u/PopNo5397

1. Caribeñas: Las playas virgenes de Estados Unidos fácil le ganan a cualquier playa caribeña de México. Siempre estan al top de las islas/playas mas bellas del Caribe. St John es un parque nacional protegido y sus islas son pristinas y no explotadas, llenas de construcciónes o vendedores ambulantes.

2. Pacífico: México gana, pero solo porqué son mejores para nadar. No olvidemos la diversidad que EUA tiene, empezando por la costa de Oregon, la ruta 101 y 1 que es considerada la carretera costera más bella del mundo con playas y paisajes impresionantes llenos de fauna. No todas las playas lindas tienen que ser tropicales (ejemplo la playa negra de Islandia)

Tampoco olvidemos Hawaii que fácil le gana a la mayoria de las playas de México.

3: El Golfo. Las playas de la costa esmeralda fácil le ganan a cualquier playa de Veracruz o incluso Yucatán.

Nota final: si quieres playas, accesibles, de bajo costo con buena comida y ambiente. México fácilmente gana

Pero si quieres paisajes a otro nivel, mucha variedad, lugares pristinos, limpios y tranquilos. EUA fácilmente gana.

(Y eso sin contar los lagos, dónde mucha gente vacaciona y que se ven identicos a las playas con aguas cristalinas, solo que son de agua dulce y no salada, ejemplo Blue Lake en Utah, Lago Tahoe o Pictures Rocks. Pero estos no los contare y Mexico no tiene un equivalente).

I sparked a lot of controversy with this statement on a subreddit for immigrants in Sweden and I have never been more downvoted. I want to share my honest experience after living in Sweden for almost eight years and interacting with a lot of locals and other immigrants. I hope to have a healthy discussion about the pros and cons of living here but if people want to attack me or downvote me for doing this AMA, you’re welcome to do that. I am open to sharing my opinions and experience living here and also what I have seen happening at the companies where I’ve worked and maybe some of the stories others have shared with me. So go ahead and ask me anything about living in Sweden as an immigrant.

Edit: as I said I’m open to talk about Sweden but please don’t ask me personal questions as I won’t answer those, it’s not the point of this AMA and I don’t want to share my personal health condition on the internet. I’m obviously open to sharing my opinions and experience though. I also started getting very overwhelmed by all the questions where I’m from. I answered at some point and I’ve also said I’m white but then I deleted some of those details since I really don’t think it makes such a big difference to my experience in Sweden. I really wanted to keep this AMA about sharing my experience in Sweden and hopefully having a healthy, open and nuanced discussion instead of explaining my skin color and ethnicity in details.

This post exploded so I will provide a summary of the most common questions and my answers:

Yes, I speak Swedish, not perfectly as I have an accent but unfortunately I can’t improve my accent that much. My pronunciation will just never be truly Swedish it seems.

I moved here for work but stayed for love. I am planning to move out as soon as I find a job elsewhere which takes a while since the job market seems to be extra tough everywhere. Where I move to next will depend a lot on the job I’m offered and I’ll make sure to do a ton of research in advance.

I think moving to Sweden was my biggest mistake since I am convinced that my career, social life and savings account would have been much much better elsewhere. I am jealous of my acquaintances who have similar background as me and are better off elsewhere in Europe. I’m also jealous of many of my immigrant friends who left Sweden and are happier elsewhere so I’ll move soon too.

Taxes - no, I have no issue paying taxes. My issue is that I keep on hearing that healthcare, social security and institutions are good in Sweden and that’s not my experience.

Immigration and racism - the racism I’ve faced is subtle, not in my face and behind my back. I think it’s obvious how Sweden treats immigrants nowadays if you look at the institutions. I am one of the 100000 immigrants who have been stuck in the application process for citizenship for years and there’s even a court decision that my application should be processed as soon as possible. However, I’ll most likely just be rejected in a few months due to the new rules and the fact that I don’t pass a test for Swedish culture that doesn’t even exist yet. Then I’ll need to wait for the test to be created and possibly wait a few more years in the queue again. Currently 75% of the decisions for citizenship are decided within around five years which is the reason why my application has been untouched for years. I would have hoped that I’d get a more fair process as an immigrant trying to integrate here and gain the right to vote and have say in politics but at this point I just want to forget about all of it and move out.

Here racism isn’t really in your face but more like behind your back. If you want to read more concrete racist comments you can go to r/Sverige As for my personal experience with what i would claim is racist there’s always assumption that I moved here to work in a warehouse or some other lower-paying job as that’s what immigrants do apparently. Ive also heard about questions behind my back about my education or my beliefs or values as they of course must be worse than people born and raised in Sweden. I’ve even been accused in a restaurant about not paying my bill for some reason and the accusation was dropped immediately when my Swedish friend appeared. In general, the treatment I get from others when I’m alone is extremely different compared to if I’m with a Swede. My non-white friends get way worse treatment and comments behind their backs.

As for being safe - in my neighborhood yes but I’ve been harassed many times around the city and even in public transport. It even reached a point when people around me had to call the police in a few cases. I also always get asked whether I was harassed by Swedes so I’ll just add that most of the people (not all of course) harassing me were blond and spoke perfect Swedish. Never asked them where they were born and raise though as I was too busy trying to get out of a bad situation. And yes there are ghettos here but I don’t go there as I never had to

Healthcare - my experience is quite bad. I moved here with a prescription and diagnosis and it took me eight months to get help again. I’ve been told to just go private since it’s better and faster. My subsequent experiences with healthcare were similar - basically endless waiting time and just told to go elsewhere, referred from place to place to place forever.

I see that so many people assume they can find my medical history from my previous posts. Some also assume about my adhd and that I came to Sweden looking for stimulants. No, I didn’t move here looking for them. I’m receiving dms in addition to the many comments here asking about my conditions and claiming it was self-inflicted even... I haven’t and I won’t talk about it online and I hope people respect that. The few posts I have online about my health are open and you’re welcome to read them. I definitely won’t disclose anything more. If anything all the disrespectful comments, targeted messages, calling me things and prying show me that sharing my experience is not a good idea.

Sick leave - I actually find it very unfair that if you’re sick the first day isn’t paid. I know some think this is a better system but I’m tired of colleagues coughing around me or working from home with fever because they don’t want to be on sick leave. Then for two weeks you get 80% of your salary and after that you get money from the social system. When I was sick for more than two weeks (yes it happens when you live somewhere for eight years) I waited for four months to even get my application started. I know people who are high earners and were sick for more than a year and just went back to work because they couldn’t afford to be on sick leave anymore since they were earning half their regular salary (if you’re sick for a longer period of time then the sick leave payment decreases). I also know maaaany cases where people were laid off while on parental leave or sick leave. All this makes me say that I don’t have any confidence in the safety net here and I don’t want to risk paying most of my income in taxes and have little savings since I know my savings are my only real safety net and I won’t get much if I get seriously sick some day.

Social life - it’s hard to make Swedish friends in my experience and almost nobody around me has Swedish friends. I think integrating here and having a social life is incredibly difficult. I made some very good friends over the years but almost all of them were immigrants and left for other countries so I had to start trying to integrate again and again.

This post gathered more than 575 comments in less than two hours and I’ve been trying to do my best to answer all questions and provide a summary in my edit in the post of the most common questions instead of saying the same things over and over. I’ll try my best to answer everything as soon as possible. I initially set aside four hours for this AMA but I’ll need additional time later to go through it all.

Edit 2: i really tried my best to answer all the questions directly as a comment or provided a summary in my post as some questions were overlapping. I know that probably some people think my answers were not detailed enough etc but I tried my best during the four hours I allocated to this AMA.

I’m going to randomly check some of the notifications even after the AMA is closed but won’t focus as much on replying to each because it’s no longer an active AMA, and i don’t have the time for all the hundreds of new notifications.

I got a lot of hate in some comments and dms and I see some comments were deleted since they were found to be disrespectful. If anything, it makes me feel that sharing my opinion and experience is not welcomed by many even on Reddit. To those, sending me some kindness - thank you, it’s really appreciated.

Take care everyone and as I wrote many times, I hope for more kindness and tolerance in the world!

I grew up with people around me saying "why do this, when you can go to Europe instead" and always postponed domestic travel.

I've travelled a lot around Europe, and first started roadtripping 3 years ago. I've explored a lot of Canada and US.

I realized my desire to travel to Europe diminished a lot. I guess because I realized I'm more into nature, camping and hiking than city hopping or historic things (Not that you can't do this in Europe, but it's just not the same).

I wonder if it's just me?

I am talking to my friends from Mexico, and been showing them pictures of me camping and hiking during my roadtrip.

I was told that it looks nice but it's something for the brave of heart.

I was little confused but can't stop thinking about it.

I know in Mexico people prefer urban tourism, ie city hopping, quaint towns, doing a eurotrip, or visiting a nice beach with good food and amenities.

I guess I am more rustic.

Esta pregunta va más que nada para la gente que no conoce o que no haya vivido allá.

Hablo de estados como Montana, Utah, Arizona, Vermont, Georgia, Idaho, Minnesota, Arkansas, etc.

Cómo se imaginan que son?

Qué hay ahí?

Precios de NYC, playas feas y privatizadas llenas de sargazo, todo lleno de beach clubs, te estafan por todo, tacos de $200 pesos, todo es 'aesthetic' y para el instagram, cenotes llenos de e.coli, leyes de zonificación horribles y construcciones ilegales sin consideración por el ecosistema, hoteles 'boutique' con el mismo precio de algunos hoteles mas fregones en las maldivas y lleno de hipsters europeos/influencers/y turista mamador que le caga la zona hotelera en Cancun porque "ahi si es muy americanizado"

Dejenle esta zona a los extranjeros y no compartan las playas que si valen la pena

That's it, that's my unpopular opinion. I am from Mexico.

Yes, it's 44 countries and cultures. But more similar than people are willing to admit.

There's not a thing that draws me to it.

Food wise, I rather travel to Asia. I dislike the pretentiousness of a lot of Southern european cuisines. And yes, they're doing the heavy lifting because nobody goes to Scandinavia for their cuisine.

I dislike the many faux passes, the rudeness of many people and blatant racism that you're just supposed to accept because "it's their culture, you need to adapt and accept." The waiter doesn't like you and doesn't take your order? it's your fault somehow, be a better person next time. But when they visit your country, some get mad you don't even speak French to them.

I hate the beaches, rocky, cold(er) and crowded.

I don't like the nature, over touristed, over-developed, too commercialized. Sure, you can find "hidden gems" but no one is going to Mexico to hike Cumbres de Monterrey (waiting for that comment to say that they indeed have). People go to the most beautiful areas for a reason. Even then my point still stands, the Americas are better overall for this kind of tourism.

I hate the people watching culture and the non-stop staring that people from there refuse to admit is a thing. (google german stare for reference).

Europe is great if you're into European history. Rome is amazing, but at times it feels like an open air Disney museum (talking about the crowds).

I hate wine, beer, olives and pork. I hate alcohol overall. I don't care about cheeses and breads. Asia and Latin America have so many better food options overall.

This is MY opinion. Stop crying

I noticed something really funny.

I know a lot of immigrants in my local community, Guatemalans, Mexicans, Polish, Brazilians, Indians, Koreans... and they all have it really good. I notice all the African immigrants have huge houses. None of them want to go back and seem happy with their lives. I mean, I know a Mexican immigrant who works as a truck driver, and I don't know how he does it but he tells me he manages to send $2000 a month to his family.

But on the other hand, local Americans are struggling with the housing crisis, they cannot even afford groceries, for many the American dream is to leave.

What makes immigrants more successful in the US? How is their lifestyle and way of life so different?