Funny, I never had to watch my back where I live in Europe and my nearest shop is 5 minutes walk. Megacities in Asia freaked me out as this impersonal places of no soul. I never got feeling of safety there.

Visas situations will change almost certainly in 10 years. Spain has some digital nomad visa but you never know how long will they last given a lot of countries are now voting in politicians actively challenging immigration. If you move because of politics, do something to change politics home, situation is not much better in Europe (and Spain and their mess is a special case of fun as well). Europe is not some kind of wonderland where you’ll be able to live cheaply, cost of living is pretty crippling for many individuals here as well. Highly recommend checking what happens in economical powerhouses of Europe like Germany, Nerherlands and France, their political situation projects to poorer EU countries.

Typically you need a business in EU and pay taxes in EU to be able to live there.

Btw worth checking the map, Seville is not on the coast (and this is EU vs Us perception of distance, 100km from the coast is not at the coast here). It’s by now a semi-desert location with crippling heat waves in summer.

Sorry this happened to you, however while EU employment laws are strong, the trial period is non negotiable in 90% of the cases. It’s one of the reasons why the subsequent inability to fire people on spot exists. Anyhow depending on your language situation, France will be hard market as hiring there requires proving you can’t hire a local French person for the position and hiring non locals also costs some extra. If either of positions you’d pursue are in tech, look up companies with HQs elsewhere and an office in France, they are more open minded.

None of the three, if I absolutely had to, Madrid.

The question is: are you able to get a very good job in NL? The housing crisis is no joke, you might end up in the middle of nowhere and despite dutch being fluent in English more often than not, in a small village you will feel isolated. You won’t probably dave a lot of money unless you have very cheap place to stay.

The politics, the problems… have you seen news lately? Dutch voted in far fight extremism party. Grass is always greener but seems like you have a pretty good life standard where you are.

Work visa, you have to have a job and a degree so the employee can justify hiring you and not a local person (quite hard with local unemployment rate).

Are you talking about Master’s or PhD? Because for PhD unlike in US you need Master’s degree. (quite universal for Europe)

For Germany: To study Master’s you have to be admitted (based on your previous studies usually) and the program might be in German (might not, depending on the uni), https://www.studying-in-germany.org/master-degree/ you need to have funds blocked on account for the studies. Being in Master’s doesn’t guarantee PhD position as you have to be accepted there. That depends on grades, publications, etc

The Netherlands: you pay per semester and again have to be furthermore accepted for PhD (pretty competitive as well)

Austria is similar, France unless you speak French is difficult and Switzerland comes with quite extreme cost of living (which you probably know).