What are the top 5 countries you would choose to live in if you could not live in your home country? For me it's:

1. The U.S.A.
2. The U.K.
3. Australia
4. Ireland
5. New Zealand

Not difficult to find a list of five if you hail from Canada :p

For me:

1. Italy
2. Australia
3. France
4. USA
5. Ireland

1. Australia
2. USA
3. Germany
4. Spain
5. Italy

1. Germany
2. Austria
3. Hungary
4. Finland
5. Russia

Guys, can you also tell us a very brief "why" for each of the countries in your list? I have not travelled much, though someday I would like to, time permitting. I have no idea how some of these countries would be for living permanently. Thanks.

1) Ireland
2) Italy
3) Australia
4) Canada
5) Japan

Besides Canada once and Mexico once, I have never been outside the states, but if I were to choose:

1. US (of course, there's no place like it. It's home )

2 Italy/Sicily - Where my ancestors are from. I have relatives still living in Sicily. Plus, I know I'd eat good. :p

3. Greece - I'm very unknowledgeable about Greece, but hear the country is beautiful, the people are nice. I could live with that.

4. UK - Always a place of interest to me. My parents were there a couple times, my daughter was there, and everyone says it's nice. Plus I'd want to hang out with Turi, Capo, FH and my UK friends.

5. Ireland - Again, don't know much about it, but it looks like beautiful country. I'd give it a shot.

TIS

That's a good topic that actually made me think for a little while. I've not traveled that much and the countries that I've seen to this day is limited to the US, UAE and Syria.

It is one thing that you take a vacation to another country; but you'd have to consider many things for permanent immigration to another country. Things you'd have to consider:

1- Language barriers. Now that can be frustrating especially if the language of the country of destination has very different pronunciation than that of yours.

2- Immigration and naturalization services. Some countries do not have naturalization services at all, which means you'd remain a permanent immigrant forever, in most cases, even your children who were born there would be treated the same way. It is a huge mistake to move to such countries.

3- Race compatibility of the immigrant with the country of destination. Some countries have very limited range of races and citizens of such countries tend to be more racists compared to others.

4- Educational system and how they vary from the country of origin. It can be very tough for children to adjust to huge differences that they would face in schools. Also, further research about the cost of college programs in the country of destination. This is usually being ignored widely and leads to many problems later.

5- Medicare facilities and their costs in the country of destination.

6- Social security and related services that are provided to the immigrants.

7- Having an economical plan to deal with financial problems, especially until a good credit record is established for the immigrant.

8- Research in job opportunities in the country of destination. Also a brief knowledge of worker's benefits and duties, the maximum time they can leave for vacation, pregnancy leaves, etc.

9- The distance between the country of origin and destination in case of need for an emergency to visit relatives back home.

10- Research about means of transportation in the country of destination. Is there a solid public transportation system? Do you need to have a car to get around? etc.

11- Cultural differences.

12- Weather.

And when come down to it, there is no place like home sweet home..., well, I've not visited many countries yet.

Based on the above, I'll have to agree... I can't even really see myself moving out of California, let alone out of the country!!

If I had the chance though, I'd love to live in Italy, Spain, France, Switzerland, and Monaco for a short time each, a few years at the most.

Just anywhere ruddy warmer than here.

1) The Caribbean island of St. Martin. Everyone speaks English, the weather is great, there are a lot of good restaurants, and they have casinos with poker.

After that, any Caribbean island (except the Bahamas) that meets the above qualifications.

Canada would be OK, except it's way too cold.

I've been to Paris several times and love it there, so I guess France would do in a pinch (couldn't find a poker game, though).

I also hear Austrailia is great (never been there).

Australia
Cuba
USA
South Africa
Réunion

I live in paradise (exepting for the weather and tax climate) > Holland / The Netherlands.

Top 5 Other countries:

1. France (nice weather, great food, not too far)
2. Spain (nice weather, good food, nice women, not too far)
3. Norway (fantastic nature, nice women, good skiing)
4. Dutch Antilles / Aruba (climate and weather issues solved, can still speak Dutch)
5. Australia (lots of space, good surfing, laid back people)

Sorry to dissapoint people from the US, I know it's hard to believe for a lot of Americans that their country is not the great place they believe it to be. Some uppers and downers:

up:

- Great nature and wildlive, lots of space
- I like the "anything is possible" spirit of Americans
- Great country to sell lots of products to

down:

- Most Americans (say 60%) tend to think they're the best, the baddest, the biggest, most advanced, richest, etc. It would be annoying to keep explaining the truth to them.
- Too many religious people live in the US, they tend to think they're morally superior to people with other beliefs
- It's not a very social / civilized place; lots of poverty, ghetto's, apartheid, food stamp programs, people with guns, uneducated people and of course Bush-voters (51%)!

It would depend entirely on how much money I had.


But my list would be

1. Italy
2. France
3. UK
4. Ireland
5. Croatia (Dalmation coast)
6. Germany

1. CANADA - A really nice, if damn cold, place. Real passionate ice hockey fans here.

2. SPAIN - Underrated beautiful country with nice people, even if some folks there are a little prickish about their culture(ETA anyone? :p ). More laidback and actually more willing(at least compared to some European nations) to work with the North African/Middle Eastern immigration explosion.

3. PORTUGAL - Know some good friends there, and again warm weather.

4. ITALY - I really loved this country, and especially its cruisine.

5. UK - Like France and Germany, the government/establishment needs to grow up in terms of film censorship(including you, ITALY!)...other than that, UK is cool with me.

As for Lucky R's point about America being arrogant....what can I say? No? Besides, its so different about America compared to France?

1) Italy
2) Italy
3) Italy
4) Canada
5) U.K.

France does have the chauvinism, but not the religious thing.

WOW, I see a lot of people here would like to live in my country! Well, even though this is definitely not paradise, I guess it is still a good place to live.

As for me, I'd like to live, at least for some years, in UK (Kent and Surrey), Paris or Spain as I visited these places and I felt at home there. I think I'd like to live in USA as well, they say Vermont - especially in autumn - is almost paradise!

1. Italy
2. England
3. Spain
4. Canada
5. Australia

Though I never wanna be outside my beloved States for too long.

I think this is a good topic. A good oppurtunity for our American members to realise America is not the best country in the world. There are plenty of places out there with equal, if not more, freedoms than us... Places with far better current politics and economies. And those places look like this:



It's breath-taking, isn't it?

This may come as a shock to you...

There is no Santa Clause.
There is no Easter Bunny.
There is no wonderful land of Oz.

Don't be trapped by your parents' lies.

Lies. All lies.

Fortunately the US is not there...yet.

Please note that French people (not the country) top Europe's chart in being unpopular, they have long passed good 'ol Germany.

Ha ha you're funny.

Well, being more unpopular than the Germans....no, that takes alot of extra work just to acheive such a goal. Its like intentionally failing some Physical Education course in public school: Its almost impossible to happen in terms of natural occurence.

Then again, when I went to France years back, I noticed how the poor North Africans were treated like SHIT by the W.C.F.N.(White Catholic French Nationals), so perhaps the recent race riots don't totally surprise me of sorts. Like America in the 1960s, the French will have to deal with this problem and mature with it, or they'll be stuck with even more riots in the future.

Yet no offense to our European friends here, but their societies seriously need to clean out those football games with the neo-Nazi-like "skinheads" running around with free will, with their nasty banners that told some visiting players(among other things, "Go back to the ovens at Auschwitz where you belong!"), and other shit. Really, if any of that bullshit ever occured in say Cleveland or Oakland(two centers of infamously proud and rowdy American Football fans) or New York City or better yet, Miami...those punks would have been either beaten up or shot. Trust me.

Amen.

Alot of people chose the Uk its not that special.

For Me.

Australia(only cause im currantly travelling around beautiful place)

Italy
Canada
Germany
Spain

1. China
2. Poland
3. Canada
4. Australia

China?!

Didn't you know the government there monitors, censors and controls the internet and shuts down thousands of websites every week (or makes foreign sites inaccessible from China)?

I would have to go with two choices:

USA, because, as Oprah says, if you're a woman and you're American, you're already luckier than almost every woman on the planet.

Sicily, because I love it so very much.

Having a vacation house in Sicily and my residence in the US would make my life quite complete.