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My 13 year old daughter is trying to convince me that we should move to South Korea, why should we or why shouldn't we move from the US to South Korea?

I would highly advise ,against ,moving to any country if you have little to no connections there. Moving domestically, even within the same state, have serious consequences such as a need to rebuild your career, buy (or rent) a house, and rebuilding your social network. But internationally, to a different culture with a completely different language (Korean is rated as Level 5 in the State Department’s language training program as one of the most challenging foreign languages for Americans), with no real inside personal contacts nor prospects? That’s a very risky move and I can’t recommend it if you and your family want a stable life. Unless you have a solid job offer in a reputable major South Korean (or a South Korean branch of a large foreign company) that can afford your needs and wants, moving to Korea will be a significant ,downgrade ,to your pay., , OECD puts the average Korean net disposable income per household at $21,700 while the US has $44,000. Even from a PPP per capita standpoint, the US excels at over $59,000 while Korea has only a little over half of that, at $39,000 mark. Average corporate salary in Korea by deciles (2017; Korea Economic Research Institute and Ministry of Labor and Employment) Unless you belong in the top decile with an average income of approximately $60,000 USD mark, typically reserved for full-time, non-contracted regular employees in major conglomerates like Samsung & Hyundai, life in Korea’s major cities will be more challenging. Average apartment price in Seoul and Seoul Metropolitan Area, unit used is 10,000 won per 3.3 square meters. *3.3 square meter is around 35.5 square foot. This chart demonstrates that it costs nearly $19,000 per 3.3 square meters to afford a living space in Seoul and nearly $9,000 for the same area in the Seoul Metropolitan area excluding Seoul. If you want an average American home size (2400 sq ft) in Seoul, you are looking at an over $4 million dollars sized hole in your bank account. Most upper-middle-class Seoul residents settle for home size only about a third or 40% of your average American and still pay over $1 million. I would advise that if your family and especially, you and your daughter want a full Korean experience like seen on Kpop videos, TV programs, and wonderful tales of advanced Korea from tourists, stick to Seoul and surrounding metro area. While the non-Seoul metro area offers decent housing at a non-insane price range, job opportunities and education plummet once you get further away from Seoul and a handful of surrounding major cities like Seungnam, Suwon, and Goyang. The well-known college brands are clustered in Seoul, along with most of the private tutors, hagwons (a private tutor for multiple classes of students, like school), job offers, and the cosmopolitan ‘fun’ that Korea is known for. If you are applying for jobs and you have an unrecognizable college name (i.e. nearly every college but ones in Seoul, famous STEM institutes like KAIST or Postech, and med school), life in Korea will ,not ,end up like what most people would want it to be and end up lower in the corporate income ladder in a country that costs more to live in. Immigration can also be a hassle if you can’t speak Korean at an advanced level, and Korean immigration is a point-based system, hence if you aren’t eligible, your chances get slim very fast. Refer to this calculator (also calculates the hypothetical US immigration and other point-based immigration countries) if you want to get some idea of what this is: ,Could you migrate to the US, Canada, or Hong Kong? Check our merit calculator,. To put this into perspective, think of the Northeast Corridor, with their NYC and DC, along with other major cities like Boston, Los Angeles, and the Bay Area. Except for more people in a smaller area, higher real estate price for smaller and older apartments, half of their income, fewer opportunities, and major cultural and linguistical differences. It’s a great country to have fun and tour around, but a less-than-ideal country to live in if you’re coming from a developed Western country with already well-established ties to your home country.