Emigrating to Swizerland/Austria/Vienna

Maaate · 26-01-2015 11:55pm #1

Hi All,

Looking for some advise here if anyone can offer. This may sound quite random but I am considering the possibility of moving the family abroad to somewhere like Swizerland or Austria or Germany.

I work as a software developer so I think I would have a pretty good chance of getting work. I work with a number of guys from the countries I mentioned and it it seems they have a lot to offer. I have two kids, aged 4 and 7, my wife speaks German and my kids speaks some too(they are learning at the moment though) I don't speak it at all but would be trying to learn it if push came to shove.

One of my reasons for this would be to give the kids a whole new experience as I personally don't think Ireland has much to offer the younger generations and would like them to grow up in a place where they can have more options and a better way of life.

Has anyone here made a move similar to this and if so how did it turn out??

Cheers!

dissed doc · 27-01-2015 2:34pm

Maaate wrote: »

Hi All,

Looking for some advise here if anyone can offer. This may sound quite random but I am considering the possibility of moving the family abroad to somewhere like Swizerland or Austria or Germany.

I work as a software developer so I think I would have a pretty good chance of getting work. I work with a number of guys from the countries I mentioned and it it seems they have a lot to offer. I have two kids, aged 4 and 7, my wife speaks German and my kids speaks some too(they are learning at the moment though) I don't speak it at all but would be trying to learn it if push came to shove.

One of my reasons for this would be to give the kids a whole new experience as I personally don't think Ireland has much to offer the younger generations and would like them to grow up in a place where they can have more options and a better way of life.

Has anyone here made a move similar to this and if so how did it turn out??

Cheers!

I think that Ireland has actually plenty to offer, but jobs outside Dublin to easily access that (safe schooling, outside biking, sports, etc.,) is not as easy in IT industry. But that is an aside and it is an interesting question.

You need to look at what exactly is in each of these places IMO as there can be a world of difference, as much as Cornwall in the UK is in England, so is London. Likewise, Berlin is a metropolis of 3,5 million people and Bern in Switzerland is the size of Cork. A whole new experience must actually have some specifics: is it a real urban experience where they will meet so many people and others to gain huge confidence of living in a city, or more outdoors. LIkewise Vienna is a proper city, and is a world apart from places like Innsbruck which are as comparable as Dublin is to Galway and offers very difference experiences.

If anything, IMHO the spread of experience in terms of cities in the german speaking world is perhaps larger than the difference in the English speaking British isles for want of a comparison between large population blocks. Besides Berlin which is an extreme example, there are a multitide of other very large cities like Hamburg and Munich or Frankfurt, each with very different cultures, as much if not more different than London vs Manchester or Edinburgh.

The Corinthian · 27-01-2015 2:51pm

Maaate wrote: »

Has anyone here made a move similar to this and if so how did it turn out??

It turned out well. Thank you for asking.

TBH, your response is a bit generic and given you've titled this thread citing a non-EU nation, an EU nation and the capital of the second nation, I get the impression that you didn't really think this through before asking about it.

So, presuming that your question is "I'm thinking of moving to a German speaking country, what's it like?" then the answer is that other than some superficial similarities, it varies greatly. Not all 'Germanics' are the same; the 'fish heads' of northern Germany are very, very different to Austrians, for example. Neither do they all speak 'German' half the time, but dialects such as Hessen, Bavarian and less said about Schwyzerdütsch, the better.

Or are you asking about the job market? Austria's Good. The that part of Germany that was in the former DDR, less so. Switzerland was good, but the currency situation has put that in question at present.

Or else, what were you, just a teeny bit more specifically, looking to know?

The Hill Billy · 27-01-2015 3:05pm

I have just returned to Ireland after 6 years living in Bern in Switzerland. I used to commute, coming home to my family roughly 3 out of every 4 weekends.

I did consider moving my family over as Switzerland is a wonderful country in which to live & work. However, the quality of life that we have as a family in Ireland far out-weighed what we would have had in Switzerland. For a start, we would have had to move from a modest house in the countryside (with a huge garden for the kids) to an apartment, most likely with a much smaller community garden.

My kids (a couple of years older than yours) were very happy in school in Ireland. There's no way that I wanted to disrupt their education seeing as how they were thriving where they were. Also, they had an established circle of friends in our community. They were also of an age where they would have needed to attend an English-speaking school (for the first couple of years anyway) & this would have cost in the region of CHF25,000 per year per child.

Likewise, my wife also had her friends & family close by at home. In Switzerland she would have had practically no friends or support group to rely on. Granted, this could have been built up over time.

We also really love where we live - our area has fantastic facilities & a wonderful sense of community. Despite everything Switzerland has to offer, we felt that Ireland, for all its faults, was a better place for our family.

Best of luck with your move & I can highly recommend Switzerland as a place to work & live (even though we didn't go for it as a family).

riffmongous · 27-01-2015 3:11pm

I like Vienna a lot, relatively cheap and well organised, always plenty to see and do. I honestly don't think I could stomach living in Ireland anymore after living here.

Jim2007 · 27-01-2015 8:33pm

Well I have lived in Switzerland for over 25 years now, I'm married to a Swiss and have two kinds going through the local education system, so my perspective might be a bit different.

I can't tell you if Switzerland is better than Ireland for the kids, because it was never in play for us. What I can tell is what I value here:
- The very low crime rate, I never worry about the kids being out and about on their own
- In the early years of school here the concentration is on building up social skills and attitudes rather than academic skills. The main thing is that kids learn about team work and being part of a team, also about race/religion and the fact that so many of the kids have very different backgrounds.
- Kids must be self sufficient before they can move from the kindergarten to school, so things like walking to and from school, dressing/changing cloths, stay overs and so on.
- The apprenticeship system: Only about 20% of kids go to Uni, at 16 most kids start an apprenticeship, which consists of 2 or 3 days of school and 2 or 3 days of work. However it is not just education for a job, they still have to continue doing general subjects such as math, english etc...
- Of course if you do go the college route then it is all free and given the size of the country, most kids can live at home, so college is very doable.
- The Swiss schools are well used to having foreign kids join the class and they get plenty of support in the way of language classes and one on one sessions

For myself, I work in IT and among the things I value are:
- The work-life balance is very good, I can honestly say I've never worked more than 5 or 6 hours overtime in a month and that has always been fully paid or compensated for.
- The casual dress code is the everyday code!
- The compensation and holiday entitlement is excellent
- And the public transport is excellent to commuting is easy
- The working language is most often English, so there is no pressure at the start to get up to speed (some never do)

The language can certainly be a challenge in Switzerland as we have 4 four national languages and when it comes to German, we use a dialect loosely referred to as Swiss German, but there are in fact about 10 or more distinct one! So all the kids learn what we call written German in school, in other words standard German. It would kinda be like everyone in Ireland speaking English, but writing and reading in Irish.

If you are thinking of Switzerland, then I would suggest you getting your hands on a copy of "Living and Working in Switzerland".

murphaph · 27-01-2015 8:34pm

The Corinthian wrote: »

The that part of Germany that was in the former DDR, less so.

Generally valid comment, with the exception of the former East Berlin and Potsdam areas. You can have a nice life in Berlin or surrounding Brandenburg with a decent development job, of which there are quite a few waiting to be filled.

In Berlin you may even get lucky and get school places in one of the state bilingual schools (free of charge) and if not, the fee paying bilingual schools are some times quite reasonable. Of course at those ages you could just opt for a normal German school as the kids will pick German up in no time any way.

The Corinthian · 28-01-2015 9:26am

murphaph wrote: »

Generally valid comment, with the exception of the former East Berlin and Potsdam areas.

It was a general and blanket comment by me, I completely admit, but mainly because the OP was pretty general and blanket-like.

triggermortis · 17-02-2015 6:25am

I'm in Switzerland with my family and we are finding it great so far. I have worked here 3 years and was trying to get a job in Ireland, but we found it easier for my wife to get a job here, so we all moved over 6 months ago.
After getting over the initial shock of the cost of everything, we are settling in well. The kids are 5 and 2 and doing great. The system here is geared for one parent to stay home ideally, but we both work and the childcare is quite flexible. As I work shifts, I take the kids when I'm not in work to keeps costs down. We didn't want them to go to English speaking school as that would defeat the purpose of being here (my work is all done in English, so I have learnt very little German and almost no Swiss German) and they are way ahead of us. My 5 year old had a playmate over last week and they chatted away happily in German (much to my amazement, as when I ask him if he knows any German, I usually get no real response!)
As your wife has the language, you will find less problems to start and your kids are a good age to move. I don't know what the IT sector is like, but I'd imagine there are jobs available - good luck!

Emigrating to Swizerland/Austria/Vienna

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