Unsere englischsprachige Bloggerin Auntie Sam beschreibt in ihrem neuesten Eintrag die Mühsal, eine Schweizer Arbeitsbewilligung zu erhalten. Und wie es ist, am Tag der Ankunft den Traumjob zu verlieren.
Dear Auntie SAM: My husband was offered a job in Basel. What do I need to do to before we leap into life abroad?
Being an American – or any non-EU – expat abroad is different from everyone else.
In order for Big Pharma to secure my husband’s visa, they had to establish there was no one else in Switzerland & then no one in the EU who could perform the job they needed him to do. We spent months gathering paperwork & worrying that his visa wouldn’t be approved.
But then it was. Big Pharma proved to the Swiss government: these men are special; their jobs so essential to business & Switzerland that they had to be brought here & each member of their families given visas, too. We thought that felt so safe.
Like frontiersman from the wild west, he & a team of six former colleagues were brought to Basel on permanent contracts to develop a big project they were all very excited about.
Not one came for Big Money.
We had everything we could buy in Seattle. We gave it all up for passion.
For a chance to be excited about ideas again. Excited to use their government & corporate declared special skills to help people.
The day they arrived to work, Big Pharma killed their positions.
And things much more important.
They were reassigned paper-pushing jobs so beneath their qualifications their CVs turned inside out.
Despite all the rigorous requirements met to get us here, no overseer cared because, now rubber stamped, no overseer was involved.
What could these cowboys do?
We hitched our wagons to them & now, us Tag-alongs – women, children, even pets – needed their jobs to survive.
And, for English speakers, Big Pharma’s the only corral in town.
I was raised by atheists in Amish country. If you want to know where my first glimpse into Wonderland was, try imagining that.
By the time I left, I had been scarred so badly by people weilding religion poorly that I deemed it wise to attend a Jesuit university just to get over the pain.
I’m not certain how to get over the pain caused by a corporation.
I guess we start with reminding ourselves that there are no guarantees in life. No relationship so strong it can withstand anything. And there’s no amount of paperwork that can make a corporation care about the hearts of the ones you love.
As with all big steps in life, moving abroad requires a tremendous leap of faith. You will be so far from home, from your support network, from your usual comforts & opportunities. So far from an easy return.
For many, things work out just fine.
For the rest of us, to survive, you’ve got to find something bigger than you. Call it faith. Find it in God, in the universe, in your worn out left sock. In anything that helps you believe you were meant to be here. To learn something. To give more. To become who you were meant to be.
Don’t just be a Tag-along.
Believe in the best; prepare for the worst.
And when the Indians warpath, put on your big girl boots & stake your claim. You’ll discover locals & expats alike circling their wagons, helping you survive.
It’s the frontier out here, baby. A whole, wild world awaits us.
XO
AS
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This weekend SOOTHE YOUR SOUL with VIOLIN SOLIST LIVIA BERCHTOLD performing MENDELSSOHN’s Violin Concerto in E Minor, Op 64 & the WORLD PREMIERE of YANIK STRUSS‘ Symphony No. 4. Conducted by RAPHAEL ILG & YANIK STRUSS. FRIDAY, 8:15PM at THEODOR BASEL; SATURDAY, 8:15PM CATHOLIC CHURCH OF ST. NICHOLAS in REINACH. COLLECTION.
Or, LOSE YOURSELF IN ECSTASY at RIVER BOAT RUMBLE: 6 bands, 6 DJs, 4 bars, 12 hours of ROCK-N-ROLL with BURLESQUE PERFORMER EMMA MILAN. DAS SCHIFF TIKI DECK DANCE FLOOR 4PM UNDERDECK DANCE FLOOR at 10PM. 25 CHF.