There's a certain arrogance that comes with some gringos that you meet living abroad.
This type of gringo has a natural assumption that his life is inherently better than everyone from back home and that everyone back home would be better off if they followed his life path.
Instead of getting a solid career back home and raising a family with a local gal, they should be moving abroad to Colombia where they can smash whores, live in a completely different culture where they don't know anyone, have a cheaper cost of living, etc.
The gringos who I notice that think this way the hardest tend to be one of two types at the very least:
1. Dudes who are insecure as fuck about everyone back home judging their life decision to live abroad and so basically they're going on the offensive rhetorically by thinking they got it better than everyone else and that actually those back home are the fools.
2. Gringos who have some type of business (a blog, consulting shit, a podcast, etc) that makes money off of other gringos coming to live in Latin America. These types might be completely normal and objective individuals when it comes to this topic but, at least with their online persona, they give off an arrogant attitude that everything south of the border is inherently better than everything north of the border.
At the same time, I can't help but wonder how much of the typical ol' stereotype plays at work here, no?
We all know about that stereotype that gringos down here are losers who couldn't make it back home.
But, when it comes to this topic, how many of those gringos who can't be nuanced about life down here not being the best for everyone were, indeed, losers back home?
If you were a legit loser back home with no money and women and now don't struggle to pay the rent with a new "slightly overweight" Latina (AT LEAST SHE'S THICCC) sucking your dick once a week, then of course you're going to be blinded into thinking that the only paradise on planet is the one in countries where millions of people were leaving not long ago to be immigrants elsewhere (read: Mexico for example).
Which, by the way, that isn't a statement against that individual gringo's decision to live down here.
If, for you personally, your life is better down here because you get your dick sucked more and because life is now financially easy, then good for you!
But don't be so blinded into thinking that everyone back home would be better off at living abroad just like you.
For some people, that isn't the case whatsoever.
Let's get into some reasons why.
Why Not Every Gringo Would Like it in Latin America
I've already discussed on my blog before about how you got gringos who tried to be expats abroad but gave up after 1 to 5 years.
Quite a few gringos are like that.
The reasons vary by the person and some of those same reasons are why some folks wouldn't enjoy life down here.
First, I remember my sister telling me something almost 2 years ago.
It was back when I was living by Copilco metro and I was explaining basic details about life down here.
I believe it had something to do with renting apartments.
Anyway, based on my description, she hated the idea of living in Mexico.
"Sounds too stressful" she told me.
Where, back home, things are more straight forward apparently and where, based on my description of Mexico, she came to believe that everyone down here is trying to fuck you all the time.
Yes, you got scammers in the US but I get what she meant by that.
You do got plenty of scammers here (in real estate for example) and also less legal avenues to protect you and sue someone if you get fucked over.
Regardless of if it has to do with renting or anything else, it is true that life in Latin America (beyond just Mexico) is "less formal" and less efficient at times.
And some gringos would not be able to handle that well on a daily basis.
Though, to be fair to Mexico and Latin America, I do think at times life can be more "straight forward" down here because of that same informality to life.
More on that topic here.
Second, it just has to be said that a vast majority of people on the planet have absolutely 0 desire to live and/or immigrate to another country.
Regardless of if you want to think of expats as immigrants or not, it doesn't really matter, does it?
Vast majority of people on the planet do not want to live long term in another country and that's final.
To live in a completely different culture with a different language and where you are a racial minority and also have less legal rights (such as the right to WORK or VOTE) is not something the average person wakes up wanting to have in their life.
And where they'd also miss their family and friends from back home?
Among so many other issues.
But it doesn't even go that far logically in their minds.
In their minds, the idea of living abroad doesn't even register as something to do because it's of completely no interest to them.
To travel abroad? Sure.
To make a completely new life abroad on a long term basis (at least 5 years if not longer)? FUCK NO.
Third, it is fair to say that plenty of gringos would be too scared to live abroad in Latin America because of fears about cartels or whatever else.
I get it's ignorant to think that every waking second in Mexico is a second dodging cartel bullets and plenty of gringos back home have no idea what it's really like.
Having said that, I'm not convinced that erasing that stereotype about Mexico always being violent would cause them to move to a place like Mexico because again most people don't want to live in another country and also because a vast majority of those gringos are not moving to safe places like Switzerland or Japan where nothing bad happens outside of a hooligan knocking over an orange stand every second Tuesday of the month.
Fourth, a vast majority of gringos get roots too firmly established in their home community before moving abroad would likely be possible.
I think about my own life for example.
When I was 16 or 17, I first began entertaining the idea of living abroad for various reasons.
But it was extremely possible for me to have simply forgotten about the idea.
Maybe my teenager mind would've wondered off into thinking about something else.
Around the same time, I was also learning Russian for about a week.
For whatever reason, I just wanted to learn Russian because "why the fuck not?"
Gave up on it about a week in and never looked back because 1) it proved to be too difficult and 2) Rusisan women probably aren't that hot anyway? Surely Latinas are better.
In all seriousness, I gave up because "eh, this is boring."
What if the same thing had happened to my initial interest in traveling the world?
Where I instead join some local community college after high school and then eventually the 4 year college and maybe get a marketing job or some shit?
Then everything about "living abroad" would've been flushed down the toilet most likely.
Most people are like that by the way.
Looking at my Facebook now out of curiosity, I see a good chunk of my old high school friends are married with kids or single with kids from another parent.
With jobs that are probably decent.
And probably some of them actually own local homes with their own car payments.
I'm not saying it's impossible to uproot all of that but I sometimes think other gringos who look down on gringos back home for not choosing their life path are ignorant as to how difficult it'd be to uproot all of that.
Literally telling a motherfucker:
"Hey, why don't you sell your house and car? And that career as a firefighter you got? Give it up and go work in some remote coding job. And your girlfriend who doesn't want to live abroad? Dump her ass. Oh, you got kids with her? Well, you can take the kids to live abroad. What school would they go to? How good is healthcare for them? They have some weird medical issue that requires intensive care? You know nothing about raising kids abroad in a foreign country that they (and YOU) don't speak the language of? Stop being a loser bro and just follow my life path. Latin America is so much better."
Literally, you sound like a retard saying all of that.
While it is possible to sell the car and house, it's not as easy as you think with just taking the kids to another country.
But also the career thing is a legit concern.
Not every job can be done by a computer and there's no shortage of people with real careers that they like doing and cannot do remotely.
And they PROBABLY are not getting a work visa in the new country to be a firefighter, mechanic or whatever job it is that they like doing in the US.
Fifth, what if said gringo has an initial bad experience?
I've met gringos who were new to Latin America and the country they went to sucked balls.
Like this one dude I met in Bolivia years ago who just hated Bolivia. I can imagine that, for some of them, that initial experience in one country shapes the whole region for them and makes them think "yeah, fuck this place."
When I first began traveling, I had an experience like that in Nicaragua as I wrote here where I was recovering from food poisoning in the shithole known as Managua and was thinking "do I really want to keep traveling?"
In hindsight, I'm glad I did but I can imagine that, for a very few gringos, this might be a filtering process that keeps some from living abroad long term.
And I emphasize the words "for a very few."
Because, like I said, I don't think even most gringos reach this stage.
It really does die and end at the "I'm cool with my life in my home country, got my roots here and why the fuck would I want to live somewhere else?"
Finally, one last thing that should be said is that sometimes I feel that a few of the gringos who think this way about those back home are simply coming from a very privileged lifestyle.
Nothing wrong with privilege or having money by the way.
But that their experience with having money given to them by their parents blinds them to the reality that not everyone back home has that to make a life abroad.
Yes, you do have more remote jobs these days but that wasn't always the case and, for gringos especially before remote work became even more common, you did have to be more creative in terms of how to make money.
And not everyone had the creativity and/or the financial support of family back home.
On top of that, some of those gringos (and some nowadays also) remain poor down here.
Shit, some would say I am also given I live rather frugally and I don't deny that.
Though I'm not a backpacker either and am pretty comfortable right now.
But I bring that up anyhow simply because I know that some gringos will come out saying "no way bro, my parents didn't help me. I was poor as fuck hustling until I made it."
Cool story bro.
But most gringos back home aren't aspiring to live in self-inflicted third world poverty in some shithole apartment of Latin America in Tijuana (Mexico) or Cali (Colombia) for some odd years until they hopefully make it.
Anything to Add?
Anyway, I'm sure there are other reasons for why gringos back home don't aspire the life abroad but I honestly think it really just boils down to mainly the fact that a majority of people in the world do not willingly want to live abroad long term.
Travel? Sure.
Immigrate? Fuck no.
For me, I like living abroad but I'm not arrogant enough to assume that everyone back home is dying to have my life.
Though, as I wrote here, you do get the occasional gringo from back home who is curious about the life and asks you some questions about it.
They might pull the trigger but more likely they won't.
And the reasons for why they won't are similar to the ones already discussed here (including fear of failure for some of them).
Could happen though.
But, above all, let's not be too arrogant here into thinking that everyone from back home wants to be like us.
For those few gringos that think that way, get your head out of your ass.
That's all I got to say anyhow.
If you got anything to add, drop a comment below.
And follow my Twitter here.
Thanks for reading.
Best regards,
Matt