The problems are, I don't know where to go, and how much does it cost. Right now, I have around $1,000 in my bank account. It's all the money that I save from my job.
Unfortunately, I don't have any degree. I am a high school graduate. But I'm good at design and good enough at front-end dev. I am also into fitness, I workout alot, mostly calisthenics.
I'm thinking about to move to Canada or Japan. But I don't think I have the money. Probably some of you can help me. I just want to get out. Where to go? Thank you!
a) Try to legally migrate to a first world country. Given your background the chances are very slim. Your best chance is probably to find a western partner willing to marry you.
b) Illegally migrate to another country. This is very difficult for the countries you mentioned because you have to cross an ocean. Illegal immigration into Europe is possible but 1,000 USD is not enough. From what I read you would need about 10,000 USD. It also comes with certain risks. About 0.1-3% of the migrants die during the journey depending on the route. Many get abused on the way. Do you want to play this kind of Russian roulette? Assuming that you have the money and you are willing to take the risk, your chances are not that bad, probably above 30% to make it within a year. If you make it, a lot of things will be better, but a lot of other things will be much worse than you expect. Your chances to be better off than the median are very slim. Most likely you will be sourended by 90% people being better off than you. If you work hard, chances for your children are much better though.
c) Migrate within your country to a better comunity. This should be feasable, even though you seem to have only about a few month of savings. Maybe you find a better comunity in your own country? This has many advantages over above options. You stay within your own language and culture, you can continue to use your existing network and you can easily reverse your move if the new community turns out worse than expected. I would assume, this option has the highest success rage. If you succeed here another option may open at a later point with higher success probabilities.
> b) Illegally migrate to another country.
Well, I don't want to break the law. If I have a chance I want to move legally. But as you can say, given my background the chances are very slim.
> c) Migrate within your country to a better comunity. ... If you succeed here another option may open at a later point with higher success probabilities.
I think this is what I am going to do. I don't know how long does it take to make enough money to get out of here, but I'm going to try.
I actually run a small printing business where I make enough money. The bad news is, I don't have any machine or employee, so if I am moving to another city, it'll be hard for me to run my business. The good news is all my customers are coming from the internet, we never meet, and they do repeat order.
Thank you for your reply!
Due to some unfortunate buerocratic mishaps I was forced to stay. And 20 years later here I am - still in the same country, while companies are offering me to relocate and help me with legal expenses.
After travelling a bit abroad and seeing how life is in the countries I wanted to live in, I know have the feeling thet they all have their own problems, and you get to a pretty awesome standard of living if you stay at your unexpensive place, but get a decent european/american salary. And its totally possible with remote work nowadays.
And while I still think my life would have turned out better if I was able to emigrate back in the day, life here has gotten noticably better, a lot of expats are returning and bringing the culture I desired to be a part of here.
So yeah even if you don’t manage to get out, you can still sharpen your skills, and get to work for some first world companies with a great compensation. And with not that much money, even the lousiest places can be a great place to live.
> Your chances to be better off than the median are very slim.
Chances to be better off than the median are exactly 50%.
OP would have significant disadvantages that would make them likely to be below the median.
> Up to three quarters of Germany’s refugees will still be unemployed in five years’ time
Conditional probabilities matter.
No, if a sample size of monthly salaries is: $1k, $3k, $4k, $10k, $12k
The median is $4k. Achieving better than that may indeed be a slim chance if it represents a level up in seniority. Your background and skills matter.
Also, in this sample size, only 40% are above median. If you measure everyone salary to the dollar, it will approach 50% but never get there. In fact above median will always be < 50% by definition.
You need a student visa or some of type of residence permit, though. If you're eligible depends on your country of origin. You also have to prove you'll be able to sustain yourself during your stay.
It's obviously temporary. Once you've finished your studies it's usually assumed that you return to your home country, unless you manage to find work with a local company, that is. The latter potentially opens up the opportunity for naturalisation or a permanent leave to stay.
Running a business might work, too but probably is more difficult because you'd have to prove that you're able to provide for yourself, which can be hard when just starting out. Still, there are options and special programmes for high-tech entrepreneurship.
Not sure about tuition for foreign students.
Right.
Genuinly interested as these types of decisions are immensly interesting.
1) Currency. Its value just keep sinking.
2) Safety. What I fear the most is terrorism. There are a bunch of people in the name of religion doing scary things at night just because they think you're wrong. But cops don't care. I honestly never saw cops fight those people. It's scary.
3) Government. Something is wrong here. Even if next year we will have a presidential election, I don't think it'll make things better.
2. Can't help you there.
3. This is a problem pretty much all over. Everyone has a different opinion about it,but I believe globalization has caused a dramatic increase in competition, which creates stress, leading people to act irrational and short sighted. Cooler heads will prevail.
I'm not trying to convince you to stay, just to use what resources you do have.
It sounds interesting. How do I do that? Can you explain a bit more?
It seems to me that the answer to your problems is money. Yes, I know that can seem obvious but if you have a goal to earn western wages while living on Indonesian costs you should be able to save a fair bit.
This means you could try freelancing your front-end dev skills out to western clients. There are lots of platforms out there where you can do this.
Alternatively look for a remote only job as these are becoming more and more popular and front-end development is a highly desired skillset.
Thinking outside the box a bit, if you're willing to stay put a little while longer you could potentially build software products, such as WordPress plugins and use a platform like Codecanyon to sell them.
Or if you'd rather use your fitness interest/skills why not consider setting up some kind of bootcamp class? You could create a course on bookmartialarts.com (or similar) that is tailored to foreigners that want to come work out in another country? With your development skills you'd likely have an edge with marketing it and making it look very professional.
You've got a tough but not impossible road ahead of you. Good luck!
I would get some formal computer science education while working for a startup where you can get relevant experience with modern technologies and improve your team-work skills. Don't optimize for money now, optimize for mastery. Fortunately, software development is among the most lucrative professions on the planet and you like it.
Fast-forward 5-10 years and your chances of landing a great job in US, Canada, etc would be dramatically improved. Many experienced React Devs make 90,000/year+ in the US [1].
* EDIT: also, if you want to work in an English-speaking country, mastering the English language would help too (you may already have this ability).
Good luck! You got this!
1. https://stackoverflow.com/jobs/salary/results?l=United+State...
So, a few things. Indonesia has progressed very well over the past 20 years and that is likely to continue. From a low base though.
Between Canada and Japan, Canada is a better choice unless you already speak Japanese. Japan is not fond of foreigners while Canada is full of foreigners.
You can apply directly to immigrate to Canada. There's a "point system" that determines if you qualify. Your English seems to be very good so that's a big thing in your favour. No university degree is a big impediment.
It can be very difficult to get a first job in Canada when you don't have experience.
It seems to me that Singapore might be a better option. At least in the short term. Pay is higher than in Canada or Japan, Singapore is desperate for immigrants and it's right next door.
There are a lot of great opportunities for great front-end and designer in US/Canada. However, the biggest thing against you will most likely be your accent and your english. People won't tell you straight in your face, but unless you can communicate very fluidly you'll have a hard time finding a full-time job.. even more if working remotely.
I don't know how good is your english/accent, but I'd recommend taking english lesson with someone that could teach you how to improve your accent. IMHO that will yield SO MUCH more opportunity than learning another web framework .
While learning that, I'd recommend picking a modern web framework and getting really good at it. I.e. React/Redux/Graphql/html/css.
Once you have your english communication + base front-end knowledge, apply to startup that offer visa. Startups are great because they often can't pay a huge salary so they need to be more creative and give more chance to people with different background. I wouldn't be too picky about the startup vision or whatever, as long as they have cash in the bank, aren't toxic and can help you move.
Once you've moved and landed a job, keep learning and improving in your spare time, stack cash, and after 1-2 years, feel free to move to better company.
But again, the strong accent / bad english is what will most likely make it very hard so I'd invest in that first.
Have you considered Singapore or Hong Kong?
Once you have the degree, work for a while to build up more savings. How you do this is up to you, but you’ll need a lot more than $1000 to get yourself established in a developed country.
Once you have the money, you will be eligible for many more visa programs than you are currently. One common “backdoor” route is to get a master’s degree using a student visa that allows you to work in the country for a period of time afterwards. The US OPT[1] program is the one I’m familiar with, but there similar systems in other countries. It’s much easier to get employers to sponsor you for visa programs if you’re already working in the country.
Also, you should apply for the US Diversity Visa[2] program every year. It’s an extreme long shot, because there are so many more applicants than spots, but you never know.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optional_Practical_Training
If you're really, really smart you might be able to get a full college scholarship somewhere.
There's Ecole 42 in Paris (also Silicon Valley) that's tuition free. "No degrees or special skills are required to apply, and those who are accepted attend for free for three to five years. Around 80% of students get jobs before they finish the course; 100% are employed by the end." https://qz.com/1054412/a-french-billionaires-free-teacher-le.... But Ecole 42 is hard to get into. And Ecole 42 might only accept French students. (The answer is an email away.)
1. become a really good front-end developer, do remote work. Be very professional about it. You'll start making good $$$.
2. Search HN for tips on remote/contract work, there's a whole lot of wisdom about it.
3. Once you start making >$3 k/month, a lot of possibilities open up, including some EU countries. You can get a student visa, and running your own business also might be a possibility.
4. You might be able to study in EU right away. Make a list of universities you're interested in, email each and every one of them, asking if you can become a student and if there's a scholarship that might be available to you. I know a few people who did this successfully with very little of their own money.
If you're a good front-end dev, try remote work as others suggested. It's probably your best bet to gather some money and grow from there on. If higher education is free or affordable in Indonesia, I'd suggest going there to study first and get yourself a degree. This will make everything, including migration, much easier in the future.
From Indonesia to the Netherlands:
https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/country_result.jsp?cou...
If you're getting a job there, the numbers won't be as important.
Good luck!
