Step 1: In order for you to be sure you are choosing the right country that will meet your needs, you have to do some honest self-reflecting. For example, if you know you are insanely afraid of bugs, the Amazon may not be the place for you. *Smile* So your first thing should be to decide what things you must have in your new home country. For instance, you may decide you must live in a place with outstanding medical care (yes for some people this isn’t a priority), or you may want to live in a place where you can safely practice your religion, or express your sexuality, etc. Remember, you are not looking to move to a perfect place, you are simply looking to move to a place where you feel you can live better or differently than where you currently live or move where you can be successful with your life goals.

For the longest time, I didn’t want to move to any place within the Pacific Ring of Fire, or anywhere there would be so many deadly bugs, snakes, or sea creatures, that one couldn’t move without fear of being taken out by the natural world. These are legitimate concerns, however, I can still move to most countries and not have these things be real issues. In addition, I had to remind myself that I grew up in Florida. Aside from Volcanoes, Florida has more danger within a smaller area than one would have in my countries of choice and I survived living there. *Smile* Funny, I’ve never been concerned about being mauled by lions or chomped or trampled to death by a cute but angry Hippo or any wild land beast (well except for bears here in the states).

Step 2: Once you have decided what you need to be happy and successful in a new country, it is time to take a look at a world map. You can Google “world map” and Google Images will pull up some nice ones for you. Choose the largest one you can find. You can also run down to most office supply or book store and get a world map. I used to have one of those huge ones you hang on the wall. They are fantastic! However the last time I looked for one, I thought it was too expensive so it’s up to you. There is always Google. Let’s take a look at the countries I am considering (I’m writing about the positive aspects of these countries I found interesting but I am very much aware of the negatives as well.).

Singapore – Let’s face it, Singapore is clean and has a lot of modern convinces to offer. This may be less of a scary move than say moving to a place 90% different than where I’m moving from. I also had a friend from Singapore and was able to have first hand knowledge of what kind of place it is. She spoke very highly of her home country and how it is run. Singapore has a welcoming immigration policy which is a very good thing considering how tough it is to immigrate these days. It is ethnically and culturally diverse making it more inviting for African Americans and Singapore also has a pretty nice film making industry as well.

Thailand – Thailand is actually my top pick right now. Thailand has a lot to offer. For instance, it is a Buddhist country which makes it easy for others to be comfortable with their own life choices there. It also has less hangups about sex and sexuality as well. In addition, it is beyond cheap to live in Thailand. There are a myriad of other things such as being able to buy fresh food, access to state-of-the-art medical care that is insanely cheap, prescription drugs that are over the counter and cheap, access to alternative medicine by people with a cultural history of practicing it, friendly people, low crime, beautiful landscapes, close proximity to other cool countries… I could go on an on. Thailand is also a welcoming place for African Americans and the further north you go, the better (Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai). I also know people from the U.S. who have moved to Thailand and they absolutely love it.

Seychelles – I never really considered moving to Seychelles until a friend of mine, currently living in Australia, told me this was his first choice for relocation but it was too expensive. He is right about that. However, it isn’t so expensive that it is out of the question. One simply couldn’t go there with little or no money and no marketable skills. I decided to take a better look at this group of islands off the coast of Africa and I must say, I was ready to move there immediately. First of all, it is an absolutely beautiful set of islands and what I love the most is that they are granite islands and not coral. These islands also offer a unique blend of people, languages, food, and culture. It is also a wonderful place for artists of all types and it requires very little money to setup your own business there. Even more spectacular is that one only needs to apply for a work permit to emigrate there and its not that expensive to get one. But the fact does remain, you do need to have decent money saved or being earned to live there. If you go to start a business, it has to be something that can thrive for the long haul on the islands.

Mozambique – Mozambique calls me. It is really that simple. There are some places I am connected to without having been there and this is one of those places. No matter what my initial move may be, this is where I’ll most likely end up at some point in my life. It’s full of life, art and culture.

Palau – It’s a beautiful island, what more could you want? Palau is also a very well governed island. A friend of mine recently had lunch with the president of Palau and was kind enough to give me the skinny on living and working there. This is my second top pick, however it too is expensive and would require one to manage a sustainable career in something that would thrive on a small island. Palau is also in a decent location relative to other interesting places to visit.

Ireland – Last but not least, Ireland. While traveling to Europe has never been one of my travel goals, Ireland was another one of those places I had some weird connection to. I went to Ireland last October and stayed for two weeks (trust me, Ireland is small enough for two weeks to feel like a week too long for the visit). Besides the fact that I think the Irish accent is some top secret sex weapon, I am primarily attracted to the island for it’s uniquely beautiful landscapes. There are a lot of friendly Africans in Ireland as well but the Irish are pretty laid back themselves so being African American there is really not a big issue. I’d just come from Germany before visiting Ireland and I can’t tell you the relief I felt once in Ireland. I went from being stared at for my entire visit in Germany to just being a part of the population in Ireland. I absolutely loved being there but it is pretty low on my list because of the challenges of moving and obtaining work there if you are not from an EU country. This doesn’t mean it’s not possible, just at the moment, the pros and cons are too even. I will blog more about my trip to Ireland in my Travel section but I can say that I do love how friendly and laid back the Irish are and how they still have some of the same family values and social manners that were once present in the US South where I grew up. Ireland also has a pretty good film making community as well.

*Tip for African Americans: It is very easy for African Americans to gain citizenship in Ghana, West Africa and many many African Americans have moved there. I went there in 2002 (will blog about it later) and can only say that it was wonderful. I wouldn’t mind living there either but it’s not time for me to revisit that thought yet. I would recommend visiting first to get a feel of the place. It’s fun but one thing I couldn’t get past was feeling like the welcoming of African Americans to Ghana was in attempt to treat us like ATM Machines. But you should experience Ghana for yourself. It may have been our tour situation alone that was giving me the feeling.

Step 3: Research, Connect, Research! Read as much as you can from various on and offline resources about your chosen countries. Make sure you are up to date on current events there and make an effort to learn the history of the country as well. This is very important. If you have an understanding of the circular flow of life, then you know that the past is just as important as the present and future. Learn the history of where you are going! If where you are going has ever been colonized, learn about that country’s pre-colonial history, preferably from non-colonial sources. Learn about their social and economic histories. Look for patterns. Take a good look at what the country is doing today and where it hopes to go in the future. Having been born in your native country didn’t give you an opportunity to do this, so take this chance to have some fun learning about other places!

It may also help to locate and obtain videos of the countries you are considering. Youtube is a great source for finding videos of people moving to, vacationing in, and making documentaries of the places you may want to go. There are also many other sources, like those Globe Trekker videos, etc.

*Important Tip: Do connect with real individuals who are living in your country of choice, prior to moving. Do the best that you can. Do not rely on message boards and forums only. Be persistent. Moving to a new country is simply too big a deal for you to rely solely on information on a forum, no matter how many people swear by it. I personally want to chat with real live people who have made the move and find out how they made it and if their way will work for me or if I need to go another route. I also want to gauge my real chances of surviving there. Find some nice people who can also take a look at your resume and tell you about the job situation there. Ask about housing, transportation, food, etc. Be Persistent!

*Another Tip: Get a TEFL certification before you go anywhere. This is good to have. You can always teach English somewhere to get by when first starting out. Nowadays, you can get a very good TEFL cert. online or in person for a reasonable amount of money and some places even offer guaranteed job placement as a part of the cert. or as a separate service.

So where will I go? Anywhere the wind blows. *Smile* Seriously though, there are a few places I have in mind; Singapore, Thailand, Seychelles, Mozambique, Palau and Ireland. I’m also considering these places because of their close proximity to other cool places as well. I like the idea of being in areas where I can hop around to different countries with relative ease.

In this section of my blog, I will be writing about the whole relocation experience. In my own experience of researching places to move and the best way to do it, I find there isn’t enough concise help. That is, step by step instructions on the best way to go about the process, minus all the fluff and ranting. While I don’t deny forums and message boards are helpful, I feel they are only helpful to a point. Especially when you ask a question and you get several different answers and then the users launch into an all out argument over which is the right one or someone goes on a rant about where they are living and then someone jumps on their back about how wonderful the place really is, blah blah blah. So those forums can get useless really quick.

What I found to be most helpful to me were sites and connections to people who could break down the ultimate process of moving to whatever country they moved to. For instance, originally I wanted to move to New Zealand and there were quite a few individuals, couples and families who either set up free services to help new movers through the entire process or just offered their experiences to help folks get an idea of what would be involved in the move. I found this extremely helpful. Also connecting directly with a person or family who has made the move makes the path you are trying to take a lot less scary. Ultimately I decided New Zealand didn’t deserve me. *Smile*

Some of the things I would like to cover in this section are: Finances, Expectations, Goals, Education, Mental and Physical Wellness. I have a natural tendency to create concise skeleton plans for everything; the absolute basics needed to be successful. So what I’ve done for myself is pick out the topics I think are the most critical in making a move to another country.

My posts about relocating to a new country are aimed at single people(with the African American in mind) moving alone with no job in the new country and with very limited finances upon leaving. I will talk briefly about why I chose the countries I did, however it should not ultimately determine where you move to. You should move to where ever you feel will make you happy if you can afford to move and/or live there. So affordability and happiness are they keys here.

Cheers!