The Map Is Live. It Doesn't Have a Score.
MEMBER SAFETY MAP · NOW OPEN
Four country entries, read through the questions you're actually asking. Sourced, dated, and honest about where they stop.
So you want to know if a country is safe for you. That's the question everybody asks me, and I get it.
Here's the short answer: the Member Safety Map won't tell you. It's not that kind of map.
People assume a safety map comes with a score. A number, a color, a top ten list. It doesn't. No score. No ranking. I built it that way on purpose.
Let me tell you why.
Four seconds
I was at a book signing in Florida once. Not mine, another woman's. I had my toddler with me. A woman walks over, she's kind about it, and she tells me she has some information for me if I ever want it. About getting my GED.
I'd crossed the stage for my law degree visibly pregnant. I'd passed the Florida bar. I was a licensed attorney standing right there in that room. And a stranger decided, in about four seconds, that I hadn't finished high school.
She wasn't, in her mind, being cruel. She thought she was helping. But that's the thing, the same thing happens at a visa window. It happens in a pitch room. Nobody announces the decision. It just gets made about you before you say a word.
Nobody announces the decision. It just gets made about you before you say a word.
I tell the whole story in my first YouTube video, along with what happened next. A panel in France that looked at me after a full pitch and asked, why not just go back to the US? And a room in Spain, less than a year later, where someone heard what I do and said, oh wow, are you considering coming here? Same woman. Same credentials. Completely different answer.
WATCH
So when somebody asks me "is it safe for me," I know what they're really asking. Would it be different somewhere else?
And I hear the other side of it too. "They're racist over there too, so what's the point." I hear that a lot. And right next to it: "I just want a life that I can feel safe in."
A score can't answer either one. A score is somebody else's four seconds.
How people research a move
I'm Les, I'm an immigration attorney. And I've watched people research a move the same way for years. They read forums. They watch a video from somebody who spent two weeks somewhere. They text a friend of a friend, and the friend is like, oh, you'll love it, everybody's so nice. And you know, that tells you how the place felt to one person. It doesn't tell you how the law treats you once you've signed a lease there.
That's the gap. That's what the map is for.
What the map is
So here's what it is. You pick a country, and you read it through the question you're actually asking. As a woman. As an LGBTQ+ person. As a Black or Brown mover. With a disability, or a prescription you can't go without. With kids. Older. Brand new to the country with no one to call.
NINE SECTIONS IN EVERY ENTRY Women · LGBTQ+ · Race and ethnicity · Disability and health · Family · Older movers · Newcomers · Institutions · Money |
And every section reads the same way. A short answer up top. Then the numbers, simplified. Then what that can mean for a real person. Then what isn't in the entry yet. Then the sources, with the year next to every figure.
GENDER If you are a woman IN SHORT Strong laws on paper. Laws on the books score 83 out of 100. How enforcement is seen scores 54, a gap of nearly 30 points. THE FACTS 83 / 100 Laws on the books 68 / 100 Services and budgets behind the law 54 / 100 How enforcement is seen 7 in 10 Women 15+ who have faced at least one form of violence in their lifetime Scores are the World Bank's own, rounded, out of 100. We do not rate or rank countries. |
One section of the Mexico entry: the short answer, then the numbers, each with its source.
That "not in the entry yet" line is the part I care about most. Most guides act like they cover everything. They don't. Mine tells you where it stops.
Free for members: four country entries that read the law as it is published, not as it feels.
The four are Mexico, Portugal, Canada and Ghana. They're the ones my people ask about most.
Mexico. Largest US-born population of any country. Deep Black and Latino/a diaspora.
Portugal. Marriage equality and strong formal protections, with real variation between regions.
Canada. Nearly a quarter of the population is foreign-born. Strong formal protections, which makes the law-versus-practice gap the whole question.
Ghana. A named destination for Black American movers, with a government program built around it. Ghana criminalizes same-sex relations, and a wider bill is still before Parliament.
The four free entries, inside the members area.
No score. No ranking. Just what is on the books, with the sources.
And when a law is pending, the entry names it and dates it. Ghana's anti-LGBTQ+ bill. Portugal's gender identity bills. Both are on my watch list, and I check that list every week.
I'm gonna be honest with you. If you want someone to tell you a country is safe for you, this will disappoint you. I won't say it. I can't. What I can do is show you what to look at, so you decide with the facts in front of you instead of a stranger's four seconds.
Moving abroad with kids, or as a same-sex couple? Start with what the law actually says.
The map is at lwinnovations.com/map. Join free, and the four entries open up.
This is general education, not legal advice about anyone's situation.
IMAGE CREDITS
Map and member pages: LW Innovations. Video still: LW Innovations YouTube.
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