What is the best country for Aspies to live in?

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And are we really capable to craft something that gels us all together, given our diversity, beyond our Aspie-dom?

Not Britain - that's for sure. Here the government just thinks everybody's confident and all have excellent social skills to the full extent, so job hunting won't seem as hard as it looks. The government's new philosophys are ''don't get ill'' (because they're going to make the NHS hard to get into), ''don't be born with a disability'' (because they are cutting lots of disability benefits and carers), ''don't get old'' (because they are cutting back care homes), and lots of other things which are beyond innocent people's control. So, Britain is a no-no.

I don't know which country is best to live in, since this world is built for people with social skills, and people with social skills only.

So it's Hell, where everybody suffers like us? Do you mean that?

I think it's just... well, utopia, where everything's ideal

I feel very lucky to be living in the UK. The benefit system here is very good; I've been given a free place to stay and free money every week for food etc plus I'll be on more benefits for going to college soon. Also the general attitude here towards eccentrics seems more positive and many beloved comedy characters have aspie traits or even full on autistic in the case of characters such as Mr Bean and Dougal Mcguire.

You're much better off in the UK than you would be in Australia. Services for adults for AS are virtually non-existent here, combined with a moronic, ignorant populace hostile towards eccentricities of any sort. Instead, most of us here are forced to job-search for an absolute pittance. The overgrown hick town I'm stuck in is full of utility trucks with Southern Cross stickers on the back windscreens (mindless jingoism), and bumper stickers saying "If you don't like it, leave!" Hey, I'd be out of this country in a nanosecond if I had the means! A post on Garry Burge's blog says it much better than I'm able to. (That blog in general is well worth a read.)

[Edited to correct spelling and grammar]

I think Canada is a great country for people with autism.

We have lots of open space, lakes, rivers, but also coastal regions and mountain ranges. Lots of provincial parks. We have big cities...but not TOO big. Health care is decent, minimum wage has been consistently rising. We have a fairly big emphasis on gay rights, and gay pride...especially depending on which city you live in. There's not a lot I dislike about my country.

Apologies for resurrecting this thread, but it’s very interesting and I have a question exactly in this area.

Like the thread starter, I’m from Singapore and am looking for another country to live in. I’m a working adult, so my needs are different. I’m actually reasonably content to live in Singapore, and I didn’t encounter a lot of issues growing up as an aspie. In fact, I think it’s generally quite easy to be an aspie here because we tend to do well in school and exams. Having poor social skills or few friends in Singapore is not a problem so long as you do well in exams.

Having said that, I’d like my kids to have a better quality of life and less stress. So a move to a less crowded country with a slower pace of life is on my agenda. But as an extremely introverted aspie, I want to find a place which I could fit in well with. I’m concerned with the US and Australia because they have this reputation for a “fun-loving” extroverted culture, and I would find it stressful if I had to host parties or talk to my neighbours all the time. I get along with people fine at work, but I don’t connect with them after work for drinks or activities. I actually prefer to eat lunch alone, but I force myself to eat with them and make small talk because I know it’s expected of me.

Which country would be a good fit? Where I can basically keep to myself?

Scandinavia, Finland, Germany, Benelux, Switzerland, Canada, Japan?

These seem the obvious countries to look into as all tend to sound like a peaceful enough type of environment I'd think.

There are as many answers to this question as there are people and it depends on one's own needs and how quirky the Aspie is compared to other Aspies. If I was to give a generalised answer to what's the best country for Aspies, I'd say somewhere with the best trade-off of standard and living and relatively low inequality i.e. Scandinavia more than anywhere. But for example if I personally had to migrate, I personally wouldn't consider any of the countries I've mentioned so far.

Given though that we've had delegates from both Norway and Denmark visiting to learn about our autism services in Scotland (Edinburgh), as a model of good practice and to help start to set up services in their own countries that they haven't previously, then I could include Scotland too.

If someone is one of the less quirky Aspies or more hale and hearty Aspies and are able to, say, find a partner and get married I wonder why they should consider migrating in the first place. A good standard of living, and heck the ability to find a partner is all there for them. Such a person would however have a good reason for migrating if they can make it because an advantageous job opportunity has presented itself there, which I guess would probably be possible when you are one of the most prime, most hale and hearty, most all-rounded people.

If someone is one of the more quirky Aspies, I guess the following should be taken into account:

a) Quirks. Should consider a country that is more tolerant to their personal quirks and/or caters most to their special interests.

b) Discrimination. If you're discriminated against even in your own country among your own people, it would be particularly sensitive if a country tends to often discriminate against your race, ethnicity etc.

c) If someone too often falls foul of social faux pas even in their own society, why migrate elsewhere and have to cope with another culture's social rules in addition? I wouldn't recommend that.

Austria just because it's beautiful there and that's where I want to move to.

There are advantages and disadvantages to where I live. Notable advantages:

- Health care is generally fine, although psychiatric patients were recently told by our not-so charming or even remotely competent minister that they 'might as well just have a nice talk with the old woman next door' instead of proper therapy. The remark was accompanied by a measure making psychiatric help ridiculously expensive. Just this week, in a disturbing development, a guy who had previously been in emergency therapy for years was refused adequate help and proceeded to kill a random girl on the street.
- There is a surprisingly adequate education network aimed at people with Asperger's. It's a multi-million dollar industry on a full population of slightly less than seventeen million. There are several schools aimed specifically at people with Asperger's and closely-related disorders. Bad perspective, unfortunately: budget cuts are forcing them to downsize rapidly by a minister who has probably set a world record for unpopularity in all fields of education.

There are some annoying disadvantages, though:

- Population density. A patch of land hardly enough for a small house several miles from any noteworthy employment is often worth over €100,000. If you want to get to school or work, expect mile-long traffic jams or standing packed in trains every morning and late afternoon. Don't even mention forests or sunlight - concrete and traffic lights will do.
- Strangers usually range anywhere between reserved and hostile. If you get to know them, they can be friendly, though very rule-bound and openly disapproving if they disapprove of something you do. However, if you say hello to a stranger on a train, results will range from an awkward hello to a punch in the face, with the mean response being either an awkward hello or being ignored if the stranger is an individual, and ridicule or gossiping if it's a group.

If I had plenty of money, and no worries about infrastructure, I'd probably try to assemble a group of trusted people, buy some kind of estate in Scotland, and live out the rest of my life surrounded by people I can get along with while drinking some of the best booze in the world and shooting innocent animals from the comfort of my residential castle.
Not too far from any facilities should that be bitterly necessary, but not too close to the kind of big-city life that suburb life in the Netherlands is (even if you live in a relatively large house, expect neighbours to be mere meters away).

Probably Canada, Germany, or Japan

Canada or Germany. Canada because it's a spacious country. Germany because we're straight to the point and we don't sugarcoat things.

Scotlands not too bad. If you can deal with the bipolar weather swings and the ironic "banter". Teachers are usually pretty lousy though and are happy just to pick up their monthly pay cheques for as little effort as possible.

I wouldn't know for any other country, but I believe a diagnosed AS patient with no history of employment would be turned away from Canada. Canada doesn't admit immigrants who are likely to become a drain on public resources (be that welfare or psychiatric health care).

I think the best country for you is the country you live in. Moving somewhere else means you'll have another degree of difference from the people around you which gives them another reason to exclude you. Even if they don't, you'll jump into a completely different culture with different values, ways of communication and expectations. It's better to stick to the routine you've known all your life even if it isn't perfect.

I live in Quebec. As much as I have reservations about certain aspects of our culture, there's nowhere else I could or would call home and I know that if I were dumped in Europe or Asia, with their stronger focus on the whole rather than the individual, or even in English Canada, I'd be utterly miserable. I expect people to act a certain way and speak a certain language at a minimum and differences throw me off and make me anxious.