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Notes -
A couple of points: first, in terms of English proficiency being a cultural solvent - English already is the lingua franca of Europe, as it is in many other parts of the world. When an Italian meets a German, 9 times out of 10 they will speak English. When a Finn meets a Spaniard - English (although the Spanish are generally pretty bad at English). And so on.
If Europe is to achieve some manner of proper confederation and thereby preserve itself as anything other than a relic over the next century or two, it needs a language with which to do this. English in Europe (and remember it is after all a European language) doesn't just mean Americanisation, it also means the coalescing of pan-European consciousness.
So English proficiency is not purely a malus, or purely a tool of globohomogenisation.
Secondly - I know you're talking about Latvia as a long shot in terms of migration and integration, but actually its neighbour just to the north, Estonia, explicitly is pursuing a strategy of welcoming ambitious foreigners from the likes of America. They've set up an E-residency scheme that's kind of notoriously open to abuse, but it's meant a lot of foreign tech setting up shop there. Estonia is a more reasonable shot for someone of your profile to move to and integrate into, if you're interested
Oh believe me, I did plenty of research into the different countries that would be realistic destinations. I’d looked everywhere from Estonia to Macedonia and everywhere in between. I’d actually eventually settled on focusing my efforts toward non-EU countries like Serbia and Montenegro, just because of the greater ease of getting a job as a non-EU citizen.
Ultimately the issue is that English teaching in most European countries simply does not pay enough to make a living, and the long-term prospects of the industry on the continent seem to be very dire due to technological advances. I am certainly still interested in moving to Europe, but I’m likely going to need to rethink my path there around something other than TEFL.
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