First, "leaving your native country" is very fraught with meaning -- from emigration to vacation to business to refuge and asylum. There are a lot of intense feelings in the replies.
I'm 26+. We moved to Canada about 20 years ago, but I visit California 1x-2x per year, so even without the international travel before I moved, I still clear 26.
@evan I’m actually pretty surprised by that. I’m a zero and would have expected more. I don’t have a passport. I’m probably about as far from Montreal as I am from Boston but as far as I know I’ve never crossed that border.
@evan I imagine North Americans would skew lower than Europeans. More expensive and more difficult to leave Canada or the US. Not to mention you can drive for days and not leave your country here.
@evan true, but there's not much tourist draw to most parts of the US near the border. Plus you need to clear customs, and worry about all the American bullshit
@evan I think for Canadians, given the length and lack of defense at our land border, "leave your country" can have a very low bar.
That said, I've left a still-countable number of times, most to the US, a couple of times just for a day.
If you ask "how many different countries have you visited" well, my answer ends up being "too few!!!". Would love to have the means and time to get out of North America more.
I suspect some of it is steeped in family and culture. Canada is a nation of immigrants. Even though I was born in Toronto, I had relatives in Turkey from my earliest years and my parents were seasoned travellers, so I caught the bug.
When I lived and taught in Alabama for 2 decades, I met lots of 10th generation Southerners that had seldom left their own state, let alone the US.
@evan technically one. I was born in Japan, left Japan when I was a few weeks old, and though I've travelled around the world a lot since, I've never been to Japan again, so I've only left my native country once.
@evan I voted 6 to 25 but, I only count the main ones, they are much more, I live next to the border so even as a teen we went to do some shopping to the other side.
@evan no but I spent my childhood hopping from one country to the other. I think if you calculated my “average location” it would be in the middle of the ocean though.
@evan When I think “native country” I think the country you identify with as a child. Think of an American child born in Germany but only lived there for a year or two, is their native country Germany or America?
@evan
Living in a small, well connected country, having friends in Germany, Belgium and France, having had a father who was pilot, needed to travel for businesses.... You might need another category yet.
Will be near 500 for me.
@evan I lived all my life near borders, thus it's a thing I did a lot my whole life, just to fill the car or buy some groceries cheaper on the other side.
@evan
Hm. I chose 2-5, but then the poll refreshed and I'm listed as 6-25. I can find no way in the #Fedilab app to edit my selection, or delete it, or to take it again with a different answer.
@EmmaPaulay I moved to Montreal from San Francisco about 20 years ago. We go back to California to see my parents and brothers and in-laws once or twice a year. So I think I'm well over the 25 or more line.
@evan If anything I wish I knew and could experience way more about the rest of the world. I've suspected that part of the terrible attitude that Americans have about other countries is most of us only hear about them when bad stuff happens. We don't get to regularly see people elsewhere just being people.
I didn't think about it in the sense of fleeing one's country because of the options given. You normally do that once or maybe twice if you have to? Sad that that ever happens though, people should be safe everywhere.
@tokyo_0@psychoalpastor it's funny that we all look at it as a privilege, when having to flee your native country because of war or persecution or economic necessity is a tragedy.
@tokyo_0@psychoalpastor yes. What I'm saying is, we're framing border-crossing as something that rich people do and poor people don't, which is only true in certain countries in certain circumstances.
@evan This is a topic I always avoided because people laugh and become incredulous if you’ve never traveled. “Why?!” Growing up poor is a real buzz kill.
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