As the title says, for those who moved to Germany and have been living here for a while: do you see yourself getting old here? Why? Why not?
As the title says, for those who moved to Germany and have been living here for a while: do you see yourself getting old here? Why? Why not?
No. I will most likely leave some time after getting citizenship. I’ve been here for 2+ years now.
Bankrupt Pensions – I don’t want to pay my whole career into this state-sponsored Ponzi scheme. No private options like a 401k because that’s tax money that the greedy government would lose out on. Too many old people and not enough young folks. Also, while mass migration from the Middle East and Africa will continue (at least while Germany sticks to these heavily outdated asylum laws), I have very little faith it will qualitatively improve the demographic situation in the next 20-30 years. Compare the number of blue card arrivals every year to the number of asylum seekers - that will tell you exactly who Germany is attractive for.
Deteriorating Healthcare – Voluntarily on the public insurance, purely because I knew if I retired here, I would be fucked with private premiums. Immense wait times for doctors compared to private. Also, the system will be under even more strain soon as the boomers retire, so it will approach an NHS-state where they save you if you’re dying but that’s about it. Ideally a minimum wage person should have the same access to health care as someone with a high income. Conversely with a collapsing health system, someone like me paying the maximum premium of 500 EUR a month is in the same miserable boat as someone who’s never paid a dime into the system. Hooray for solidarity, I guess.
Also worth keeping in mind when making a decision to move - as a hard-working skilled immigrant, I know I will be first in the line of fire for tax / social contribution hikes to “improve” the above two systems (not to mention increasing welfare benefits and Germany’s endless social charity for the world). The general attitude of the political class to the salaried middle class is atrocious, which leads to a general “work must be punished” culture in Germany. This is something that I believe will only get worse in the future.
Why do you want the citizenship if you don’t plan to stay long-term? It’s quite a hassle to get it.
Because I have a terrible passport and would want to get EU citizenship for travel freedom and more importantly, the right to work in Switzerland. The hassle is just waiting for the endless processing by the bureaucracy, the application itself is relatively straightforward.
Everything OP says here. Living in Germany for almost 4 years and currently trying to get out.
At first I was going to wait until my partner can get his German passport but after knowing the time it requires to process the naturalization we decide to try to move asap. Waiting times at LEA has been exacerbated by covid and ukraine war (no this is not an assumption, this was an excuse they told me) and there is no sign of it getting better.
I came from a third world country and my parents used to tell me that in western welfare states, everyone is proud of their job and do it excellently. My experience has been the contrary. Consistency in bad customer service can be seen in courier/delivery service, hospital, luxury department stores, airport etc.
People don’t celebrate other people’s success here. The country is great for old money crowd or people in challenging situation (disabled, unemployed, 1 income with a non working spouse and many children, terminal illness) but not for upper middle class trying to climb up the ladder.
I agree 100 %. Germany is a trap for ambitious educated foreigners. For me, the biggest shock was the extent of xenophobia/racism (at work, in offices, etc.) that I and my international friends faced in this country.