>>>Italy; my business dealings there suggest it helps if you are Italian (who you know not what you know)<<<

This is true. Milano and Trieste and increasingly Bologna and Torino have reputations for openesss in Italy -- but those aren't the warm weather spots. The general area of Genova and Livorno are worth considering if a clear path to employment presented itself, and the climate is about as good as it gets. Livorno is a particularly liberal area with cosmopolitan politics and high tolerance for new arrivals.

In general I agree with bilboburger's rundown on Europe (don't know anything about Czechoslovakia), although the south of France might not offer the liberal neighborliness you seek (big base of support for the National Front). Also, young Spaniards have told me that church confederations still control employment opportunities in some Spanish cities, but I think it is more a mixed bag than Italy's more closed and clientalistic society.

I did notice that Malta has a very low unemployment rate, but having never been, can't offer any opinion as to whether a young couple would find it rewarding to spend 5 years there.

Increased dynamism in Spain's labor market analyzed by London School of Economics (not all that geeky). Some of the issues would not be negative for someone looking at a 5-year framework, rather than a longer-term career.

http://tinyurl.com/zrubwlq

I'm going to be a bit brutal here and you may not like this. Your husband has little/no industry experience from what I can gather from your post. You have what I would call a softer degree (don't mean to insult you but there are some areas of qualifications and work experience that are more sought after than others and I would not put yours at the top of the list). You want to go to sunnier climes but as has already been pointed out, some of the mediterranean countries tend to have higher employment rates.

We actually had an arrangement in my last workplace (in the UK) to give unpaid work experience to Spanish graduates because they were having trouble finding work at home. And we are talking about people with degrees in Biochemistry, Pharmacology and Molecular Biology. I will say it again. Unpaid. True, things have improved slightly since then. The operative word being slightly. You also have a history of flitting around a bit. Travel is great and broadens the mind and all that, but again too much and you aren't going to be at the top of anyone's list.

The people moving effortlessly from place to place are the following:-

IT professionals
Primary healthcare workers (ie doctors and nurses, specialist technicians eg radiologists).

Next down the list you have teachers, scientists and engineers. I know you are getting a teaching qualification but there are a lot of people who already have it plus a ton of experience.

Tradesmen eg builders, gas fitters, plumbers, electricians.

Beyond that the people who are truly in demand the world over are few and far between.

I am not saying don't go for it - but I am saying you perhaps need to be more flexible in terms of your wish list and choice of locations.

There is a flip side to what RM67 posted above. If you read the link I posted to the London School of Economics regarding employment in Spain, you will see that the "winners" in the faintly recovering job market were younger employees prepared to be temporary workers and job hoppers, short term contract workers without benefits. If you are a young Spaniard or Greek with a high level of educational attainment, chances are you will leave your country and head for quality employment in Germany or the UK to build real work experience. The only people moving "effortlessly" or even "effortfully" through Europe looking for work are all moving in one direction -- north, where the thriving economies are -- if they want careers with security.

So that does create a need within the brain-drained sunny countires for bright young 'flitters" to plug in the holes on an as needed basis. If employers know you have zero expectations of job security, they might prefer hiring you to a local who feels differently.

I would consider leaving Europe altogether and heading for South America perhaps, or a stable African country maybe. Or back to the US of course.

"As you know, the current situtation in Europe regarding immigration and permissions to stay is going through turbulence. For Italy, your ability to stay longer than 90 days would probably hinge on demonstrating that you presently have the monetary resources to support yourself, or a job waiting for you, or will be a full time student in an accredited program -- BUT you need to speak with the Italian consulate for precise reliable information on what is, as I said, a moving target at the moment."


OP is married to a German citizen, so should have no problems moving with him to any other country in the EU.

Thank you ALL so much for your advice and insights!

As many pointed out, the mix of warm weather and jobs in Europe doesn't seem to be too common right now. I really appreciate your suggestions on things we might do to overcome this.

These answers have certainly given me some great new places to look into that I had not really considered before.

sandralist:

Thank you for the MANY interesting points you brought up. Do you mind if I ask where in Italy you live? The greater Pisa/Livorno area does sound like a really good possibility. You also mentioned later on that Livorno "is a particularly liberal area with cosmopolitan politics and high tolerance for new arrivals." Does that hold for Pisa as well?

"If you only need sunshine and can tolerate some cold but sunny weeks during the year, there are plenty of sunny places in Europe which would offer you better employment prospects and easier integration"
This is actually what we're thinking for longer term plans, but as you, given your own experiences, can likely understand, right now I just need a healthy dose of heat to reset =)

I agree that if a lot of people are currently trying to move from these places to find better jobs elsewhere, a native English speaking and native German speaking couple might be very desirable teachers (my husband is also considering language teaching). And I hadn't thought about the particular benefit being 'flitters' might offer us - very interesting perspective!

sparkchaser:

I assume by Lagos you mean Portugal, not Nigeria? Any particular points that stick out about why it would be a nice place to live?

"I presume that the OP and her husband would like to maintain a certain standard of living that being an English teacher might not help meet."
I'm not so sure. We definitely would like to be able to eat and drink well and live in a comfortable flat, but we don’t need any of that to be fancy, and we don’t need a lot of ‘stuff’. I know there are places where an English teacher’s salary couldn't support even this, but I understand there are many places that it could.

traveller1959:

We had indeed previously ruled out Côte d'Azur because of the cost of living. Very interesting idea to find a ‘fixer-upper’, but neither of us have any experience in household renovations, and I’m not sure it would be the time to try to learn while simultaneously trying to build a life in a new country.

Thank you for the many entrepreneurial ideas. I have always thought about opening up a B&B somewhere, and have been considering doing something like this wherever we go next. I must admit though that I am a little put off by what I’ve always heard the success rates (or lack thereof) for new small businesses are… Your friends’ success rates do sound promising though. Maybe I will give some more thought to the idea overall.

Odin:

Cyprus is a great suggestion! I do worry about employment opportunities though, especially considering, as you say, the doubtful availability of English teaching jobs. Did your pediatrist friend remain in medicine? Or find something completely different like some other posters have suggested?

RM67:

Certainly no offence taken! You make a lot of very reasonable points. This is exactly why we are trying to gather as much information as possible now and be open-minded about our criteria.

hetismij2:

Along those lines, we have actually thought a lot about Uruguay. That so far seems to be the place that checks the most of our boxes. The major shortcoming, of course, being proximity to our family in Germany.

Nonconformist:

You are absolutely right and I should have made that clear in the original post. I have full rights to live and work in EU countries as the spouse of an EU citizen.

Linda: After all, it is your life and your decision. We can just throw in ideas and a few experiences.

However, I found it quite amusing that some posters tried to educate you. It happens all the time here on this forum.

Viel Glück und: "Es reist sich besser mit leichtem Gepäck."

If you need more feedback feel free to drive this thread further on. My impression is that many Fodorites enjoy posting here.

Für heute gute Nacht.

Pisa is the home town of one of Italy's most important and historic universities, with something of a concentration in the "hard" sciences and mathematics (given the legacy of Galileo). Like most university towns, it tends ot open minded and liberal politically (as is most of Tuscany), and Pisa encourages foreign students to enroll as both undergraduates and in their master's and Ph.D programmes.

It's climate is a little bit muggier than Livorno, since it is (no longer) directly on the sea but in an area that silted up, costing Pisa its historic port. But it is a 30-minute ride to the seaside, and generally Pisa enjoys mild temperature, although you can probably find a few pictures online of the occasional winter 1-day-wonder of the Tower of Pisa getting hit by snow.

Livorno is one of the historic seaports of Italy that is extremely proud of its long legacy of multiculturalism (Trieste and Palermo being the others). Jews, Africans, Arabs, Grekes, the British, Russians as of late -- all sorts of communities have thrived in Livorno over its long history, and even today it is noticeably multicultural and has a strong political dynamic supporting it. Livorno suffered tremendous bombing in WW2, and lost most of its beauty except in a few neighborhoods, so tourists avoid it (except the cruse shippers who disembark and make a bee-line for Pisa/Florence/Lucca/La Cinque Terre. Only few bother to hang out in Livorno. It's untoursty profile may be one of the reasons that Livorno has some of THE MOST WONDERFUL FOOD IN TUSCANY, hands down, in particular if you like sea foods, and a jaw-dropping covered food market.

I live closer to Genoa, which has got the best climate, and a friendly, mainly liberal culture, but the city focus is more narrowly on shipping and other hard industry. Being tucked further north along the coast, into its own protected space, Genoa lacks the opportunities one finds in Livorno/Pisa for being in contact with more of Italy, especially if one is interested in Renaissance culture and its impact on the rest of Europe.

I can't help but think that you and your husband could find lots of emigres from Europe where you are now and in Germany who could give you their input. You can apply some methods you been learning studying sociology and anthropology.

Regarding your legal status as an American in the EU, it is not clear what is going to become of the EU even in the short term future, and whether any other countries will go down the same road that the UK is now on with respect to spousal "rights".

Fodor's right now is not letting me post links, so I will quote from the Guardian article describing the changes that have been in effect (now) for the several years. Please remember that presently the UK and its citizens are in the EU:

"Today marks the first anniversary of draconian changes introduced by the British government to visas for foreign spouses brought in by home secretary Theresa May. There are two key features of the new rules: first, the Brit (and only the Brit) has to have an income of £18,600 before the visa can even be applied for; second, the probationary period before permanent residency is granted ("indefinite leave to remain"), increased from two years to five.

"The changes are barring thousands of British expats around the world from going home. In my own case, my Australian wife and I planned a 2013 return to England with our two sons after almost five years in Sydney. But when we looked into getting her a visa earlier this year – something I’d always assumed would be a simple formality – we discovered it would be impossible."

http://www.theguardian.com/commentis...ia-spouse-visa

Other people have confidence that the EU is going to last at least a year, or 5 years. I think no one really knows. What immigration laws individual European countries might adopt in a post-EU era is anybody's guess, and likely to vary from country to country.

I actually think northern Italy (eg Verona) would suit you very well in terms of improved weather, cultural change, great food and so on - and it's one of the wealthier parts of the country where a lot of the industry is concentrated so has a better choice of employment - but I hesitate to push that too strongly because I also know of quite a few cutbacks and redundancies in that region in the past 5-10 years. Mybe self- employement/consultancy could be the way for you to go as suggested above.

Hey -- I snuck in the link at the last minute and it worked.

That being the case, let me try to give you the link I wanted to give you before to the univeristy at Pisa.

(Nope. Had to delete it to post this. If you want to try on your own, do a google search for www.unipi.it

Downsides of lovely Verona: icy winters and reactionary politics.