Hi there, I’m American living in French Switzerland.

Because of my nationality and my family here, we’re trying to fit-in to our local area and being a family there is a lot of adjustment for what we have to do and it’s a process. I’ve noticed that Swiss-Germany, the Nordics, Germany and the Netherlands people are a lot more serious when you meet them and just kind of live a normal, steady and stable life without a lot of flexibility. And they hope that us foreigners that will kind of ‘fit-in’ to this lifestyle…which I think is more or less fair as I’m a guest in their country and trying to fit-in. But…at the end of the day…are they happier in this normal, steady and stable life? No criticism, genuine question.

I mean I get it, with a crazy, chaotic life we left in America, which has its fair share of problems…which is not the point I’m trying to make…we all know them. But there is more flexibility, more openness and acceptance of other social norms but it leads to these problems if unchecked…in my opinion…what do you think?

Thoughts? Experiences? What do you think?

  • MathematicianJumpy28@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    I find the need of immigrants to change the way of life of the locals to fit their own way of life (eg their old way of life):

    1. Arrogant. Are you sure your way of doing things is better? The locals have been living in their cultural biotope for ages surely there are advantages to how they live their life? How would you know that your shortsighted (ie you’ve been there too short) “improvements” are actually better?

    2. Conservative. Wanting the natives to adopt your way of life is actually a form of conservativism. You’re the one who moved there, surely you came there to experience change? Yet here you are trying to change everything back to how it is at home.

    3. Blind. You should assume you will never completely understand local culture, simply because you’re looking at it through your own cultural lens. This leads many immigrants to conclusions that are inexplicably wrong. The problem is you can never be sure if you are wrong, because you don’t know what you don’t know.

    All these things lead me to believe you should always be very careful when trying to change local culture. Even when you think you are right and “improve” things, you might still end up being wrong.