Ideally, I'd try to talk to people who made similar decisions (e.g. Turkish migrating to Portugal or similar) so you can perhaps add new information to your options.
Regarding the financial weight: this money is lost already, so shouldn't be taken into account for the decision.
Living abroad is aways a valuable experience. On the other hand, if you have a low income and little opportunity for growth, this can be a frustrating on the medium term. If you go that path, maybe try to think ahead to see what will be your next step. Suppose you don't like Portugal, could you fall back to your option B after 2 years?
The problem with asking strangers is the lack of investment and consequences to decisions. So if I say Portugal it has zero context to how your emotions will cope with e.g. sudden deterioration of your parents health, or racism, or language issues. If I say turkey it's based on outsider sense of place as a visitor with no exposure to the political risk.
Decision support is part of operations research. A good oversight (obviously they push their own model but they explain a lot of the systems)
https://www.1000minds.com/decision-making/what-is-mcdm-mcda
for context I made the decision to up sticks and move to another economy in my late 20s almost 4 decades ago and have never regretted it but it does carry bitter pills, breaking of links, parental death and related family tensions, emotional turmoil. Nothing is easy, but my path was easier than yours given the same language both points of my migration journey, and a different world economy
My weightings definitely changed. One thing to bear in mind is that legalisms in migration often penalise age. It is possible your window to migrate is closing.
Also, your asset in Turkey may be an income stream. AirBnB?
I also want to start my own family (by finding someone first lol), so I have lots of conflicting criteria, which makes it difficult to come to a decision. Trying Portugal seems logical at first, but then again I ask myself how many years I would live with such (entry level basic) job opportunities and whether I would regret not being a CPA at age 50, for example. Thank you man!
Also you don’t go to another country for a “better living standards”.
You go there to get out of your comfort zone, to grind, to prove yourself, to learn etc. unless you’re already rich you’re going to struggle in one way or another for a while. Only your kids born there will be able truly and fully enjoy all the “standards”. That’s the brutal truth.
Why not?
Decisions:
- If you can’t decide, the answer is no.
- If two equally difficult paths, choose the one more painful in the short term (pain avoidance is creating an illusion of equality).
- Choose the path that leaves you more equanimous in the long term.
Also, never outsource decision making to anyone who doesn't bear the consequences of the decision.
Is it the pain of career building (Turkey) or the pain of geographic isolation (Portugal)? Your insight forces me to ask: which pain is more likely to yield the best long-term return?
THANK YOU!
How stable is the remote role? Are you more likely to be laid off (or the company to cease operations) than turmoil in Turkey? Obviously this is also very subjective speculation, but since you don't mention it, how does it figure into your plans? How well will you be able to find other similar work in Portugal? (Or elsewhere, I would assume your relocation will offer freedom of employment across EU.)
The remote role offers 1,100 EUR. It’s a content analyst position for YouTube ads. I don’t see it as something I would do for year, more like a starter job to enter the market. Without Portuguese, job options are mostly limited to call centers or similar roles where Turkish and English fluency is an advantage. Salaries in Portugal are generally low even highly experienced managers earn around 2,000 EUR.
As for stability, the turmoil in Turkey doesn’t affect me directly, but indirectly it does. The general atmosphere and economic situation make things feel uncertain and heavy. The remote role itself isn’t something I see as long-term stable either, so I’m aware that I’d need a plan B and to improve my language skills to expand my options. I can only work in Portugal as I just have the temporary residence, after 5 years of stay can I start working in other EU nations. Thank you for your message!
I've done the expat/migration thing myself, there are some upsides for sure, but it can also be quite draining being a bit of a social misfit, not having a much of network/connections, dealing with the linguistic/cultural/administrative issues of visas, etc... in many ways you're just forever at a disadvantage to the locals.
I also don't see Portugal as being a big step up from Turkey in the grand scheme of things. Both basically europe, mediterranean, decent standard of living but kind of second-tier economy, etc. If anything, Turkey is obviously bigger, has some bigger cities, more of a range of lifestyles, etc.
I think migration/expat life can be worth it if you're moving to silicon valley, tokyo, new york, shanghai... or somewhere that is a centre of gravity for your industry (like australia for mining, texas for oil, shenzhen for hardware manufacturing, etc...), and the income/growth potential is many multiples of what you can get at home, but I wouldn't be doing it for a modest, largely sideways move.
As for your 10k EUR... obviously, beware the sunk cost fallacy. Also, these things aren't permanent, if you want you can do it for 6 months or a year, see how it is, if it's great, stay, if it's not... go back (or somewhere else).
Did you move back because you felt lonely abroad or because your family actually needed you there?