No idea if my posts may be recognizable yet so a short intro: I’m perceived as a foreigner everywhere I go my entire life and have no attachments anywhere. Finding housing is hell due to the anti foreigner prejudice. I moved countries three times in the past three years because of this and I’m struggling again so I’m escaping the situation by thinking of the potential future solutions. I keep hearing about the Japanese decreasing population so I was thinking maybe it would be viable to look into jobs there eventually. I was wondering how it went for you or if you fantasize of it or plan to do so yourself. I just aim to someday live where my contribution to the society is more valuable than the prejudice against me not being a local and places with considerable negative birth rate feels like the most sensible choice.
Japanese are extremely racist to foreigners so I don’t think your luck there would be much better tbh
I’ve lived in many countries deemed very progressive and they’re racist as fuck just absolutely delusional about it, frequently while expressing extreme racism (i.e. local racists claiming people of their ethnicity aren’t racist and it’s only people of non local ethnicities being racist - yes, while stressing out ethnicities). I’d rather live in a country honest about own racism where finding housing is possible. 😅
From personal experience Japan is fairly conservative in terms of ideology when compared to the world. If you are looking for an overall accepting place, I would seriously stay away. Your experience there will probably be the same as the other countries you lived in, if not worse
Fair enough. I’m not sure what countries you’ve lived in but conservatives seem to dominate pretty much everywhere. I just seek the lesser evil and not to struggle with potential homelessness creeping in. The latter mostly. It really doesn’t matter if the country preaches non conservative values for profit while minorities struggle with basic human necessities.
Not Asian nor in Asia, but from what I’ve heard from Japanese colleagues about Japan, it is really harsh on foreigners and a lot of the migrants who stay is composed of dedicated reactionaries and fascists. If you’re looking for a place you aren’t shunned for foreigner-ness, you might want to expand your search to outside the imperial core/“Global North”. Of course, no country has “solved racism” and I wouldn’t make any broad statements here, but it could be useful to consider “poor” countries too. Some are more liveable than you might think and depending on your profession you might even have an easier time finding work in some.
Edit: But I forgot to add, any such decision such be made with a lot of care and thought!
Well, Asia is a big continent with many people.
But specifically, in terms of racism, or others forms of discrimination like xenophobia, casteism, religious, or any other identifier (language, etc), I am afraid you are not in luck. Every country has some form of discrimination imbedded in the specific forms of capitalism that was developed there. This doesn’t necessarily take in the form of overt, casual racism. It could be structural but personally people are “nice” or “harmonious”.
But in the assumption that you are White, you are in luck that almost all Global South countries want you. You’ll get a comfortable salary for sure.
This is under the assumption that you have received university education, that is, although in some places you might make do with just high school education or if you have a niche skillset.
Since you are here speaking English, I would take it that you’d prefer to be in a country where English use is widespread, which would mean just any country that was controlled by the British.
You’re in luck because they did colonise large parts of Asia, and in terms of the “local/foreigner” dichotomy, countries with already large immigrant and expat populations is probably a safe bet.
This would lead to really 2 locations really, either the GCC member states or SEA, more specifically Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand. There are large expat communities in both regions, and other major urban areas in other countries throughout Asia is probably fine too.
However, frankly, I am unsure if you will never not be “treated” as a foreigner, really. Best way is to find local groups on Facebook or other sites that share your experiences and start from there.
Personally, the largest problems I find settling in a new place is finding connections that keep you grounded and not go insane. I struggle with that currently too.
I don’t think you’ll ever find a “perfect” country but you yourself make the perfect place. Finding the people, finding the life that makes it easier to tolerate and deal with it’s struggles, is what makes you want to stay.
Certainly, that’s why many people remain where they are even if there are other places that “objectively” have a better quality of life- and many do move, but many also don’t.
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Also in terms of not feeling attachment anywhere, I used to feel that strongly and to a certain extent I still do.
I don’t know about your specific situation, but I myself struggled with my identity growing up, having moved to multiple countries throughout my life.
However, eventually I just took on the identity of my nationality and that’s that. It stopped being a complicated process because it doesn’t matter. Everyone here knows me as That Malaysian Guy (or so I hope).
We have to seek truth from facts, and although identity plays a part in how we interpret and experience reality- and there are plenty of anthropology articles on it (emic vs etic), we are all still humans.
Japan is the last place I would go if I was a communist trying to live in Asia. If I were to look into moving to Asia (and I have considered it), and wanted to stay in a socialist country, think Vietnam would be the easiest to get into. They way I see it, white boomer expats from the US are able to transition to and retire there with relative ease. So if those kind of people can do it, while many being unwilling to even learn the language, someone like me that IS willing to learn the language and integrate into their society should be able to handle it. I would much prefer someplace more northern of climate like northern China or NK but actually getting into those countries as a foreigner is not exactly what would would consider easy. I would love to live in one of them though. I would like to be a part of building up a communist country. Even though idk what I would even have to offer them. Most of my experience is in doing stuff like tech writing and QA. The writing will go out the window unless I get good enough to translate and I figure they would have better native translators. They probably have a whole different kind of regulatory style there and so the QA would basically be useless as well.
On Japan, I just happened to watch this video on the recent assassination of Shinzo Abe and the political climate in the country. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVlPFDOXVyw
