Re^2: How do North Americans find Europe as a workplace?

Yes and no.

Germany just had an economic growth of 2% (mainly based on growing exports to China and India), a shrinking population size and in the future a huge need of qualified workers.

OTOH the debts of the PIIGS will be paid by the little tax payers. :(

> I would also suggest you shoot for a country that still has their own currency or better yet is not in the European Monetary Union

Which can only mean a Scandinavian country, Switzerland or Britain.

But with the exception of the oil rich Norway, the economy of those countries is deeply connected to the Euro Zone.

Furthermore Britain has huge debts and is a coming candidate for the PIIGS zone, Ireland and Iceland just copied the non industrial "New Economy" model of growing Banks, mainly selling air as money ... to the Euro zone.

Industrial production is shrinking since Thatcher, at least Britain has some oil and gas in Scotland and a lot of trading connections with the former Empire.

So from the perspective of working conditions, salary, number of free days, social security, health system and price of living, I would rather recommend one of the continental "germanic speaking" countries.

With the exception of Germany you could easily live there without speaking anything else than English.

Cheers Rolf

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Re^3: How do North Americans find Europe as a workplace? by Anonymous Monk on Aug 19, 2010 at 11:56 UTC
With the exception of Germany you could easily live there without speaking anything else than English. For the German speaking part of Switzerland that might be true, don't try it in the French or Italian speaking parts. And you'll probably find it much harder to participate in non-work activities and mingle with the locals if you do not speak, or at least understand, the local language.	[reply]
Re^4: How do North Americans find Europe as a workplace? by LanX (Saint) on Aug 19, 2010 at 12:35 UTC
Sorry I was meaning all German speaking countries when saying Germany. (no nationalism intended, mainly thinking in media clusters) The situation in Alemanic Switzerland shouldn't be better than average Germany, even worse because confronted with a variety of German dialects. > And you'll probably find it much harder to participate in non-work activities and mingle with the locals if you do not speak, or at least understand, the local language. Exactly what I meant. You can easily survive only speaking English in Germany but you will sooner or later be socially isolated to other expats. In Scandinavian and Dutch TV movies aren't dubbed but subtitled, people are constantly trained in English as a second language - at least passively. (at least thats the cliché, never really tried it myself) I have an English cousin living in Amsterdam and her Dutch is really basic... and as far as I know she and her husband are mainly hanging around with workmates. Cheers Rolf	[reply]