General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: This will likely piss off a few of you. [View all]meadowlander
(4,358 posts)However, since you "asked":
1. We get one life to live and a right to decide where we will be happiest without judgement from other people. When people express interest in moving to another country, we have a right to speak frankly about our experiences with that decision.
2. We are born into a random spot on the earth. There is nothing wrong with choosing the live in a different spot. And if a country doesn't earn your loyalty, there is no reason it should retain it. People have a right to choose a government that reflects their values and aligns with their sense of identity. Would you try to shame a transgendered person by saying "you were born one way, it's letting down your gender to change, most people can't afford gender reassignment surgery and it's elitist and selfish that you can, so if you can't be bothered to stay the same as you were born, at least STFU about your transition and don't encourage other people to do the same"? I would hope not. So why make the same argument to people who are trans-national and have, since birth, felt a deep sense of alienation from the country where they were born?
3. You don't need that much money to move overseas. Just ask a Guatemalan or Syrian refugee who I'm sure couldn't come up with $400 in an emergency either. You just need to be willing to work hard and put up with stress and risk and it has to be your top priority - ahead of everything else except your kids. I've moved overseas about four times to different countries and never with more than a few hundred dollars or so in the bank. You can get work teaching English in a lot of countries overseas. In some countries, they will pay for your plane ticket and set you up with a place to live. Lots of people without much money get funding from their churches to work on missions or do seasonal farm work or work as au pairs or on cruise ships. But you have to be willing to give up your stuff, and your job and housing security, and your pets, and close relationships with friends and family and whatever privileges you get from living in an area where people like you who speak the same language live. There's nothing wrong with not being willing to give up those things, but it doesn't make you patriotic.
4. I still vote. I still follow US news. I still write my Congresscritters. Which is more than 90% of the people who actually live in the US do. So it's ridiculous to say that just because I live overseas, I'm not "fighting for our nation's survival". Why don't you direct your energy and anger at the 50+% of your neighbors who don't vote instead of going after people living thousands of miles away who do? We're still on the same side you know.