Debunking the Eurocentric Travel Bias: Why Moving to Australia Doesn't Mean Sacrificing Cultural Exploration
Posted by Confusedmind75@reddit | expats | View on Reddit | 30 comments
Recently, I’ve been watching more videos and reading blogs and threads about moving to Australia, and I understand the pros and cons, but what I feel is ridiculous is the fact that most people talk about how difficult it is travelling. By that, they only mean Europe, because according to them Europe is the epitome of culture. (WTF!). I have read such post on this sub itself.
I agree Travelling is time consuming, but expecting all that there is to travelling is Europe is such bias. Plus I was looking through more places in the world, I would like to travel and there were multiple options from Australia to Indonesia, Malaysia, Japan, South Korea, Thailand and even USA. i understand they are long flights but so cheap. But if you consider them from Europe, it’s extremely expensive. I also know these places have extremely diverse culture that anybody can enjoy. So, me who is living in Europe( not an European) when reading these posts and comments makes me feel that it’s stupid.
No-Pea-8967@reddit
It is quite expensive to fly both within Australia and outside Australia - at least it was when I lived there in 2018/2019. You could find flight deals to Indonesia and other countries but it was expensive. That said, when we lived in Sydney, we took the opportunity to explore some of the islands of the South Pacific. It was an amazing chance to go to places like Vanuatu, which can be difficult to get to from Europe.
Maleficent-Test-9210@reddit
Have you been to fiji? It's on my bucket list.
No-Pea-8967@reddit
No, it wasn't on our list. There are so many options in that part of the world.
Confusedmind75@reddit (OP)
Yeah I totally agree and understand but flying to these places from Europe is way expensive but I agree still from Australia it is time consuming. My point also was Europe is great and there are cultures as great as Europe.
Team503@reddit
So flights are much longer and much more expensive to other cultures, but somehow it’s better? Don’t be absurd - Australia is geographically isolated more than pretty much anywhere in the world.
If you want to explore multiple cultures, it’s pretty much the last place you should move.
Tradtrade@reddit
Many people I meet in Australia just emulate European culture anyway. Why tell me you’re Italian when I meet you if yo hand your parents have never left Western Australia? It would feel much more like Australians have culture if they made like New Zealand and embraced what’s unique rather than just shadowing 2 generations ago on another continent
Team503@reddit
That’s common in any immigrant country. Just like in the States when people say they’re Irish, they don’t mean they’re from Ireland, they mean they’re of Irish descent. That’s what happens when your nation is only a few hundred years old and overwhelmingly populated by recent immigrants, you identify with your ancestral homeland.
Taking your stance is either wildly ignorant or being intentionally obtuse.
Confusedmind75@reddit (OP)
Oh I didn’t know this. Interesting 🤔
Dizzy-Height-5833@reddit
Your post is a perfect parody of someone whose education comes from watching videos and ”reading blogs and threads” trying to formulate a quasi intelligent sounding thought, bravo.
“Debunking travel bias” doesn’t mean anything. Especially not what you think it does.
Since you seem to be quite young, you might ask yourself why do you insist on building a life that is reliant on constant air travel? Maybe you could watch some videos and read blogs and threads about the effect your chosen “airtravelcentric lifestyle bias” or whatever you want to call the unnecessary wasting of resources has on climate change and destroying environment everywhere around the globe.
LyleLanleysMonorail@reddit
I agree with you. The sentiment is very prevalent on this sub. Even if it wasn't Australia, and some other country (say Singapore), people here are still like "I prefer moving to Europe over Singapore because I love traveling".
Confusedmind75@reddit (OP)
Yeah I feel it
proof_required@reddit
Lot of English speaking content online is by Americans and Americans do romanticize Europe quite a lot. I feel it's bit unhealthy obsession.
TheGoldenGooch@reddit
You wouldn’t feel that it’s unhealthy if you lived in America and felt the palpable difference of time spent in Europe on almost ever observable metric. America itself is what is unhealthy.
proof_required@reddit
You just proved my point.
Confusedmind75@reddit (OP)
U might be right about that
im-here-for-tacos@reddit
I am moving to Europe partially because of it being easier and cheaper to hop to other parts of the world (Africa, Asia, and within Europe) relative to where I am now (Mexico). For instance, I’ll be flying from Kraków to Istanbul for less than $300 and only 3 hours of flying, which sounds like the dream for me. I’ll also only be a few hours of driving from multiple countries that have different cultures. Does that mean I have a Eurocentric perspective? I don’t think so.
Moving to Australia makes no sense to me given the time zone difference (my job is based out of the US) and the distance, as I don’t feel comfortable being that far away from my aging parents.
phalanxs@reddit
Right now, all converted in USD for comparisons sake, a flight from Paris to Tokyo in two months time is about 800$, marked on Google Flights as as being 140$ below usual rates. A flight from Sydney is 600$, marked as being 240$ below usual rates. It's a bit cheaper sure, but considering that you can fly from Paris to Tunis, Warsaw, or Istambul for less than 175$, I'm not buying your argument.
intermoo@reddit
My dad had this view (Europe = Culture with a definite capital C), until he went to Japan and China. He came back and said he didn't realise how old, different and intricate the cultures were there, even though he "knew" the societies there were old.
Anyway, yes, there is a world outside of Europe!
LyleLanleysMonorail@reddit
Agreed. So many people here are like "I wanna move to Europe because I love traveling!" Read that sentence over again slowly and notice the Eurocentric bias.
JacobAldridge@reddit
You make an important point, but let's not pretend Australia is particularly close to any of those countries.
I was a Queensland State manager in an old job, my area of responsibility ran from Coolangatta (on the Gold Coast) to some offices north of Cairns.
That's just one State, and the distance between them was roughly the same as flying London to Istanbul.
Flying Melbourne to Jakarta is about the same time in the air as flying NYC to Madrid.
LyleLanleysMonorail@reddit
Even if it wasn't Australia but a different country outside Europe, people here still say they prefer Europe because of the travel. Ease of travel to neighboring countries is nowhere near as mentioned in the discourse when people talk about moving to, say, Panama or Singapore, unlike Europe.
elijha@reddit
I think you are choosing to pathologize the simple, factual observation that Australia is like the most geographically isolated “major” country in the world.
Defiant-Dare1223@reddit
It does though because the only country passably near Australia is Papua New Guinea and I'd rather not be eaten
ArbaAndDakarba@reddit
I'm so happy there are cannibals there.
Berghunde@reddit
kidding yourself on here.
with regards to culture its all relative. Australia is a cultural wasteland relative to europe.
sierra771@reddit
It’s a bias based on the assumption that most people are interested in the history of the last 2000 years, in which case you simply cannot beat Europe and the Middle East.
Confusedmind75@reddit (OP)
So according to u Asia doesn’t have any history older than 2000years? Seriously?
Professional_Elk_489@reddit
When you’re in Europe you are closer to North America, South America & Africa and of course there’s at least 50 countries in Europe itself. In return you sacrifice slightly longer travel to Japan (13.5hrs from London) vs 10hrs from Melbourne.
Europe is a great location relative to Australia for easy and accessible cultural exploration
LalersCurations@reddit
Moving from Australia might seem like trading proximity for adventure, but the cultural diversity nearby is underrated
Thatdreamyguy@reddit
While I agree that culture is not just Europe, Travelling from Australia is a nightmare, even to those Asian cultures that you mentioned. From the East coast to Singapore/Malaysia/Thailand/Vietnam is easily 8 hours and flights are not at all cheap. So yeah it is a sacrifice.