This channel was created to help people, mostly from third world countries who want to look for greener pasture in Austria and Europe in general. I'll share ways to legally relocate to Europe via work or studies. I'll also help you get to learn more about Austria 🇦🇹, the people, their culture and how life is in general. I'll also share some of my daily activities just to give you a sneak pic of how Austria looks like.
At 17:31: Didn't you remove the cap from the winebottle??? Usually you seperate it, because it's metal! -Yes austria takes waste seperation to it's peek.😂 Great video by the way!! 👏
How about informing yourself BEFORE moving to a new country? Thank you for appreciating the excellent transport system and the still good health system. If you don't like smokers, please avoid countries like Serbia or Romania, it is much worse there. Regarding cleanliness, Austria is not the cleanest country of the globe. Going to Japan you will be surprised. They do not throw their waste into bins on the road, but are taking it home and dispose of it there. Their country is spotless. Dogs' owners do the same with the droppings of their animals. Thus, nobody can step into the shit. It is healthier for everybody. And - if you are scandalized by nudity, please don't go to the places reserved for FKK people. They are a tiny minority and have the right to do what they want. Finally, complaining about complaining is a bit absurd, don't you think so?
You do NOT have to pay when you go to a church. Not even the most touristy church, Stephansdom you have to pay to get in. If you want a special tour, to some otherwise closed off parts of the Church, maybe then you pay. Stop spreading lies
I dont like the last part of your comment, but its right that we dont call our parents by the first name. That has to be a special group that does so. Or the mom is a stepmom.
It's so interesting to hear your perspective! I've also heard that Viennese are known for being grumpy. But I appreciated your analysis of this: that people haven't seen actual suffering and take what they have for granted. Very good point! There is no reason to be grumpy. But yes, it is a sad situation that there is poverty in Europe, as well. Oof, you will be very shocked by the US 😢
I think it is just difference of culture. With the pets. I wouldn't share a bed with my dog but if I live in an apartment I can't let my dog roam the city alone it is not safe too many cars. At least in the suburbs or in the village it is safer for dogs to roam.
Hi Mercy, what is it like relocating from Africa and settling in Austria with family especially the kids … how do you register them in school? Is education free? Are there schools that teach in English? I feel if there are non-English taught school for kids then it may be a difficult one for the kids to settle down especially that they speak English language. They are age 6 and 4 years old. Also, my wife is a teacher and intends to do a post graduate degree in early childhood education… are there Universities that offer this course in English? Are early childhood teachers a high demand job? If yes, are there schools that accept English speaking teachers or must she learn German language to land a teaching job? Finally, do you have a licensed immigration lawyer for Austria or any information or website where I can find a licensed immigration attorney? I live in Nigeria and would appreciate your advice. Many thanks 🙏🏻
Hey, im not coming as a student in Austria but stays only for 3month, is there any website to find cheap place to sleep ? (I would prefer to live with other ppl)
Seems normal to me. I let my cat sleep with me all the time. Nude beach is very common in California especially Baker beach. Love it. Not a culture shock.
Living with your parents is a cost related thing. Especially when you are still in education, i.e. as student, living in an own apartment/flat comes with its own costs which you need to finance first. It also depends on the home. I have a friend who's parents own a big house and as he is his parents only child he will inherit the house at one point. The house is large enough for his parents and can easily fit him and his girlfriend as well without having to step on each others toes. I also know a lot of people who don't want to take a credit to finance an own home as this usually puts you into the burden of not only paying back that loan over time but also pay additional interests. I've seen families go into bankruptcy because of credits they at one point couldn't pay back further as they lost their jobs and so forth. In regards to cooking. I know how to cook but usually I don't like it that much as it requires some time to prepare, shop and what not. Time that I can usually spend on other things that are more important to me at the moment. Cooking nowadays is more of a life-style thing. For me personally a slice of bread, some meat and some veggies are enough for dinner but I know lots of people who celebrate their cooking time. To everyone their own. Yes, there are subsidized flats usually owned either in cities hands or in a so called Genossenscahft (collective) which must not do building projects for profit purposes, but, even as Austrian you may have to wait for years to get an offer. You may decline the first offer but as soon as you decline the second offer you're done. No more "Gemeindewohnung" for you then. People are usually queued based on a scoring-system. If you have 2 kids, no men i.e. you get queued before a male as the urgency to provide a home for the kids is higher compared to a man. Good friends of mine enlisted their son at the age of 16 for a Gemeindewohnung. Now at the age of 25 he still hasn't received any offer from the Gemeinde Wien and he's currently checking his options as he want to move out but as he's still a student (not finished his studies yet) his parents agreed to add the missing amount to his rent unless it is super expensive. The Arbeitsmarktservice (AMS; labor mediation service) is also something that I would only use as the last fallback in terms of finding a job. I only had to interact with them twice so far as I asked for "Bildungskarenz" (education leave) and the last time when I finished my studies and had to wait for 2 months till I could start at my new job. They were always unfriendly and unsupportive and literally demanded to take part in an English beginner course for those two month so that I don't appear in any job-less statistics. The people who were put with me in that course mostly tried to just sit off their time until they can retire completely. Only one or two really took this course to actually learn English and even the teacher was an Indian even I had at times difficulties to understand. During my education leave I had to come by every like 2 month and show the results of my lectures, which I had way more ECTS than I actually needed and at one point my adviser asked me where all of my job applications are that I had to write. There was never a hint that I had to apply for jobs during an education leave. That also bypasses any logic for that system. Rest assured that any jobs you find through AMS will only pay minimum wage as there the companies know that the people desperately need that job and can therefore go down with their payments. I'd say if you look for a job rather use kariere(dot)at or depending on your qualification some hangouts in universities or technical platforms. No, we don't call our parents with our first names. Never heard anything like that. Not sure though if foster homes here might be different though. I still call my mom "Mama" or "Mutti". We usually call close friends by our first name only or if we want to mock someone, like talking about a teacher in his absence. Even close relatives usually get a synonym instead of their real first name, like i.e. "Mitzi-Tante", "Onkel Rudi" or something like that. If you have to file an official document and own a particular academic title you need to add that as this becomes officially part of your name. Of course, if you try to brag with your title at university level everybody will just laugh at you. It is important to know that there are various levels of titles. Academic titles like doctor (Dr.), Magister/Migistra (Mag.) Diplom-Ingenieur (Dipl.Ing.) and Bachelor (Bacc) where except for the last one all need to be prepended and thus become part of the name. Bacc is an exception to this and does not really need to be added but if so it needs to follow your name not prepend it, i.e. Max Mustermann, Bacc.. Then there are a lot of job-titles like Professor, Oberstudienrat, Ingenieur, Kaufmann, Kommerzialrat which are applied based on your profession and experience and a certain payment. These titles are not officially part of your name though even though they are prepended. I'd say usually we Austrians are quite reserved. We value our privacy and getting to know us more usually requires some language skills. Especially older generations might not be able to speak English well enough or at all, i.e. my parents don't, which would make it way harder for me to bring home friends that don't speak German well enough. Some might also have the ressentiment that black people in Austria are either refugees or drug dealers for the most part, which is not true, but a certain political party explicitly plays with that fear and picture. In the words of "Avenue Q" - "Everyone's a little bit racist". There will always be people around who blame others for their misfortune or bad luck, about their downhill situation and what not. Partly also political agendas motivate such idiocrasy, i.e. when they claim that black people are mostly drug dealing criminals that came here to rob "our" people. Sadly, fear is and was always a good mean to unite people against "the others". These people often lack the understanding and also the willingness to educate themselves as such probably not even telling them on the situation in Kenia or other parts of the world may really change their picture. They just see their sad life and blame their situation onto others instead of self-reflecting what they could have done better in the past and what they could do to change it. For such racial comments I'd simply say ignore them or go to the police and report such idiots. I think treating people by their actions is way more important than by their religion, skin color or origin. And I have to admit, your hair does look very interesting as it is so different from what we can see everyday on the streets :) People asking you about your hair are therefore just curious.
The problem with the catholic church in Europe is, it is far more a company with stiff regulations than the open-house everyone is welcome as they usually market it. I wasn't paying those fees also, like you, and I also received such a reparation letter where they threatened me to take me to the court to get their money. Proves how much they care more for the money than for the human. The only way to avoid that is to opt out of that "union" which though is only possible once you paid all your debts. Believing in a god shouldn't cost a single coin IMO as this is something rather personal. In regards to smoking. Yes, a lot of people smoke and while there are certain laws to protect kids from gaining access to either cigarettes or alcohol, noone usually cares that much. A pack of cigarettes sold is a pack of cigarettes sold. Luckily it got better though. As someone who was born and raised here in the 80s I still can remember the middle part of our "Schnellbahn" to be the smoking launch were there was no air in it and if you came late and needed to exit at the back you either had to wait for your stop and then pass all of the station to get to the exit or you had to crawl through the smoking area to get to the back part of the train. My parents also used to smoke quite heavily and especially in a car I often vomited as I can't stand the smell of cigarettes at all. But their needs were back then more important than the health of their kids. My sister developed some serious asthma this way while I just can't stand the smell of it. Unfortunately, the state earns quite a lot through smoking and that's why it is also still allowed in a lot of places even though certain public buildings do not allow smoking nowadays. I find it strange when people want to enter a home with their shoes on. They literally carry all the dirt from the street to their or other peoples home. If they do that in their own home, their thing. If they however do that in other peoples home that's straight out impolite. Some argue that they rather have someone enter their homes with shoes rather than have to smell stinky feet, I argue that if someone has stinky feet they should rather care for that problem in first place. My sister i.e. used to have very stinky feet as she run all day in her Nike and therefore had a lack of air support which allowed an "athlete's foot" to develop. But this is treatable and should so. While our standard of living is quite high, we always find things to whine and complain about. That's just so deeply rooted in us. Our grandparents did it, our parents do it, we do it and so will our children with some likelihood. But that is also a means of stating what should be improved. If enough people moan and find the current status bad only then real change can be achieved. In regards to our politics and government though, I think it is already a dead loss. And yes, there are plenty of regions on earth where Austria might seem like a save haven or a land of milk and honey, but Austria isn't perfect by any means. No country in fact is. Driving on the Südost-Tangente (Part of the Autobahn in Vienna) at peak times demands a lot (and I mean a loooooooot) of patience and seeing how some try to cut the line to shorten their time to get home and thus causing accidents is something you need to complain about. Sure, if Indian people see that traffic they might have the impression that everything is nice and orderly but in our standards that more or less unacceptable. Nowadays people often complain on the high number of emigrants, especially Turks, which though also just happen to be a very local issue in fact. Their families usually have way more children compared to Austrian families and thus their kids often "play" outside in the park as these families usually only have access to "Altbauten" which lack behind in living standards and subsidies compared to homes Austrians usually have access to. As the 2nd/3rd generation of those immigrants though now also has access to subsidized living areas plenty, especially elderly, people see that as a slap in their face knowing what they had to go through to obtain such homes. This of course creates some tension between these groups and ultimately also leads to a slowly growing right-wing movement in Austria. Especially when these minority group openly live their culture and at times even mock the local culture then plenty of local people aren't amused about that. In Turkey, Iran or any other Asian country I probably have to adept to the local culture over time as well and depending on the number of fellow Austrians living in some part of that country, local residents might also develop some misbehavior or prejudice regarding us over time. While shopping on Sundays might be convenient you also have to understand that this means that others have to work. As Austria is still dominated by catholics and the more popular parties even base their party principles off of the catholic religion and tradition, shops are closed on Sundays as the holy book demands that more or less. Bakeries or supermarkets at major railway stations or airports do have usually open though. ... (more in the next comment as this is obviously to long :D) Anyways, sorry for the long comment and thank you for your views and takes on our Austrian mentality :)
There are enough people living in or near the line of what is considered poverty in Austria, but that could be said for most European countries I think. Mostly people with non-Austrian/EU citizenship, a lack of education and/or women with kids which were left hanging by the male partner are affected by this. While our social system should be able to help them, some do not want help, some are addicted to alcohol or other form of medication and therefore spend all their money on these drugs, others fell victim to some greedy or shady business and so forth. The best friend of my sisters i.e. spent all of her income on gambling/one-armed bandits - in a single night - and then had to ask all of her friends to help her out, me included. My sister then asked me to stop helping her out as she literally has to learn it the hard way. She always found people to donate her money and she got through with it for several years to this point. Friends of mine were building a house, paid it almost fully when the owner of the brick layer company all of the sudden declared bankruptcy and flew with their (and other peoples) money to Thailand. There are many things that can lead people into poverty and IMO it shouldn't be a shame to just say I can't afford something. However, our media is dominated by "Western"/American culture where owning and possessing is of upmost priority and your status is defined by such "symbols", which is utterly nonsense IMO. Near the place I'm living there is a shelter for homeless people and before the evening you can see them queue each night for food and some sleeping place. These shelters though are usually funded by NGOs and only a bit by the city of Vienna. Supermarkets often give away stuff to these shelters for free which they otherwise need to throw away anyways. That the number of poor people is rising though can be seen by those "rescue" shops where you can buy food and essentials at a lower price when you fulfill certain requirements. They are literally sprouting like flowers in a park and more and more people need their services. This sadly goes hand in hand with people losing buying power on their income constantly. While a single man could provide a wife, 2 children and an annual 1-2 week vacation in the 60s without much problems, today both partners need to work and some sacrifice need to be done in order to be able to afford a 1 week vacation to Italy or the like, at least unless you received a university education and have a good paying job. This is though more due to the increasing globalization which the government pays tribute to in order to make the Austrian country more attractive to investors and thus create jobs. When other places though can produce the same goods in almost the same quality cheaper, that workplace is now "unprofitable", even though they write black figures, and is therefore replaced with factories in other countries which might also have less restrictions on workers benefits, health care and so forth. The picture most African people therefore might have is rather dangerous for Europe in future. There were at least plans in Austria/EU region to issue infomercials in parts of Africa to inform people on the real situation in Europe especially in regards to economic refugees. Currently thousands and thousands of people die each year in an attempt to cross the Mediterranean Sea when their situation in Europe then would increase at all as they get more or less locked in with other refugees, aren't allowed to really work or own money and usually dealing with drugs or committing other forms of crimes is their only way out of their "misery", which now creates a whole lot other problems, including local people getting mad about that and eventually performing violence against these (like in Germany in the 90s). Kids are a strong contributor to poverty. While each kid below a certain age enables certain child related subsidies, having a kid-rich family often forces you to move to larger houses/flats which are often more expensive. The "Kinder- and Jugendamt" will check every now and then if especially families with a number of kids are doing fine and will demand i.e. separate rooms for certain kids and so forth. The subsidies families get usually are also limited and do not make you rich. There are definitely "families" out there who more or less live on the "Familienbeihilfe", though these kids then grow up in poverty and usually the Jugendamt will come by and over time take away some if not all of the kids and put them to foster homes. Having kids also means that the women needs to stay at home for like 6 month (or longer) and or split the time with the men. This usually also means a reduction on income in that time besides additional child-related expenditures. As mentioned, the subsidies usually don't really fully cover these expenditures and as such kids today are more or less often viewed as luxury good where parents give up lots of their freedoms. But the general trend is moving to single-homes anyway. Less and less people marry or form a long-term relationship as marriage got devalued over time to a degree where it mostly comes with taxation- and subsidy-benefits in comparison to unmarried relationships where usually men would benefit more than women. Also, finding a place in a Kindergarten is also not that easy nowadays. Sometimes you have to wait for up to 2 years to find a spot. And to some this hassle is already to much to justify going for kids. As mentioned, in contrast to plenty other countries Austria might seem like a milk and honey land but it by far isn't perfect. As such, people complain as they see the potential for improvement, they see the stupidity that local politicians and government are constantly doing, they see that non-natural Austrians now have access to the same rights and perks they had to work and partially fight for so long and therefore feel something is taken away from them. There are clearly improvements visible, i.e. in regards to how smoking is handled nowadays in comparison to how it was up to the 90s, but in the tradition of an Austrian solution, is always just half-heartedly applied which therefore gives again reason to complain.
Churches: f.e. Karlskirche in Vienna: if you tell them you just come for praying, you can enter a chappel for free, of course crossing the main hall ;-)
