Am I the only one who doesn't hate living here?
I (M 35) have been living in Germany for 5+ years now. I am originally from Southern Europe where, for many reasons, I was really unhappy and, looking for a life change, I decided to leave everything and move here. I attended a bilingual German school since I was a child so I grew up with the language and the culture and the option of living here, at least for some time, was always there so it was nothing out of the blue.
Ever since I arrived and started meeting other foreigners with similar profiles to mine, I can’t understand how the vast majority of them dislike Germany and living here so much. In almost every situation, I will be the odd one or part of the minority which doesn’t absolutely despise Germany and everything here. People that will complain about anything and everything, while they won’t do any small effort to adapt to a foreign country they chose to move to. They won’t show any interest for the culture, but will complain if they don’t know or like about it; won’t put any kind of effort learning the language, and will complain if they can’t get by with just English; will actively hate on German people sticking to the most stupid stereotypes and being quite xenophobic at the end of the day, inferring that an individual behavior applies to a whole country (we see a lot of questions in this sub about this, thinking all Germans are like X because their mother-in-law is, for example). If I try to point this out to anyone, of course they will feel offended and get defensive, bringing up the most stupid excuses. And yeah, nobody wants to be the one pointing out you’re not learning German because you don’t fucking want to even though you complain about not understanding anything or anyone. It’s messed up seeing how people bond over hating for no reason on the country they willingly moved to, it generates such toxicity and creates a cycle of getting more bitter with time. And they make no effort in getting out of it or looking at anything with any other point of view, making this bitterness their personality as a foreigner here.
Of course, this leaves out people who had to move out of their native countries because of major reasons like war. I’m talking about educated people, mostly (not exclusively) from Western countries, who have the privilege to point at any point on a map and choose where they want to live chasing better job opportunities.
My life changed for the best moving here, my job opportunities and standard of living that comes with it are completely different than in my native country. I admit that I have certain bias and knowing the culture, people and language are also a privilege (one that I wasn’t born with, in any case). But am I really such a rare case, being fully happy here?