NGL, not asking for a friend. Given the current trends in US politics, it seems prudent to at least look into it.

Most of the online content on the topic seems to be by immigration attorneys hustling ultra rich people. I’m not ultra rich. I have a job in tech, could work remotely, also have enough assets to not desperately need money if the cost of living were low enough.

I am a native English speaker, fluent enough in Spanish to survive in a Spanish speaking country. I am old, male, cis, hetero, basically asexual at this point. I am outgoing, comfortable among strangers.

What’s good and bad about where you live? Would it be OK for a outsider, newcomer?

  • mayhair
    3·
    6 hours ago

    I don’t know why anyone (who doesn’t have ancestry there) would want to move to Pakistan. Sure, it’s not completely undeveloped (otherwise I wouldn’t be sending this message lol), but it still has a VEEERRRRRYY long way to go compared to other industrialised countries.

    • Electricity has become more reliable over the years, but you still have to deal with increasing bills, so that the government can pay off its IMF loans
    • Piped gas still isn’t 24/7, it’s off from 10 pm to 6 am
    • Tap water still isn’t drinkable
    • Karachi, Lahore, and Islamabad disproportionately receive the lion’s share of development while smaller cities are neglected
    • Even Karachi can be said to not be as developed as Lahore or Islamabad. When I visited it, I found that it was greatly overpopulated and many apartment buildings were extremely worn-down. Chipping paint for instance. My father says that since Lahore and Islamabad are a comfortable driving distance away from each other, the population is more evenly distributed between the two cities. Hyderabad’s near Karachi, but remember, it’s not a big three city …
    • Even the development in Lahore and Islamabad is not optimal. Mostly relying on private housing projects, not making an effort to make them integrate with the rest of the city
    • Suboptimal public transport. In Lahore there is a public bus and metro system, but both don’t cover too much of the city. For intercity buses, people rely on private companies such as Daewoo Express. And again, the reliance on private housing projects hinders true city-wide planning
    • Professionals (doctors, engineers, lawyers) receive very low salaries compared to what they could earn abroad. The devaluation of the rupee is related to it, but only partially. That’s why millions of us have moved abroad to literally every other country, and thus why remittances are a big portion of this country’s income
    • Lahore is literally the smoggiest city in the world right now. Did I mention it’s one of the three most developed?
    • Too much non-air pollution as well. There is a culture of littering, partially because people aren’t punished for it and thus have adopted a care-free attitude, and partially because there aren’t enough outdoor wastebins

    I haven’t even gotten into the sociopolitical aspects … I’d be writing a whole book at that point