Getting Out: Your Guide to Leaving America (Process Self-reliance Series)

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Process (November 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0976082276
• ISBN-13: 978-0976082279
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #374,004 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

The strength of this book is that it favors breadth rather than depth.

If you are thinking about leaving the US but don’t really know where you’d like to go, or if you have a destination in mind but don’t really know what you don’t know about emigration, this book is for you. Getting Out covers the top 50 destinations for US expats, with information about the quality of health care, cost and standard of living, and social permissiveness. Also included are brief accounts of the experiences of expats living around the world. There is also good general information about the different pathways available to the potential expat.

Reading it will definately leave you with more questions than answers, since any comprehensive emigration/immigration guide to all the countries in the world would fill a small library. Getting Out will give you the basics and point you in the right direction to find more in-depth information. You won’t find anything here that will help you decide to settle in one country over another, but it will help you either narrow your list or give you reason to consider some place you otherwise would not have.

This is a great book that is a good foundation in researching the how-to’s in leaving the country. In a category where there are very few books to choose from, this book is timely and reasonable well written. If you are interested in leaving the United States and not completely sure of where to go, this is a good resource along with the CIA factbook & other well known websites.

Pros:
1) Great list of helpful websites in the back for each country.
2) Excellent group of countries considered around the globe.
3) Decent foundational info about each country considered (50 countries).
4) Very readable style.
5) Good cross section of short blurbs about various peoples rationales in leaving.
6) Fair price for the book.

Cons:
1) No specific info as to why certain countries were included and other excluded.
2) Many countries mentioned in passing (in a positive light) in various parts of text are not considered as possibilities (i.e.: not profiled).
3) No easy way to see how countries stack up against each other at a glance based on various factors.
4) Poor editing… Many typos.
5) Could have had much more specific info about each country for various factors to consider (e.g. Pet specifics for each, education system, etc…)
6) Would have been nice to have at least one person for each country cited. Although difficult to pull off, this would have been better than people telling their stories for a subset of the countries profiled.

In short, this book has very little dead weight material and is a must have if this topic is relevant to you.

This book is a fun read with lots of very useful information; it’s just as good for Americans looking to get out as it would be for non-Americans looking for someplace to go, as it profiles many countries and also has a wealth of suggestions for moving and income that are not country-specific.

On the downside, as an American living in Japan, I can say that its section on Japan is woefully incomplete. Jobs here are said to pay “the mighty yen”, but my friends and I always grimace when it’s time to send money home. It doesn’t even mention the astounding bureaucracy or the racism that often goes hand in hand with it. And it only mentions Tokyo, despite that there are foreigners living in beautiful, cheap, and friendly cities and villages all over the country.

This is a fun read but should not be your last source of information!