Germany was recognized as the worst place to live for expats and relocators. There's a sad bunch of reasons for this, according to new research from the InterNations team.
As part of the study, experts asked migrants to rate their country of residence on a number of criteria, in particular, how easy it was for them to settle. According to those who emigrated to Germany, the administrative processes there took “an eternity.” The relocator survey asked questions about the following key factors:
- Ease of finding accommodation in a new location
- Issues with bureaucracy
- Language barrier
In the survey, Germany moved down the rankings of the top resettlement destinations until it ended up at the bottom of the list, as many emigrants experienced problems with settling there. For example, almost one in six of those surveyed noted that housing in this EU country was not easy to find, while more than half said that it was basically difficult to afford it. “It can take up to three months to find even temporary housing,” one of the respondents complained.
Andreas Mattner, president of the German Real Estate Federation, said the country is going through an acute housing crisis and is facing a “very hard awakening.” The statistics are such that in 2024, 1.4 million people will potentially be looking for an apartment in this country, but will not be able to find it. In connection with the unpleasant forecast, the German government urged officials to focus on housing construction.
The European state has a very high percentage of tenants, and only 50 percent of Germans own their own home, and therefore the rental property market can be competitive, especially in large cities of the country. To apply for housing in the country, migrants will need to provide proof of income and a credit report.
Germany also dropped in the rankings due to the language barrier, with almost half of the expats surveyed saying it was difficult to live there without speaking German. More than half of them consider it a difficult language to learn. Indeed, both Russian and German are languages with an inflectional structure. They are characterized by the presence of a system of declensions and derivational elements. In addition, as in Russian, German prefixes, suffixes and endings have their own meanings. They indicate the gender and number of a noun or adjective, a case or a diminutive version of a word.
However, German is not one of the most difficult languages to learn. For example, the US Foreign Service Institute predicted that it would take most people about 750 hours to learn.
Although it is more difficult than Spanish, Italian or French, it is much easier to learn than, for example, Arabic, for which is believed to take more than 1,000 hours. And it also requires the development of colloquial speech
It can be very difficult for expats to succeed in Germany without speaking German. Although many residents in the major cities of the country speak English, it should be borne in mind that it is much less common outside the central centers. As for Russian, it will only be possible to speak it with immigrants from the CIS countries who will meet in Germany.
Another sad reason why the settlers scolded the country is excessive bureaucracy. More than half of the respondents encountered difficulties in communicating with local authorities. “I really hate the German bureaucracy. Especially the fact that nothing is digitized! It takes forever to contact any of the local government offices to discuss residence permits and the like,” complained an emigrant from Poland. Many important documents in Germany are processed on paper rather than digitally, which can slow down the legalization process in the country. Emigrants need to be patient if they move to this EU country, and if necessary, seek help from special offices or a resident of the country.
So, the top ten worst countries to live as an immigrant, according to the study, is as follows :
- Germany
- Japan
- China
- Kuwait
- Italy
- Greece
- Vietnam
- Czech Republic
- France
- Malta
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