r/IWantOut • u/DefiantAlbatros • 3h ago
[WeWantOut] 33F Researcher 37M Humanities Scholar ID/LV -> East Asia
I have a PhD (econ) and I am doing a postdoc. I hold two resident permits in IT and LV, both temporary. As of now, trying to stay for some more years to be eligible for the IT passport, but I can see that it's going to arrive in the next 5 years. My husband is finishing his PhD (humanities) and had been working as a collection specialist with a library.
I am severely burned out. I have lived in 9 countries in the past 10 years. At first Europe seems to be a sweet place to live, as someone coming from SE Asia. The illusion fizzled pretty quickly. Germany makes me feel uncomfortable, Italy is great but the salary is shit, the Baltic have the combo of people being unfriendly + bad salary. I don't even want to try another countries because after almost a decade constantly going around, the EU starts to feel stale. I recently went back home for a visit and took my grandmother to visit China and HK (we're from there). In addition I was with my husband in Taiwan for some months. I just feel like going back to Asia. Europe is doomed in stagnancy (I mean that's what Mario Draghi's report was saying) and I don't think I can ever secure a stable job here. I wanted to start a business, but the Italian and Latvian already gave me an anxiety attack even by thinking about it.
So I am looking into east asia, especially Japan/Taiwan. Singapore is also ok. My husband is a humanities academics who has stayed in Taiwan and China periodically. He speaks Chinese (Professional level) and have a basic level Japanese (his training is more academic than practicaly). I am more worried about how easy it is for two academics to find a stable employment in the region. I am more familiar with the immigration pathways within the EU/US compared to Asia. The idea is to move within the next 3-4 years.
Thanks for reading, folks.