I always have a hard time answering the question "Where are you from?"
I was born in a country that doesn't give out citizenship (A middle eastern nation). My father, too, was born there. In fact, I need a visa to go visit my own birth country (where my parents still live).
I inherited Indian citizenship through my father and his family (I've never lived there), and potentially British citizenship through my mother (she was born in England but British nationality laws are very complicated). I travel on an Indian passport although I can not vote in India as I am a Non-Resident Indian (That might change for the 2014 elections).
My permanent residency, interestingly, is in Canada; and I live and work in the US.
Edit: I just know there is a business in here somewhere.
Same here. I was born in Dubai. Dad was working there as an engineer during the building boom in the 70s. I inherited British citizenship through both parents, and US citizenship through Dad.
But, I've lived most of my life just outside Washington DC, USA.
Yup, that's what people usually really mean when they ask "Where are you from?"
I went NZ -> New York, NY -> Scotland and if I'm say on holiday somewhere, doesn't really matter whether it's in the UK, Europe, US, and someone asks "Where are you from?" then I have to think.
Depending on my mood I might answer New Zealand because that's the accent they hear and they really mean "What country were you born in?". Or I might answer Edinburgh or Scotland because that's where I live and consider my home, in which case the response is often "... but you don't have a Scottish accent", and I then explain and they get the answer they were looking for or expecting. Or I might answer "Where does the wind come from?" and disappear down the rabbit hole.
My children have triple citizenship and will no doubt have their own difficulties with "Where are you from?" in later life.
It used to be the same in India. But it changed a few years ago. Now you can Indian citizenship if you are born in India and atleast one of your parents is an Indian citizen.
Yes, this is valid for other similar instances, like the former Soviet Union republics, Germany, Sudan, and a bunch of other places which if not changed their boundaries, at least changed their political regime calling themselves differently now. Taking this a little bit further, you may also reach the conclusion that all places are different now because they changed somehow along the way, even if are called the same.
I was thinking that my response below (same city) didn't cover such cases. It would have been quite possible for someone in the right region of Europe to have lived in four countries without moving, with a lifespan of about 80 years: Austro-Hungarian Empire; Rumania; USSR; Ukraine.
I think we both have a fair share of morons on both sides :(
Sadly, this doesn't make me feel more safe to go there again. But the city of Dubrovnik was nice anyways :)
Nation states are arbitrary boundaries maintained by violent gangs called governments denying individuals freedom of association/movement.
P.S. I do occupy the land where I was born, and the same government considers me tax cattle liable for debts incurred by irresponsible baby boomers before I was born. God bless <nation N>. They hate me - or else they wouldn't threaten me with violence - but I do love them, because I was instructed to do so.
in->fr->in->fi, cities are more interesting. They are:
BOM->KCZ->BOM->KCZ->VTZ->CJB->DEL->IXZ->BLR->DEL->PAR->DEL->HEL.
For a city to appear on the list, I should have lived in the city for at least 6 months. If a city does not have an airport then the nearest one is used. Lastly, I have been in HEL for the last 7 years..
I was born in Wales and live currently in England. These are two different countries of the four that form the UK.
My personal impression is that within the UK these are not seen so much as different countries but more as different administrative areas within the one country, and from without the UK you'd generally be lucky to find someone who is aware that Wales is a country and the UK is not.
Technically I should vote 'yes' but that doesn't feel right.
The word "country" is perhaps a bit too overloaded.
Maybe it is better to say "I was born in Wales (GB-WLS) and live currently in England (GB-ENG). There are two different ISO 3166-2 subdivisions of the four that form the ISO 3166-1 entity GB."
I say technically as by definition they are but in the way they are treated I'd say they're not.
I'd say the difference between Wales and England as a whole is no different in spirit to the difference between Yorkshire and Essex or Cornwall and East Anglia.
Wales' counties have the same powers as any other county in the UK. However, Wales as a country also has devolved powers in it's own right.
As anywhere else, different areas have different levels of cultural self-identity - in that sense I can understand a comparison between Wales (country) and Cornwall (county) although not to Yorkshire, etc.
.au -> .uk. Like many Australians, I'm in London for fortune and glory, and have had some excellent opportunities working for American companies that wouldn't have had significant/any presence in Australia but do in the UK.
I do like English culture, but I'll probably move to the US at some point to start my own thing (Australians get magical US visas because our government helped invade Iraq).
Although experiences across different states can differ. The OP states having moved to a different country. This entails new culture, language and traditions for many countries.
Of course this is more likely to happen in Europe where countries are smaller and borders, well aren't borders anymore.
The United States is a huge country and the job opportunities and lifestyle in Mexico may not seem beneficial to most citizens.
Thing is: friends of mine recently returned from Zurich after over a year of working there and apparently they got much "hate" for being germans working in Zurich, for whatever reason. Not saying suisse people are racists, the ones i know are nice people! Also it's expensive. And i am not the mountain-vacation-type of guy. ;)
(the last point is probably more of a reason then the first)
For those considering a relocation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercer_Quality_of_Living_Survey (there's a link to a full report). I'm currently living in number 4 on that list (Munich). Still daydreaming of coming back home (Poland), regardless that the top city there is number 84 on that list (Warsaw - in my opinion the least livable city in Poland but other were not taken into consideration for this report)
Working in the US (after I studied here for the past 4 years). Born in Jordan. One year from now, my answer could be different if I lose the H1B "lottery" on April 1, 2014.
Well Greece is not the Greece I grew up in. Things have changed in so many ways that it is impossible to be covered in the international press. It is just the number of events that it is difficult to follow.
Regarding the people immigration, from my close friends and relatives (mostly 35 year olds) 11 have migrated to various European countries.
I do not currently plan to ever move back to the US. I moved here for other reasons, but I no longer feel free when back in my country of birth.
I wonder how many others feel this way, and I wonder if it's possible to quantify the economic impact of the 'brain drain' the US's unconstitutional laws and policies (and other fruits of our generally-fucked political system) precipitate.
I left my native Canada when I was 19 to write code abroad. I've since had work in four different countries on three continents. I might not end up being wealthy but I've enjoyed myself and don't regret a thing.
Here's a question for you who moved countries as a kid.
I was born and raised in the Netherlands. My girlfriend was born in California and lived in 6 different states before she moved to the Netherlands when she was 18.
When we discuss having kids, the question 'Where?' always pops in. My girlfriends idea on this, is that we should move to the states have kids there. And then by the time they go to primary school, move back to the Netherlands. She considers the Netherlands to have a more healthy environment for raising kids, but also would want to expose them to her home country and culture.
I'm still surprised how much happier I am in Paraguay, even though I'm a programmer who loves efficient systems, rules, and well-defined processes - and none of those describe my new home country.
So many people are saying they moved to a new country (or countries). Is there a trick I don't know of that you can just up and move? Or are the majority here rich or specialize in something in particular?
I am assuming that people work when they get to the new country, which means a visa.
I could understand if it was to a country on the same continent but there are a lot of US > UK; UK > US. From what I've read it isn't as easy as saying: "Well, guess I'll go live there now."
I think for Americans many perceive it to be too difficult. I think we put our own biases onto other countries. For example:
It's hard to get a visa here in America, so it must be hard to do it in other countries as well.
It is expensive to vacation any farther than Mexico/Canada so it must be expensive to get a job that far away as well.
Yes now, I live in the United States not far from where I was born, but in between I have lived twice (three-year stays each time) as a bona-fide foreign long-term resident of Taiwan. One of the cool things about Hacker News as an online community is the number of participants who have lived in more than one country, and indeed use English as a second language, which helps Americans who participate here get out of the bubble of only hearing American points of view.
I live in India now. Born in India, lived in the USA for some time. Then came back. No plans to go back ever again. (I might still visit the USA, have family there)
Occasionally I feel a twinge of regret that I'm missing out on all the "cool tech"/risk taking/fast moving SV atmosphere. But in the end, you gotta live where your heart is.
Born and raised in the US, SC specifically. Unfortunately my current employer isn't too keen on remote working. Additionally, a lack of a formal education seems to be quite limiting in finding international employment, regardless of actual skill and experience.
I was born in one country, have first language of another, grew up in the third, live in the forth, where people mainly speak language of the fifth country and I work for a company in the sixth. So it's complicated.
US -> Australia here; left for personal reasons. I would probably still be in the US otherwise. I miss the memory of the US sometimes, and the people I left behind. Also New Haven pizza.
There's this place not too far from Scotland, easily reachable via a cheap flight with EasyJet. It's called Italy. They make amazing pizzas. And gelato. Mmmmm, gelato pizza...
hmm just to state the obvious. the usa is not the same country i was born in as it is today. patriot act and surveillance shit. though i don't live there any more either.
Born in USA, moved to England at age 30, moved back to the US a year later, then back to England for a year, then back to US for 1.5 years, then back to England.
Extremely violence ridden, I had guns pointed at me in more than once instance, and I witnessed firefights from my bedroom more than once too, in different cities (one firefight was even in a expensive "safe" neighbourhood, what happened is that a dumb guy tried to steal the car of a celebrity private security)
Also, really bad environment to do business, we frequently get scored very low on "ease to do business" index, there is excessive bureaucracy, rules that change randomly (on average the country enacts 18 new laws per day, most of them related to taxes, subsidies, and so on...), excessive corruption...
Also the average brazillian is usually very, very treacherous, people are always warm up front, but quick to stab you in the back, this particular reason is one that I want to change my citizenship (I don't think the average brazillian deserves my life to defend them in case a war happen)
And there are also a mass of other problems summed (for example, trying to homeschool your children here is a felony, jail and all included, also the Gini coefficient is severely absurd, the top 0.1% get more money than their peers in many other developed countries, while the top 5% get less than US minimum wage, probably thanks to banks charging 70%/yr of interest, and credit card companies charging 250%/yr, making finance be wildly profitable, and anything else not so much)
The how! It is one of the reasons I did not left yet, I have no idea.
Most countries won't accept Brazillians wanting to go there legally permanently (probably because the havock that illegal brazillians spread around the world :/) with few exceptions (ie: have specific degrees in case of Canada, or be married to a local, that sort of stuff).
Also, although some of our cities (like Recife) kill people faster than some war zones (Recife body count for example rises faster than Iraq body count), noone will grant refugee status to a brazillian (specially, because it would cause a political fallout of some government admiting that Brazil has civil war, and the government here is trying hard to avoid that status, despite having the Army and Navy being in active duty in Rio de Janeiro and fighting people that are armed with military grade weapons, like bazookas and anti-air cannons)
And my assets are negative, this is a big no-no for many countries (like US, that don't allow entry of people with negative assets even as tourists, because negative assets means they having nothing to lose, and much to gain by overstaying their visas).
I have some crazy student debts here, and moving money in or out of here is not much simple, also it has some other implications... I am basically forced to stay until I pay those debts, unless someone offer me some REALLY good job elsewhere (REALLY good in the sense, that wage - cost of living is significant... although I currently earn 15k usd, a 80k usd job in SV is not much profitable for example...)
Hi there! I'm (from Berlin, 28 years, Backend Developer) considering to move to Dublin next spring for a year. Do you have some advice (living / working)?
Moved here because my wife is a Vermonter. I've lived in Vermont for almost two decades now and unless I really start disliking snow I'll probably stay here for the rest of my life. Not exactly a hotbed of technology though.
I was born in a country that doesn't give out citizenship (A middle eastern nation). My father, too, was born there. In fact, I need a visa to go visit my own birth country (where my parents still live).
I inherited Indian citizenship through my father and his family (I've never lived there), and potentially British citizenship through my mother (she was born in England but British nationality laws are very complicated). I travel on an Indian passport although I can not vote in India as I am a Non-Resident Indian (That might change for the 2014 elections).
My permanent residency, interestingly, is in Canada; and I live and work in the US.
Edit: I just know there is a business in here somewhere.