In protest against COVID-19 measures, many Germans have chosen to emigrate

Quitting, packing, leaving nothing behind: Hundreds of Germans are emigrating overseas out of dissatisfaction and anger over their country's COVID-19 measures.

Visit a German family who is planning to leave their home country once and for all...

Everything was ready, and two days later the flight was made, but one of their family members, a white poodle named Polly, put the family's immigration plan in jeopardy. The hero, Claudio. Claudio Breitbach sat nervously in a chair, the only piece of furniture left in his living room. Dolly's roar echoed in the empty three-bedroom apartment.

Who can believe this is true? The dog will also need an official certificate from the local Ravensburg, otherwise it will not be able to emigrate with its owner. Breitbach poured himself a glass of apple juice and rubbed his bearded chin. The child behind him cried. He only learned the day before yesterday that Dolly needed a pet vaccination certificate to leave Germany with them.

Breitbach is 42 years old, wearing a gold necklace and plaid shorts. He joined the ranks of COVID-19 immigrants. He's had enough after a year and a half of thoroughly disappointing epidemic prevention measures and eight months of vaccine promotion campaigns that have terrified him. He was leaving Germany. Moved to Paraguay, a country he only knew on YouTube.

He wasn't alone. Also traveling with him were his wife Anna, four-year-old twins, Dolly and his mother-in-law. In the living room against the wall, 15 packed suitcases are neatly arranged in order of size. None of them had been to South America, and none of them spoke Spanish.

As vaccination rates rise and infection rates fall this fall, one might argue that the scars on society caused by COVID-19, namely hard-line proponents and skeptics of COVID-19, will disappear. The opposite is true. It is precisely after the German Vaccine Standing Committee recommended that children over the age of 12 be vaccinated that a growing number of coronavirus skeptics have taken a step forward. They mistakenly believed that this was the result of an authoritarian state, so they decided to leave Germany.

Breitbach, an ordinary man who resembled the actor Adam Sandler, got up and went down the stairs to the basement. He reconciled the plaster powder in the cup and smoothed out the small holes that had hung on the router before. There were so many things that bound him: a total shutdown, a mask to be worn on trips to a building materials supermarket, and voluntary vaccinations that German Health Minister Span has long claimed. Breitbach laughed and said, "Just kidding!"

Satisfying work, beautiful home, but protecting children is more important than that

But his colleagues also disappointed him.

Not long ago, he was working in a medium-sized pharmaceutical factory to coordinate shifts. Worked for eight years. It's fun, as he says, a fun and well-paid job. At the beginning of the year, colleagues laughed together about the emergency development of the "express COVID-19 vaccine". At that time, everyone also said that they would never vaccinate in this life!

But what's next? In the summer, colleagues went to work one by one with their arms covered with tape strips after vaccination. For Breitbach, he was the only one who kept his sanity.

Breitbach said: "All of this is actually tolerable. Don't quit your job right away, sell your family bus, and rent out your bright apartment on the top floor. From there to the lake in less than ten minutes. None of this was enough to make him make up his mind to leave Germany for the other side of the world. The farthest place he's been to so far is Las Vegas. He said, "When you think of children, these measures are really too much." In the spring, kindergarten teachers asked the children to do nucleic acid tests twice a week, and cotton swabs were inserted deep into the children's nostrils. "These are healthy children!" Breitbach shook his head as he spoke, and threw the plaster into the basement wall.

Before the interview, Brightbach stressed that "he is a vaccine opposition, but his wife is not!" "We'll just look from the outside. Will maintain a safe distance. ”

Found Paraguay online: cheap visas, many Germans, the ideal paradise for immigrants.

There was enough reason for his fears about vaccines: The brother of one of his wife's colleagues died inexplicably just days after the vaccination, in his 40s. The same thing happened to another female colleague he knew. Cause of death? There are, of course, other explanations for the official. Brightbach laughs and says, "It's not a doctor who confirms that it's a complication from the vaccine." ”

His dream country was discovered 20 years ago. At that time, his first marriage broke down, and he not only lost his job, but also lost his son's visitation rights because of "deep personal crisis". Breitbach was so disappointed with the German defense lawyer that he wanted to leave Germany. He read about Paraguay on some immigration forums. As a European, you only need very little proof of bank property to get a paraguay visa. In addition, there are already many German communities there. Paraguay seemed to have lit up his dream of emigration: it would free him from the scheming German bureaucracy on the one hand, and would not make him feel completely alien on the other.

Experts note that many proponents of COVID-19 conspiracy theories like Breitbach have left Germany. "In the summer, many couples come to register with us. They sold their homes and planned to emigrate overseas. Tobias Meilicke said. He works for Veritas, an agency in Berlin that advises conspiracy thesis adherents.

It's hard to count how many people have left their homeland because only a few people will openly seek help from similar agencies. But judging by the social platforms such as the Internet and Facebook, as well as the connections and interactions between COVID-19 skeptics and overseas immigrants, the number of COVID-19 immigrants is conservatively estimated to be in the range of hundreds to thousands.

Many people went to Tanzania (Tansania). The heads of state there have long denied the COVID-19 pandemic and have not taken any measures to prevent the epidemic. Bodo Schiffmann, the key figure in the coronavirus skepticism, went there. There he provided African travel services for the "brain-sharp". In addition, Poland, Hungary and Russia are also popular places for COVID-19 immigrants. Those dictatorships that are partially openly opposed to the EU seem to be favored by these people. "The wave of emigration has been high and low, but the number of migrants has increased significantly with the liberalization of childhood vaccinations." Bodo Schiffmann said.

Bodo Schiffmann

The immigrant districts of COVID-19 deniers preach that we live "without fear of viral diseases" and without Muslims

Paraguay has long been a country of yearning for Germans who are dissatisfied with their internal affairs. For more than a hundred years, Paraguay in central South America attracted religious groups that had been expelled from Germany, such as the Mennoiten, and the Nazis who fled there after World War II. A few years ago a new group of people came here: they thought Merkel's Germany was going to kill itself and came to Paraguay in search of "freedom".

On Facebook, people calling themselves "immigration assistants" are tearing each other apart in a scramble for new immigrants. The men in their 50s, Named Heinz or Uwe, warned that couples would be beaten while recommending their own intermediary services. It is said that if a person lives in Paraguay for a long time and hosts a large-scale immigration forum online, he will make a lot of money: helping immigrants prepare the necessary documents for their stay, charging thousands of euros per person per person. "Most immigrants underestimate the difficulty of finding a stable income in developing countries."

There are already tailor-made immigration programs for COVID-19 immigrants overseas. They can live on a hundred acres of land as they used to. The slogan specifically reads: "No masks are worn here, there is no need to worry about viruses and diseases, and there is no need for vaccinations." In addition, the founder of the institution, a former scientist, also claimed: "There are almost no Muslims in Paraguay. So Germans can enjoy a better life than they do in Germany. It's an adventurer's paradise.

The German embassy in Asuncion, the capital of Paraguay, warned of such a settlement. Land there is often sold at a 20-fold markup, and unsuspecting buyers don't get a land certificate at all. The Breitbach family refused to live in such a community.

Breitbach takes a walk around the lake near the home of the German city of Ravensburg. When it comes to Paraguay, he is full of energy: natural scenery. Thought forms. Everything is so easy! Not too much jealousy. Not too much self-righteousness! He ended up in Germany 20 years ago because he wanted to stay with his son. But Paraguay has always been his B-plan. He later found a new job and met his current wife, Anna. The 2015 refugee wave undermined his relationship with the German government for the second time.

The third time was COVID-19. This spring, he and his wife estimated the situation after the vaccine was introduced, such as: "Will people who have not been vaccinated in a few months still be on the streets?" He asked for help on Facebook. As a result, a friend who was in school accidentally saw his post, and the other party was also planning to move out of Germany, so he proposed to go through immigration procedures with him. They share one sea container. Shipping costs EUR 15,000 per home.

A neighbor tried to get them to change their minds, but to no avail

Having a companion reassured the Breitbach family of their last concerns. At the end of May, he resigned and told his boss: "If you want to have a better development, you need to accumulate overseas experience." Colleagues admired his courage. Only one colleague warned him, "Claudio, you'll be back in six months." You will understand that you are more German than you think, that you are German. ”

He rarely thinks about the negative things about the destination. Paraguay is a serious corruption problem and a major distribution center for cocaine, with a high rate of murder, according to the International Transparency Agency. Breitbach shrugged. Three years ago in Ravensburg, there was a knife wound. The perpetrator was a refugee suffering from mental illness.

There were also times when he was preparing to immigrate. He received his last salary in mid-August. They saved up five-figure euros, enough to support the family's annual expenses in Paraguay. Later he plans to open a German-Hungarian restaurant there. Anna and her mother are Hungarian. He believes people there should love Hungarian beef soup and chili chicken.

One of their female neighbors tried to persuade them to change their minds. "Do you really believe that this can avoid the virus?" Brightbach laughed and said, "We are not trying to escape covid-19, but to get rid of crazy epidemic prevention measures!" ”

At the end of the interview, he said: "If he looks back in two or three years, he will be happy to say that there is no need to worry about vaccines." But he doesn't think so yet.

In early October, Breitbach made a video call. He stood in a dusty front garden. Behind it is a house separated from a road by a fence. Birds can be heard and Dolly's dogs barking. The veterinary department seemed to have given them Dolly's vaccination certificate in time.

Their journey was not smooth. 15 pieces of luggage were stranded in São Paulo. The first taxi was knocked out. The family was forced to spend three weeks in a rental house in the capital, Asunción, where the plan was to stay for a few days. "It's horrible!" Anna cried out in the back. It was dirty and messy, full of garbage, full of poor people: she had never seen such a bad city.

Breitbach was also surprised: in Paraguay people must also wear masks when entering large supermarkets. Some of the simplest household items, such as fruit knives, take a whole day to get your hands on. He said there was "tremendous skepticism" about the decision to migrate at the beginning.

But then they rented a car and drove to Cambyreta, a small town in the south that is closer to the Argentine border. There, a detached villa with four rooms and a terrace barbecue was rented. There are banana trees in the courtyard and the rent is 280 euros per month. The kids are going to kindergarten right away. The family is gradually satisfied with the new living environment, even if not everything meets their safety requirements: in a few days workers will come to install protective fences for the windows facing the garden.

Breitbach said he misses Germany less, except for the German building materials supermarket. "He and his wife are learning Spanish. Their landlord is a Paraguayan family of German descent, but moved away a few years ago. They have two small children with disabilities and are not properly cared for there. So they packed their bags and went to a country that would give them a better future. They now live in Germany.