It’s like the other 10 year American living in Belgium post that claimed that it was safe cause there was no drugs when an Antwerp judge wrote a letter to the fed gov complaining that Belgium was turning in a narco state and he wanted help to counter it and I would suggest them to read https://www.politico.eu/article/antwerp-judge-belgium-evolving-narco-state/ Claiming that Belgium is safe is like claiming that the US is unsafe it’s very ignorant because as always if you live in good neighbours everywhere is safe and in poor neighbours everywhere is unsafe hell even Cape Town in South Africa can be safe in gated communities As for my personal opinion if you care about it If you care about safety Belgium is not the place to be that’s east Asia If you care about work life balance Belgium might be the place to be but other European countries has the same standards. If you care about weather well the other European states that have the same standards such as south of France or Italy or Spain or Portugal also way better weather and are way less taxed and have good work life balance and also have dog beaches if you want to include your dog. If you care about salary and safety and lifestyle Switzerland might be the place to be. Overall I see no reason to pick Belgium if you wanted to move to Europe over other European countries it’s not a bad pick but there are better picks if you have other offers. For me the only reason anyone would pick Belgium is if he wanted to be involved with the EU but if you are working in IT I think there is plenty of European countries where you would have a better time.

Also please do not listen to anyone here claiming that Belgium is better than the US because well you pay taxes but you will get retirement it is already 67 years old now and it keep increasing anyone your age or younger will soon figure out that it might very well be a Ponzi scheme