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Expats and discrimination

Last activity 13 January 2017 by edinkotorbay

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pulpo.ar

I have a few questions for expats, especially those who are not European. Did you experience any discrimination? How do locals feel about expats in general? Did you feel welcome? Did you find it hard to make friends and integrate into the community? Do you have expats neighborhoods where it is advisable to settle?

Thanks in advance.

kumbor

Hi i don't think you will have any problems about discrimination in Montenegro and i don't think you should have any problems about been made welcome and excepted by people in Montenegro.
I have been traveling to Montenegro for over 10 years now and i must say that i find the Montenegrin people friendly and it is also a very safe place to live with very little or virtual no crime and where i live in Herceg Novi you can feel very safe walking the streets at night .
There are a lot of expats living all over Montenegro and there is also a large number of people who have invested in property especially on the coast line and these people will come and go through out the year and i find i have friends of all nationalities in Montenegro i also have many Montenegrin friends .
I would recommend that you would try and learn some Serbian language to have basic communication skills.I would also recommend that you might visit Montenegro first and travel around to see what area suits you best .
You mentioned in your first message that you need a good internet connection and while there are big improvements starting to take place with internet connections you need to check out what is available in the location that you are thinking of living in .

Monte-tina

Montenegro is very open to expats and foreigners in general.
In Podgorica we have recently had non-Europeans, including an Argentinian single man, an Israeli family, American families (I can connect you to them via Fb). The Israeli father works via internet which is why they moved here and can live pretty much anywhere. He can explain the issues connected to temporary residence as they just got theirs a few months ago and then applied for their kids who also got it. Pretty straightforward.

PM me for details and contacts. All the best!
TIna

edinkotorbay

Pulpo,

I am originally from Puerto Rico, and by my skin color and look, I am clearly not European. I have had no real issues at all. Most people are VERY kind and welcoming. Sometimes they are a bit curious since there are not many Latinos here. In most countries you will find some backwards village people, but overall, we are having wonderful experiences meeting locals. Most are sweet and kind. usually when I tell them where i am from and that my native language is Spanish, they think its great. Their main exposure to our culture are Telenovelas, so they usually tell you about that. Some people have even learned quite a bit of Spanish just watching those. So, I would recommend you tell people you are from Argentina and that your language is Spanish, it is a nice ice breaker (conversation opener).

One suggestion I can give you is to try to get things done by getting referrals and recommendations from the friendly locals you meet. We are finding this to work much better than trying to independently search for things we need. It seems to me that people may not go out of their way to help out a complete stranger here, but if you say "John from the restaurant" recommend your service, it has usually gotten us a better result. That is probably true in most countries, but it is definitely works well here.

Last thing since you are a tech worker... ask very specific questions about the internet service available. The biggest company, Telekom.me  is just starting to provide optic lines, but unfortunately, most places where we are only have old ADSL, with the fastest speed 7megs down , 768kbs up ... This has been a problem for us.  I believe Telekom is rolling out optic fibre, and also M:Tel and Telemach ... have faster options. Make sure before you rent or buy that you confirm what is available, so you don't end up a contract in a place with weak internet. Maybe in Podgorica this won't be a problem. But on the coast of the Bay, it can be.

I hope this information helps!  Wish you success.

Ed

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