Should we stay for the revolution? If it’s even possible?
I’ve seen some on the internet (mainly TikTok and twitter, sue me) say that moving to another country to escape your problems (this is mostly directed to those in the US and Canada) is a form of colonialism and you would contribute to gentrifying the country you leave to. Do you agree?
I’ve mentioned on here a few times my disdain for living in Canada and how I am happy to leave when I am able, I’ve even had some comrades encourage me to do so if I can, so for a time I was sure that moving was an okay thing to do but now I don’t know. I don’t want to gentrify another nation and I don’t want to abandon people here who aren’t afforded the same privileges as me. I figured maybe I could help from a distance, or at the very least “visiting”to help but not living here, does that make sense?
Anyway, I really wanted to move away but now I’m not so sure and I may be causing more damage by leaving. I don’t want to colonize another place, I’m already a settler in Canada and I wasn’t planning on moving to Portugal either (locals can barely afford to live there themselves). I know I shouldn’t be taking statements made on social media so seriously but I can’t help but take these criticisms into consideration.
You can’t ‘gentrify’ a place with your mere presense.
People saying you’d gentrify a place by moving there are making assumptions about:
the community you’re moving to,
what your relative wealth would be in that community, and
how you’d spend that wealth and engage with local business and culture.
None of those assumptions reflect well on the people making them. Fuck’em.
If you can, leave Canada. Be part of the brain drain. And move to an AES country so that your friends and family in Canada have a window into what life is like there.
The explanation of gentrification I saw most was very very vague but one person, an American woman who lives in Budapest, gave an explanation that I think is good although I don’t know: gentrification would be me moving to an area where the locals can’t afford to live, but I can, and therefore me moving there and being willing to pay the high price drives up costs there. I wouldn’t do that, or at least I’d try not to by doing research and whatnot. I don’t want to move to a country with limited reserves, not because they don’t deserve me, but because I don’t want to drain what they have. I am also not a wealthy person at all, I know moving (especially to another country) takes quite a bit of money so I can’t just up and leave, this is a future endeavour after saving up enough money for the flights (and pet fees…).
I have never heard of the term “brain drain” but when looking it up, it’s incredibly accurate to what I was going for and offering a view into what goes on there. Thank your input, I appreciate it!
Completely agree with this. I had a debate with one of my colleagues at work due to this topic. She told me that every buyer is to blame for the gentrification. That conversation didn’t end well but I still made it a point that is never the buyer’s fault. It is actually the people that hold the real estate that can choose which price to sell it to. The land speculators are the people that hold the blame for this.
Everyone should have the right to housing and nobody should be discriminated for that. Sad that propaganda has made it so difficult for people to see the real people that hold power over housing.