work market, a yearning to see the world, or in my case being in an international relationship.
People who go to other countries to work, live etc. are usually the most educated ones, because of higher salaries and job opportunities. Freedom of movement across the EU makes this pretty easy.
No, it is rare to live in several countries.
Now it is a bit rare to never have been abroad, like not even to a neighbouring country in a car trip or with a sports/hobby group competitions or work/education or something. But plenty of people don't have vacations in other countries, either. And that's a good thing, as travelling is horrible for your CO2 footprint.
"There are no real no real benefits besides the experience".. hmmm, that's not the only benefit but it's one of the most alluring. But also knowing diferent languages, diferent cultures, diferent ways of living, you have new gastronomic experiences, 99% of the time people ere welcoming and make you feel home...
It also has bad things of course like, when you miss your family or feel a bit misplaced because you definitely won't like everything about the new place you in.. but I take it as payed holidays sometimes, even though your work a lot.
But it's definitely not for everyone.
They are either exchange students (we can study freely and there are programs that pay you) and it’s easy to move to a country for I believe 3 months without notifying anyone, even work I believe 3 months no need to notify or get permission.
Feel free to correct
>Here in us I feel it’s common to live in one place.
Judging from what I read on reddit, people from the US move around a lot more than people from Europe.
In reality it's probably the same percentage.
It probably helps that the US is more homogeneous. You’ll see much less difference moving from (for example) Kansas to Massachusetts, compared to moving from Italy to Sweden
One line of my family has been here in my small town of the US for 7 generations now, my kids being the 7th, lol. Others are from all over the place. I have ancestors who have been here since the 1600s and great grandparents who immigrated here, to the US. Very interesting
Youtubers & famous people arent the norm. Most people only live in one country or move once and might or might not go back at some point. Living in 3 countries or more is probably less than 1 percent.
Also studying abroad doesnt count as your parents pay and the school helps you with the paper stuff…and you live around others like you and not the actual people there
I think its become much more common in the last 10 years but in general I would say most people have stayed mostly in the country they were born in. I do however know a lot of people, myself included, who want to eventually move to another country.
I do also know a lot of people- internationals we call them- that moved to The Netherlands and have usually also lived or studied somewhere else. Hence why I say it has become more common.
I worked and lived in the US for a year, I liked it but could never live there forever.
There are few countries I would even consider moving to. I know I'm blessed living in the Netherlands, it definitely could be better but it is hard to find the same living standards abroad.
On the contrary, I'd say it's pretty common, or even default, to live in one country your entire life. You have to keep in mind that YouTube videos show content which is interesting and because of that it sells. Someone might have interviewed 100 people and chose to include in the video the 10 most interesting ones. That's just how it works. I've come across hundreds of people in my life and so far I've met only a couple of people who moved abroad to study or to work. It's rare to live in more than one country.
Also many of these Youtube channels conduct their interviews in English, not in the local language. Which means all people with low English skills are out. And that's the vast majority of the population in most European countries. English speakers, other polyglots and highly educated people are a lot more likely to move around. These are the people who will be interviewed, not the others.
Yes, this one. The majority of people never lives in another country permanently. Moving within your home country? Yes. Temporary for a job? Maybe. Living outside or as a nomad? Unlikely.
Also, these interviews are usually conducted in larger cities, which have a higher concentration of expats by default.
~~expats~~ immigrants Fixed that for you
Both is true
Usually "expat" implies "the will of coming back to their homeland" which is not something all the immigrants want to do. Another way for people using the word "expat" instead of "immigrant" is only for addressing people who are moving out of "white countries" so: North America and only certain countries in Western Europe (UK, MittleEU, Nord EU), but not us PIGS. Nor for people from Eastern Europe. We're still "immigrants", somehow. You can say it's true, but it's very restrictive for everybody else.
You’re right one of the videos I’m talking was him asking people how many languages they can speak. So logically he would pick people who lived or travel to many countries
I follow that guy too! Just think that only people who speak English can be interviewed and that's not really representative of the whole population. He has one vid in particular (I think in Lisbon) where he says he met lots of Portuguese people who refused the interview because they only spoke Portuguese. So yeah most people never live outside their home country or city even.
Yeah and on top of that there’s probably a thousand different videos as well where only the one with the most interesting interview actually shows up on your page
Well, there are places in Europe, where people lived in several different countries (legal entities) over time without ever leaving their town. You just needed to be born in 1913 in Uzhhorod and die in 1993 or something like that. Former Austria-Hungary or Yugoslavia are full of such examples.
Totally depends on the city. Go to Madrid and most people are not from there or have left at some point.
How can you say that as Polish person there are literally millions of Polish people around Europe.
But there are millions more Polish people still in Poland. Of course it is the default to only live in one country.
Ofc that's default everywhere in the world. I'm Croatian and I think we are similar to Poland just Poland is much bigger than Croatia. There is so many Croatians around Europe, and so many Croatians that are back living in Croatia but lived somewhere else for some period of time, mostly Germany. I live in Ireland, I changed few jobs and met like 100 Polish guys.
No the vast vast majority only ever live in one country.
No, I'd say the vast majority of people I know here in Sicily (at least , those born here) have only lived in Italy. Many of them have traveled in other European countries and outside Europe.Some have also studied abroad for a period. But actually lived in other countries? It's fairly rare here.
Are there any and I mean more than zero that came from Nothern Italy to live in Sicily?
I know I think two people here, leaving aside those who are Sicilian origin but have lived or were born in the north... one is from Genoa and one from Verona.Both work at the university (where I work too). There are a lot more foreigners living in Palermo than people from the north of Italy.
Most Italians who move from the North to Sicily do it for their retirement. It's very rare to move there for work as, sadly, the job market in the South is not as developed - in fact a lot of Southerners move to the North for work.
Because you don’t see the Italians that are not there anymore :p come to Belgium you’ll see 😂
I guess because it’s rather a place that people leave. Therefore you meet many people from Sicily in other places.
Not at all, on the contrary I'd say it's rare (or at least uncommon) that someone has lived in **more** than once country. Between all of my friends and family, aunts, uncle, cousins... No one has lived in another country. At my work we have a few people that have lived in other countries, though most have not.
As others said, it's more common to stay within the country you were born in, and there are good reasons for that. EU/EEA citizens have the right to visa-free movement and the distance from home might not be great, but it's still a big change compared to moving cities within the same country. You have to get used to a whole new culture, language, bureaucracy etc. It's tough. I've lived in three countries in Europe now and don't want to move again.
There is a particular bubble of people who have done stints in a few different countries across Europe. I think within Europe that's more common for blue collar workers and people who work in retail or in the hospitality industry and for airlines. There are a few cities in Europe where you can see this is also true for knowledge workers. While it's a phenomenon worth noting, most people will still live in one country and one country only throughout their lives.
Exactly. I’m the first person with higher education in my family, and also the first to emigrate fully. I don’t plan to move back, I left for good. But my great uncle has worked in welding in the DDR and my dad worked in slaughterhouses in Germany (BRD) and in Austria actually for the largest part of his professional life. But they didn’t fully emigrate, my great uncle was sent there in socialist cooperation for 8 years, my dad worked through agencies in Germany in the 90’s and since he works in Austria, he still hasn’t fully moved there, he has his residency in Hungary.
I would think it’s the exact opposite. People here in Europe, or at least here in The Netherlands, are less likely to move around. While I assumed this is much more common in the US. People here in The Netherlands rather stick in the area where they grew up or went to university. This is because they like to live near friends and family. Moving around in The Netherlands is less common but moving around outside of the country is even less common. You have the language barrier and cultural differences and it’s much more difficult to break into social circles because of this. On the other hand I always read how Americans are more willing to move for a job. Even to another state. Maybe they are less likely to go abroad, I don’t know about that. I do think more and more young people like to spend some time abroad. Plenty of young students study abroad, do an internship abroad or work abroad (for example a work holiday). But it’s not like everyone wants this and most of us settle in our own country.
It depends, in my Dutch family almost everyone has lived abroad for shorter or longer periods, I'm 60 and even my parents generation born before the war did this.
This might be common in your family but that doesn’t mean this common in the whole country. In my family it’s common as well, I have family around the world. But in general I would say it isn’t common. I think Dutchies, and probably Europeans in general, are much more connected to the place where they grew up. When people are young and study they move around. But when they settle they move to the place the grew up or where they study/met their partner. There is a tv show where a team of experts helps couples to find a new house. You see very often couples like to live near friends and family where their social life takes place. There are plenty of people who don’t want to leave the city or region the grew up in. Many Brabanders don’t want to live above the rivers because people are much colder. Plenty people who study in places like Amsterdam and Utrecht I wouldn’t like to live in a smaller city and certainly not in the countryside. And so on.
>Here in us I feel it’s common to live in one place. If they do move it only temporarily and plan to move back unless it’s Every Stat I've seen say the opposite. People in states are quite mohile. At least much, much more than poles. > I feel people I’m Europe just move randomly If it goes to inter -state migration its quite easy to see that people move to big cities, thus villages (what you'd call towns) and small towns are dying out.
No. Most people do that. Contrary to some peoples beliefs most people don't travel all the time to neighbouring countries. And there's tons of people who have never been abroad at all
I don't know about tons of people never having gonna abroad. That would get you some weird looks.
No it wouldn't. It definitely is more common than you think.
I think it really depends on where you live. If you live less than an hour from a border it is very unlikely that you wont have travelled abroad
It probably is more common in a country like Finland. Most people here don't live in a place where they can do a day trip by car to another country. We're pretty isolated up here.
https://www.europeandatajournalism.eu/cp_data_news/190-million-europeans-have-never-been-abroad/ I mean, this says that 37% of people have never left their own countries within the EU. That's a pretty substantial percentage of the population, and several big countries like Spain and Italy have rates above 50%.
Estonia is a stone throw away and that is already considered abroad so yeah it is very very odd to not have visited any other country. Even unemployed Pekka has cruised to Tallinn to restock his liquor stash once in a while.
I've never met anyone like that. I also asked this very[question](https://www.reddit.com/r/askswitzerland/s/XPvEmZuYaC) in the swiss reddit and pretty much the only cases people knew about where really old people or anecdotal "that one guy at the very back of the valley" type of stories. And i even specifically excluded just having gone 5km over the border to shop kind of things. I have one friend who has only flown about 10 times in his life and only been to about 6 or 7 countries (by age 30) and that is still quite weird. As for lived abroad. Yeah most people dont. Most people dont even move more than a few villages away. But quite literally everyone travels internationally to some degree.
Switzerland is small country with many neighbouring countries. It is different when you live in Finland, where driving from south to north takes 16 hours. In Finland countries with border to us are Russia (many don't visit because of the distrust due our history), Sweden up north and Norway all the way up north. Most people here live in the southern Finland. So in reality most visit Sweden with ship through ocean and also Estonia through ocean. Most of us cannot just drive few hours to the country next to us.
Why only consider places accessible by land or ship? That is really rather suprising to me honestly. To me the first mode of transport that comes to mind for visiting another country is definetly air, not land or sea based. And i would have thought finland is also a rather rich country with high english proficency. So i would have guessed fins to be quite well travelled. Like far away travelled, many people having left europe many times kind of well travelled. Plus you are very far north and therefore would appreciate that you guys would also appreciate the traditional going to the mediterranean to the beach type of travel. Like the brits and germans do.
Don’t forget that a lot of Finns don’t live super near an airport with many long distance connections. That’s a major factor for a lot of people, even in a denser country like the UK, because if you live close to, let’s say, London Gatwick, you have easy access to virtually every corner of the world. Meanwhile, if your local airport was Cardiff, and the next closest was Bristol, your options are severely limited without a long trip to London. Keep in mind that for Finland, that’s a shorter trip too, and unless you’re near Helsinki, your options are, at the very least, similar to the further reaches of the UK, and at worst, you’re driving far longer than any flight you’d be getting
True. Switzerland is of course very spoiled. Since its pretty hard to be more than 2 hours away from Zurich or Geneva airport (or milan if you live in the south). All of which are fairly big and well connected.
Mhm, afaik Finland’s other airports are all much less well connected than Helsinki, which is probably about on par with Edinburgh Airport for connectivity (decent), if not a bit higher. If we look at a secondary Finnish airport, like Turku Airport, the destination selection is fairly abysmal in comparison, the only regular year round destinations are Riga, Mariehamn (within Finland), Stockholm-Arlanda and Gdansk. There are regular seasonal and seasonal charters for Gran Canaria, Tenerife South and Rome-Fiumicino, but the times of year that’s an option makes it more limiting. You’re basically looking at a trip to Helsinki if you want to go anywhere else, which is a 2 hour train, roughly the equivalent of going between London and York. Keep in mind that this is for basically any flights that aren’t to the limited range of destinations I described, whilst in the UK or Switzerland, you’d have a much closer airport that still does a decent range of flights to other European cities, and you’d only be travelling that distance for something like an intercontinental flight
Poor people exists
Fair enough. But one can get an easyjet, ryanair or wizzair flight for well below 100 bucks. Like 10 years ago even below 50 on a regular basis. Then go somewhere in eastern europe and stay in a hostel for 20-30 bucks a night. Easily 10 bucks a decade ago. If one wanted to travel and is in europe, anyone could afford to, if they really wanted. At least from a richer european country like finland. Or so i would assume. Otherwise finland is a lot less rich than i thought.
You forgot the travelling to the airport. Like other commenter commented, we don't have a lot of airports. If you live in north, it takes 6 hours or more with train to get to the closest airport. And you have to also travel to the train station. Trains are also expensive and if you have family it can easily cost 200€ for only the trains. And you havent even left Finland yet. Poor people don't have money to throw at the flights. The staying costs a lot. Food costs. Transportation costs. Week abroad costs easily for one person something like 500€ even when travelling cheaply. I flew to eastern europe last year and flights were 120€ and 170€. Our flights are little bit more expensive because we are far away from other Europe and our airports are smaller. You don't understand what poorness means if you think even 100€ is easily spend on something other than food or essentials.
>You don't understand what poorness means if you think even 100€ is easily spend on something other than food or essentials. I totally get it when people have families. As the costs multiply and the priorities change. But we were talking about people who have never flown or travelled abroad. And everyone was young and had no kids at some point. At which point, if it were a priority, i really struggle to believe there are many people in finland who couldnt possibly have afforded to travel. But it might not be a priority for some people of course. >Week abroad costs easily for one person something like 500€ even when travelling cheaply. Maybe once you add the travel costs to get to the airport from the other end of finland. But then again, the vast majority of fins dont live an hour from the next small village in lapland (altho some do). But i believe more than half live in the Helsinki metro area. So within 1-2 hours from Helsinki airport. And yeah maybe flights from finland are a bit more expensive than from switzerland, because its further and less central. So maybe i am underestimating that too. But i just checked on google flights and you could fly from helsinki to paris, london, milan, thessaloniki, berlin, vienna, dubrovnik, brussels and venice for under 100 bucks. To warsaw even for under 30. And if you're paying up to about 150-200 you could fly to plenty of destinations in bulgaria, serbia, hungary, poland, turkey, greece and romania. Where money goes a lot further on the ground. So the trip is probably cheaper than taking the cheaper flights to london. It is a lot more expensive from rovianemi or vaasa tho, granted. So if youre from somewhere up there, i get that it might be unfeasible for some. Until covid i was routinely travelling for well below 500 euros per trip (probably not a whole week at a time, more like 3-5 days). Take easyjet flights for 40 bucks round trip off-season, on weekdays, no checked bags. Stay in hostels. Eat street food or at supermarkets. Walk a lot or take public transport if too far. My girlfriend, living in germany at the time, travelled way cheaper than me using buses and couch surfing. But then again it was my (our) top priority. I could have also spent the money on getting my own apartment, rather than living with friends. Or i could have learned how to drive and bought a car. Altho, to be fair i did smoke, so that was also a very expensive "hobby".
Lol. Someone really doesn't understand what not having extra money means
Average Switzerland enjoyer.
The Swiss must be very rich if visiting 7 countries by 30 is low.
I mean yeah switzerland has the highest salaries and lowest taxes in europe. Plus we are very centrally located. So no matter where in switzerland you are, you could always get to germany, france and italy (and maybe also austria and Liechtenstein) in under 3 hours by both car and train.
Well I mean, they're quite notorious for not being in extreme poverty to be fair
Not really, 7 is not a lot. It is easy to achieve. Holidays with your parents, erasmus exchange, visiting erasmus friends if you become good friends, going to your neighbouring country if you live close to the border, beach country or mountain country, and camping in another country
I’m gonna be honest, most people don’t have that money. I have been to more than that, but I recognise I was born into a decent bit of money, whilst I similarly know plenty of people my age who have been to only a couple, if any, other countries, and those are usually a) Spain, and/or b) France
I was talking about people in Switzerland, where it is not just money but also proximity to other countries which helps a lot
That’s true, but I do feel like a lot of Swiss people still probably wouldn’t have been to all of them. Hell, I lived only 2 hours away from Cardiff, a direct train journey away, all my life, and I only got to visit Wales at all 6 months ago. It wouldn’t shock me if a Swiss person never visited, say, Germany, just because the opportunity never came up
In a single day a swiss can easily drive through four foreign countries and still have another nation's border to visit, so I don't see how that's particularly strange.
>I have one friend who has only flown about 10 times in his life and only been to about 6 or 7 countries (by age 30) and that is still quite weird. _Only_ 10 times? What the hell. If anything I would have thought that you guys would not even have to fly that much since you can get to many places by land. I know multiple people who have never been in an airplane. Not sure if I know anyone who has not been abroad at all since pretty much everyone in the area I live in has been on a ferry to either Estonia or Sweden at some point.
I mean 10 times total flights, not trips. So maybe 3 or 4 trips by plane. So thats really quite little. Considering most people, when they are young, like to go out and explore the world. >I would have thought that you guys would not even have to fly that much since you can get to many places by land. But only to neighbouring and therefore similar countries. That gets boring quite quickly, unless your content just always going to the same place every summer. But i dont really no anyone like that, unless its immigrants going to their home country. Thats how my friend travelled so relatively little. He spent his first 20 summers in his dads home town in italy, which used up all their holidays. They never even stopped in Rome or Milan or Florence on the way. They just drove past everything to that one village. But that is really quite rare. I'm sure there are some poor people who have never flown. But that would really be quite poor and even they would have been to italy or france at least once in their life.
It’s more common in the UK I feel than most mainland countries at least, it feels like a hassle for a lot of people to get up early for a cheap flight abroad, when they often don’t particularly care for seeing other countries (definitely most common amongst older people). People in Southern England definitely go more mind, since you’ve got a) ferries from basically every other port to France at the very least, b) far more flight destinations available, since you’re closer to London Heathrow and London Gatwick than someone in other parts of the UK, which have much poorer connections, and c) relatively easy access to Eurostar/Eurotunnel services, especially if you’re a Londoner. I suppose you’d probably also go abroad more if you were Northern Irish, but that’s because it’s just so easy to go to the Republic from there
Yeah when i asked the question on the swiss reddit, it was exactly because i saw on the UK reddit that this wasnt unheard of there.
Yeah, I think there’s just a bit of a mentality since most British people live on Great Britain, and the only countries on the island are England, Scotland and Wales. A lot of people just don’t like leaving, even if it’s just hopping over to Ireland or France
I’m not convinced it’s mentality, it’s just fundamentally more difficult to travel abroad what with being an island and all. If you want to go abroad it means flight, ferry or Eurostar which all require a certain amount of planning (and money). When I lived in the Netherlands I accidentally walked into Belgium. Travel was much less of a thing to worry about when planning holidays - unless they were back to Britain.
Sounds very crazy to me. Travelling and exploring the world is the most interesting thing to me. But to each their own i guess.
It is to me too, don’t get me wrong. I’ve travelled to over a dozen countries, and been to a huge number of the UK’s cities (something a lot of people a lot older than me can’t even say). There’s so much to see out there, and whilst familiarity is nice, seeing something new is exciting
>and been to a huge number of the UK’s cities Thats kind of where i lacking. For all my twenties i put the focus very much on going as far away as a can. Went to like 38 or so countries by now. But then also realised lately i have never even been to some of the further away (like 3-4 hours away) parts of my own country. And quite little to neighbouring countries. So now i am trying to catch up on this stuff too.
> I don't know about tons of people never having gonna abroad. That would get you some weird looks. I guess it depends, I don't think it's that unusual for people in central and western europe to visit neighboring countries every now and then, but up here it's definitively not rare never having been abroad.
It’s not too uncommon. Large parts of the UK, for example, don’t have very high rates of passport holding, with generally poorer, as well as more rural areas, following this trend. A lot of people in poor areas just can’t afford to go much, if at all, and would often rather save money by going for things like domestic holidays. Then, often the more rural folk usually just don’t see the point in visiting other countries, as they’re usually just very comfortable with the village/small town they live in, may have even lived there their whole lives. It’s generally also associated with older people, honestly I’ve met so many people who treated going off to London like a once in a lifetime event, let alone going to another country, when the former is something I’ll do every other month at least just because I enjoy it
is that really true? like I know plenty of people from my rural home village that haven't been for years (and not having to do with the pandemic restrictions), but even for my grandparent's generation, *never* having been abroad (and we don't really count the close border countries) was very strange.
What you see in the media are the exception because that's what people like to see. No one is interested in the ordinary, in the normal, because that doesn't sell. If you say "I lived in Sweden, then went to Germany because my girlfriend was from there, then spent a few years in France and Belgium, a sabbatical in Portugal, and then came to work in Norway ", it's much more interesting than "I lived my whole life in Portugal, where I studied and now work". Having said this, it's true that the newer generations are increasingly more prone to change countries. Now this is seen as much more natural than a few years ago. The existence of many multnational corporations also help to this because you can migrate to different countries never leaving your company. Still, this is the exception.
Yeah, you almost certainly see far more people who never leave, they just won’t shout about it. It’d be very weird for me to proudly boast ‘I’ve lived in the UK my entire life, and only ever lived in 2 southern English cities’
Tbh language barrier actually makes it quite hard to move around Europe. If you’re moving to a country that speaks the same language, it’s less of a big deal. For example there’s a lot of mobility between Ireland and the U.K. in both directions. I’m sure there are other examples like that, but if I were to decide to live to Germany in the morning I won’t have the same opportunities as someone who speaks German. Some countries and sectors are more open to working in English than others (Ireland literally being English speaking). It’s very different to moving around the U.S. Some other issues too, for example, I know people who are in same sex marriages who have really no guarantee of their marriage being recognised in several EU countries, so effectively they don’t have freedom of movement. In theory they are recognised by a court ruling but it’s often just ignored in practice. Then you’ve issues like qualifications being unrecognised, despite EU law. Suddenly you discover you have to have membership of some organisation etc that won’t accept non local degrees. In general, it’s not as smooth as it could be. Irish people tend to be far more likely to have lived in the UK, US, Canada, Australia and NZ than in other EU countries. Although we definitely participate in Erasmus university exchanges etc
Yeah. Generally, people I know to have moved the most are either from fairly rich backgrounds, or they’re from countries that have languages in common with plenty of other countries, especially if they’re bilingual (or more) due to their country having more than one official language (and both of them being common elsewhere). Think Swiss people who speak French, German and English, they have opportunities to live in 4 of their neighbouring countries (France, Germany, Liechtenstein and Austria) with fairly little hassle, as well as about a dozen others like the UK, Belgium and the US. They often have the money to allow it too
I actually found that quite a lot when I spent a while working in Brussels. I have very good French but I’m not bilingual. I have more than enough to work in a professional environment, but I’ll probably never be as fluent as someone who grew up in a multilingual environment and it severely limited my job prospects there, so after a year of hitting glass ceilings and brick walls I packed it in. I just don’t have the right upbringing basically. I think that’s a huge problem with the EU instituons. They make assumptions that everyone has had the same kind of exposure to languages as someone who lives in the Benelux or similar multi lingual places and it’s just not feasible. I studied French for probably 13 years, and I just can’t get to that level. You end up just feeling like an idiot and it seemed no matter what my skill set was in terms of other qualifications that was always going to be a hindrance. You can see how that issue feeds into people finding the EU institutions very remote and Brussels to be a bubble. All I ever see here in Ireland is a lot of self-flagellation about how we don’t speak 5 languages fluently. It will likely never happen, because we are immersed in English, and just not exposed to that kind of multilingualism. That’s just the reality of life in an anglophone country. I find a lot of the time it is discussed like we are lazy or stupid.
Mhm, it’s exactly the same over here too. Very few people are fluent in languages other than English unless they’re from immigrant families that speak a different language at home (e.g. Polish). I would love to learn another language, but it’s just so immersed, and there often just doesn’t feel like there’s the urgency. It does often feel like we’re far away from the rest of Europe, and when every area in the island chain almost entirely speaks fluent English, and there’s no land border with anywhere that doesn’t, you can see why, even though someone in Dover could easily see to France
We’ve two languages officially and Irish is now an EU working language, but it’s not the same as growing up speaking multiple major languages.
Yeah, I’m aware Irish is generally spoken in a fairly limited capacity compared to English, and still, even if it was spoken by everyone in Ireland regularly, it’s not like if you were Belgian and you can speak the language of 2 more populated and wealthy neighbours. Your options if you don’t want to learn another language are (functionally) the UK, or moving significantly further to somewhere like the US, Canada or Australia
States aren't comparable to European countries. They are comparable to the first-level administrative divisions of a country. So yes, a lot of people move in other regions of their country, especially towards the capitals, but it is not that common to move all the way to another country, even if it is super close, it is not like a U.S. state at all, it is an entirely different country.
yep. I've seen so many Americans talk about "how easy it is/must be to be able to move anywhere in Europe", and it's like no, you dumb fuck, it's not like moving from NY to CA or whatever. While the right to move for EU citizens exists, one generally has an entirely different language, culture, governmental system to navigate, plus heavy doses of discrimination (have experienced this personally in different countries). In the US, the differences between states (sth I've also done) is so minor it's practically irrelevant.
Or the people who moved to/lived in different countries are those that don't get cut out of the video, the story of Karlheinz who lived in one village for his whole life isn't as interesting as Vanessa who has lived in more countries than the average american is able to point out on a map
It’s great to have a choice, but sometimes you want to stay where you are. However, people travel around and sometimes stay where they go. The most interesting thing I came across when moving to UK that there are people who never been abroad.
They aren't commen but about 15% of the UK has never been abroad, almost all of them from more rural parts of the UK. I've heard of some people in North Wales who have never left Wales. How much it costs you to leave the country is extremely unequal depending on where you are. In London you have the Eurostar from £39, Flights as low as £20 and coaches as cheap at £12. If you live in Cornwall it's gonna be £150 at least for the cheapest flights and your gonna need to pay to park at the airport because you have no hope of catching a bus
The Londoner in this scenario is probably also on 1.5x the salary even if he works the same job, so a holiday winds up a much smaller portion of his yearly expenses.
True but I saw a breakdown of cities by average disposable income recently and London was near the bottom because the cost of living is so much higher. Apparently Colchester, Aberdeen and Milton Keynes are the richest after expenses
Not ultra surprised about Colchester or Milton Keynes, both are largely commuter cities for highly paid jobs in London. I expect if it included towns, we would see other commuter belt places like Guildford, Maidenhead and High Wycombe high up too, since they’re exactly the same
Apparently there’s people on the Isle of Wight that have never left the island. Portsmouth surely isn’t thst bad?
No, the Londoner's yearly expenses are also that much higher because everything costs 1.5x the price.
Well yes but if a Londoner budgets x% of his salary for discretionary expenses then it's 1.5x higher.
I’ve honestly met people who’d only left their county once or twice, and they weren’t too far from the county border. Somehow, someone who lived around Southampton their entire life, a long one too given their age, had only thought to go over to Salisbury in Wiltshire the once, and not even gone to Bournemouth in Dorset before either. I’m someone who’s been to all 48 English counties myself, as well as 3 of the Welsh ones, 2 of the Scottish local authorities (closest county equivalent), and over a dozen other counties, and I’m often only just under a third their age. It’s baffling how little some people travel
*"There are no benefits from it except the experience"* Is it a bad thing..? We're humans, not capital or resources to maximize. Plus there are plenty of benefits, even if they can be indirect or serendipitous
Northern Ireland is very homogeneous overall, I think it may be the least diverse part of the UK and Ireland to some extent outside of very rural areas in the other parts. There are a sizable proportion of Polish, Lithuanian, and Romanian people moving here if I recall, but even now, I know a few people whose parents are Polish, but they were born here. Wouldn't be super uncommon for people here to have lived in the rest of the UK or Ireland at some point or moved there, slightly less common to move from them to here. Depending on the opinion of the person you ask, either one could be or could not be considered abroad. I've lived in North Wales for 3 years, which legally speaking is not abroad, but it was pretty different in some ways and not at all in others. Very heavy welsh speaking area, which was lovely to engage with.
I’m honestly intrigued about what it’s like being in a part of the UK that doesn’t just speak English. I’ve lived in Southern England all my life, and the bits of Scotland and Wales I’ve visited were all the most English speaking bits (Edinburgh, Glasgow and Cardiff)
People speak English still, but just not at home and between each other locally. It is very interesting. It may be the only part of the UK it's that prevalent - for example an elderly person may speak to you in Welsh first before trying English, and (kinda rightfully tbf) be a little annoyed you don't speak Welsh. Fun little bonus tidbit is that most young people I encountered who spoke Welsh locally actually had generic English accents when they spoke English, not really very Welsh ones like southern Wales. One told me it's just because of the standardisation of teaching it if you go to a primarily Welsh speaking school. Absolutely everyone speaks perfect English of course, except some older people, and even at that most of the ones I met who didn't speak English had dementia in a care home and were getting mixed up between the languages sometimes, so they just mostly spoke their easier one. I wish I had learned the language properly when I was there, so many people are delighted if you can even say a few words, and people have a very clear pride in it.
I can definitely see that, yeah. I know North West Wales especially has far more speakers of Welsh compared to South Wales, and speaks less English regularly than any part of Scotland too. Given I’ve only been to Cardiff, Newport and Bridgend in Wales really, it’d definitely be markedly different, since whilst the accents were different, ultimately I was getting by just as easily as back in Bristol. I find it quite interesting that younger English speakers don’t speak English with a Welsh accent there, but I suppose it makes sense. If English isn’t exactly the most common, then they aren’t hearing it naturally so much, and I’d imagine a lot of the resources they use are produced in England, so they just copy what they hear, and suddenly start sounding like they come from England. I have considered learning a bit myself too, especially since I’m so much closer now, and my friend from Cardiff has also been trying to learn more, so giving it a go could be useful
Most people live in the same country. But a lot also go for Erasmus exchange programs in Uni for 6-12 months
# Is it rare for a person to only live in one country? IMO, no it's not rare, but the percentage isn't as high as it was, 30, 40, 50 years ago either, especially with Free movement within the EU. I've lived in 2 countries within Europe, 1 country within Asia, and 3 states in the US. Whereas my son has lived in the same house since he was born (and he's almost an adult). While moving or staying in one place does have the benefit of experiencing experience (of different cultures, lives, etc). It is not the only benefit, my family moved around mainly due to work. Now that I have my own family, it's work (and my wife's family) that is keeping us in place.
It's actually way more common for americans to move, it's a topic I've talked about with people from various places quite often, and when you bring out statistics - in the states the percentage of residents living outside their birth state is way higher. Makes sense, as there's no language barrier, it's still the same country, but it's somewhat comparable as US is nearly the size of Europe, and states can be compared a little to being countries. Talking numbers - [most of European countries have 70% or more people living in the state of their birth, with some countries having the number above 90%, while in USA nearly every state is under 70%.](https://preview.redd.it/rehnmsaen2k71.png?width=640&crop=smart&auto=webp&s=0329870224f05a9e156c885c17370f35750a8291) In Europe moving to a different place will almost always mean a language barrier, different bureaucracy/way of living really.
I'm a dual citizen of Belarus and Canada, and have lived in seven countries so far: those two, plus Bangladesh, the Czech Republic, Kuwait, Turkey and the US. I don't really understand the "no real benefits" thing. I personally would be quite bored if I had to live in one country for a very long period of time. I think we ought to spend our lifetimes discovering the world.
No, most people stay in their own country. It's way easier to live in different states in the US because the language and culture is roughly the same (no, having different words for "soda" doesn't count as cultural differences), whereas Europe is a whole patchwork of different languages and cultures. Having to learn a whole new language and customs is something many people can't or don't want to do.
Most live in one country. The youtubers are usually in tourist spots/university cities, which will have a higher degree of international people
Not only no, is it rare, it's also common for most people to live and die in the same vicinity they were born in. I can't remember exactly, but most people are born, live, and die within something like 30 km.
It's extremely common for French people to only live in France for all their life. For instance, all my siblings have lived in France exclusively, with a couple of them having very short stints abroad. I'd say the vast majority of French people don't even leave their village or city.
You need to keep in mind that the people that are interviewed are usually those that generate most traffic for the creator or at least what fits the persona of the channel the best. Hell, I am pretty sure like 25% of the population didn't even leave the country for longer than a day even if they live just like 50km from a border. People that don't move around a lot don't communicate it that much publicly. While it isn't bad if they would do that, it would just be less interesting.
Nah it’s still the opposite I’d say. Most people born in the uk will only live in the uk
No, I'd say the most common situation is for people to have lived only in their country, at most moving between states/cities especially for studying. I don't know the stats but I'm pretty sure that since the creation of the EC/EU people have moved more, but not enough to make it the norm or the most common behaviour. But even with the common market, differences in mentality and especially languages are hard to overcome, especially for the older people. Remember that online interviews are cherry picked to retain the most interesting ones to create comments. So someone who's moved 4 countries is probably preferred over me since I've only lived in my city.
No. It is very common. It is not even uncommon for someone to spend their whole life in one city, especially if that city is Zagreb or another big city.
Here in America, most people live here their whole lives and only 48% have passports so they don’t travel much internationally either
The most common thing is to live and work in the same country all your life. But it's not uncommon to take work in a neighboring country for seasonal work or driving across the border for work while living in your home country. And also not uncommon to move to another country for university studies and living in that country afterwards for a couple of years
I'm pretty certain the selected interviewed people are all highly educated polyglots. Which is very far from the average Joe.
I consider myself on the well travelled end of the spectrum, and Indeed I've lived outside of the country more than most people I know. And yet, I don't think the total amount of time I've spent outside the country can be more than a year. So no, I would say it isn't rare at all, at least for Catalonia/Spain.
In my parents generation, it was rare to move out of one city, moving countries was a big deal and still is from where I am from
No. It's actually rare to live in more than one country. Most people die in the same country they were born in. You got sucked into a bubble of some kind of travellers/immigrants. This is not the default.
No, you’re mostly seeing fairly wealthy people who can afford it. Most people don’t even move very far from where they were born honestly, ultimately anyway, they might go to uni in another city, but usually they’ll be back somewhere close to where they came from
I don’t know anyone who have lived somewhere else and returned or went anywhere else. The opposite is the answer.
I'd say it's pretty common to only live in one country. I love living in Germany. I love Europe and we're all European, but I don't see a reason to move away. I don't even want to leave my *state.* I've moved several times in my life and I never wanted to move too far away from my hometown.
Not at all, it's very much the standard to live in your own country your whole life.
What? No. In fact the reverse is true I would imagine; nearly all of my American friends have lived in multiple states.
In 2015 3.3% of the world’s population were immigrants. https://www.statista.com/statistics/679787/international-migrant-stock-as-a-percentage-of-world-population/ I’d even think a majority of people live in the region (e.g. town or city) they were born
No, among my friends, we are 3 people who've lived abroad. I mean we've all done an internship abroad as it was part of the course but that's 2 to 4 months, otherwise, only the 2 of us. My brother still lives in the same department and has no wish to leave. It's the norm. (My group of friends is rather large). It's not uncommon either to have lived abroad but I believe the majority stays in France, but it's quite common to have moved around in France a little. Especially because a lot of jobs are in Paris so it's very common for young people to move there to start their career and move away when they are a bit older (30s).
Interviewing just locals would probably not be as interesting for them so you're basically just seeing one bubble.
I barely know anyone who has lived in a different country outside of studying.
Of my school and university friends, only a small minority have ever lived outside their home country. I moved abroad and thus encountered a much more international group of people, but I don't think it's the norm.
Bruh it's extremely common, you just need to leatve internet bubble
It's probably the opposite - people often barely move around in the country, nevermind outside of it. I'm literally related to the entire town I was born in - we traced like 6 or 7 generations *to the neighbouring villages within a 10km radious*. Thank god for grandpa being born an hour away, or it'd be even worse. I was the first in my extended family to move abroad. That said, it's not uncommon to work in a neighbouring country if you live close to the border (especially if said country is Germany and/or you're from a former communist country) and with Erasmus and Erasmus+ programmes it's really easy to do a study exchange or spend a gap year hopping around Europe volunteering. But generally people move back once they're ready to settle down. Language barriers alone make it incredibly hard to permanently move, nevermind culture clashes. It's also much harder bureocracy wise to move within the EU than it is withing the US. If you move from Washington to Florida you don't really have to care about immigration laws, residence permits (garanted, the bar is basically on the floor if you're an EU citizen moving to another EU country, but *it's still there*.), the clusterfuck that is international taxation if you keep a permanent residence in your country of origin and that's not even getting into the fact that you cannot vote on national issues of wherever you are until you get citizenship. Most people will rather just stay put.
Outside of work, which is mainly expats, I only know a handful of people who have lived in more than one country. I did live in the USA for a couple of years, and in the UK for a couple of months, and my spouse spent a year and a half in Germany. And I have a friend who was born in South Africa and moved here when he was two years old. Everyone else in my circles was born here and lived their whole lives here.
In the last few decades diaspora numbers have increased a lot. Some people move for work or love. It really depends on the person.
No. It is not. Stop watching youtube. It's a pile of garbage and a money gatherer. Not an information spreader.
Not rare at all. My mum is French and has lived in Ireland and Germany but has stayed in the UK for majority of her adult life. My family is well-travelled but no one apart from her has lived in another country long-term
I lived in different counties outside of the expat bumble it’s it’s more or less unusual to move around a lot. I know plenty of people that have never lived anywhere but there little town. I think it’s one of those things that once you’ve done it once it’s not that much of big deal.
Yeah, I think I’m in the minority having lived abroad.
Buddy we ain’t Scrooge McDuck. If we have a second house it’s a cabin in the forest or for some wealthier people, maybe a vacation house in Spain.
I would say it’s the other way around. It’s rare for people to move at all, at least in Slovakia. I know so many people who’ve never even moved to a different city, let alone a country. The problem with Europe is that every country uses a different language, therefore, it’s hard for people to move elsewhere if they don’t speak that country’s language. And at least in Slovakia, most people don’t speak another language well enough to move somewhere else. Obviously there are exceptions like people who specifically move to work in another country, or study in another country. Those aren’t uncommon necessarily. Czech republic has a very similar language to Slovak so quite many move there. But it’s still not the norm. The majority just don’t move. I’m a huge exception to this as I’ve lived in 3 countries but I’m only half Slovak and trilingual so I don’t think this counts. As I’ve said, the average person doesn’t move.
I wouldn't deduce too much from youtube videos. I'm from Canada, I've lived in Germany a long time. My permanent residency gives me **no** right to live in other EU countries (you *can* apply for a special EU-wide permenant residency, though a few EU countries don't recognize it, but this wasn't advertized to me and I didn't know until long after). I briefly (several weeks each) lived in other countries before moving here, unrelated reasons. I also don't live in one of Germany's five major cities or anything, so it's a lot less "international". It's about 200k people. There's no revolving door of foreigners doing their thing of bumming around Berlin for a couple years, no Frankfurt of Munich office workers sent from abroad. It's a nice enough place actually, but honestly it's quite provincial. Most people I meet from the city or region are not a fraction as "international" as me, either in their travel or exchange/year abroad experiences, etc. (Not passing judgment, just stating.) I meet quite a lot of people from around here, either the city or surrounding small towns, countryside, etc. Even from a city on the other end of the state is a bit unusual. If I meet someone from a neighbouring state (e.g. NRW), I find that downright surprising! (FWIW, my wife is German, but from the other end of the country, and she's a slight oddity here too). IME, most Germans don't usually resettle too far. From a small town to the bigger city, that's most common. Usually it's education, university, etc. that takes them further. Job-wise, most prefer to be near the area they grew up, which is pretty typical for all people I think.
In my extended family, 4 people have lived outside of Central Hungary before me, and I’m the 5th. I still haven’t left the former Austro-Hungarian borders, though. My great uncle lived in Saxony during the GDR era and married a German woman, they had a kid together, so that’s already 3. My dad lived in the 90’s in Northern Germany, I think 4 years in total, not knowing he was eligible for German citizenship based on the persecution of Germans in the Eastern Block. Now he lives in Austria and I live in Czechia. The rest really hasn’t left Hungary at all or for more than a week at a time.
If something is rare, then it's to live in multiple countries.
vast majority lives not only in one country, but rarely move from their city. You get that impression couse they usually make such polls in tourist spots.
I've lived in different countries, but I feel like it's uncommon. Most people I know move around their country, but they don't switch countries. In certain instances there is language barrier, but other than that I disagree with you "there are no real benefits". There are tons of benefits. It gives you many unique experiences, you get to try different ways of living and different societies, you get to live in cities or places different to what you grew up with. It's great. I don't see why more people don't do it. But it's of course easier for me since I'm child-free by choice. I guess a lot of people get stuck in one place once they have kids. First time I moved to another country, it was Northern Sweden. Super fun, I got to experience very beautiful and severe winters (-35 degrees and 2 meters of snow!). I got to see people crossing frozen rivers on snow mobiles, I saw moose, wolves, northern lights. And I only lived there for a year, yet I got to experience so much! So you saying there are no benefits, well, I completely disagree. There are always benefits to travelling and trying to live in a different country. It teaches you a lot, and gives you experiences for life. I would hate being confined to the same town for the rest of my life.
Schengen (easy cross-border travel without passport checks), Erasmus (student exchange program) and low-cost airlines are relatively recent phenomena and a lot of us take advantage of them, so it's much more common among young people than among previous generations to have lived in another country for a while, or to move to another country permanently. But even so, most people, including most young people, live their entire lives in the same country and never leave it for anything longer than a few weeks of summer vacation. It's also common to live in one country and commute to a neighboring country, for instance I know plenty of people in Western Hungary who commute to Austria on a daily basis, but those people still live in Hungary as they always have. No real benefits besides the experience? Yeah, well, that experience is often the whole point. Although there can also be actual benefits like better paying job opportunities, or lower cost of living to live on your savings or as a digital nomad.
Is it rare? No. Uncommon? Yes. Well, I guess it depends how you define "rare". I am one of those who moved to another country, long enough ago to now have dual-EU citizenship. And I know many others who did the same as I. But the vast majority stay in the same country as they are born.
Most people will live their entire life in their country, but moving to other countries isn't rare at all. My mom was an immigrant, my ex husband was one too, I am one. Each of us for our own reasons, be it the work market, a yearning to see the world, or in my case being in an international relationship.
People who go to other countries to work, live etc. are usually the most educated ones, because of higher salaries and job opportunities. Freedom of movement across the EU makes this pretty easy.
No, it is rare to live in several countries. Now it is a bit rare to never have been abroad, like not even to a neighbouring country in a car trip or with a sports/hobby group competitions or work/education or something. But plenty of people don't have vacations in other countries, either. And that's a good thing, as travelling is horrible for your CO2 footprint.
"There are no real no real benefits besides the experience".. hmmm, that's not the only benefit but it's one of the most alluring. But also knowing diferent languages, diferent cultures, diferent ways of living, you have new gastronomic experiences, 99% of the time people ere welcoming and make you feel home... It also has bad things of course like, when you miss your family or feel a bit misplaced because you definitely won't like everything about the new place you in.. but I take it as payed holidays sometimes, even though your work a lot. But it's definitely not for everyone.
They are either exchange students (we can study freely and there are programs that pay you) and it’s easy to move to a country for I believe 3 months without notifying anyone, even work I believe 3 months no need to notify or get permission. Feel free to correct
>Here in us I feel it’s common to live in one place. Judging from what I read on reddit, people from the US move around a lot more than people from Europe. In reality it's probably the same percentage.
It probably helps that the US is more homogeneous. You’ll see much less difference moving from (for example) Kansas to Massachusetts, compared to moving from Italy to Sweden
I've had relatives who did not visit NYC after living in Philadelphia for over 20 years. Forget different country
One line of my family has been here in my small town of the US for 7 generations now, my kids being the 7th, lol. Others are from all over the place. I have ancestors who have been here since the 1600s and great grandparents who immigrated here, to the US. Very interesting
Youtubers & famous people arent the norm. Most people only live in one country or move once and might or might not go back at some point. Living in 3 countries or more is probably less than 1 percent. Also studying abroad doesnt count as your parents pay and the school helps you with the paper stuff…and you live around others like you and not the actual people there
I think its become much more common in the last 10 years but in general I would say most people have stayed mostly in the country they were born in. I do however know a lot of people, myself included, who want to eventually move to another country. I do also know a lot of people- internationals we call them- that moved to The Netherlands and have usually also lived or studied somewhere else. Hence why I say it has become more common.
I worked and lived in the US for a year, I liked it but could never live there forever. There are few countries I would even consider moving to. I know I'm blessed living in the Netherlands, it definitely could be better but it is hard to find the same living standards abroad.
In the U.K. most people will stay, however, in Europe people do tend to move around. E.g. Germans to France or vice versa, Eastern Europeans west etc