Emigration Myths - Why Expats return to Britain

EMIGRATION MYTHS AN EXPAT'S EXPERIENCE WHY EXPATS RETURN

"Brits Flee " scream the media headlines.As usual they fail to tell the whole story such as how many return(lots),how many discover for each plus there is a minus,how many struggle more than they did in the UK and how many seem genuinly shocked that taxes and crime exist in all countries.

The £pound has been valued at record highs in recent years meaning cost of living overseas seems cheaper than ever.British people can sell their over valued average/small houses and buy cheaper & larger properties in the sun and still have money left over.People in USA,Canada, Australia,NZ etc simply don't have this easy option.Despite this many of them still choose to emigrate-many to Britain.

If you are retiring on a UK pension or living overseas off the proceeds of your over valued UK house then life might seem easy,but when people earn and spend the same as the locals the realisation often sinks in that life in Britain was really not that bad.

Like all countries Britain has its problems-mostly caused by incompetent government and an often idiotic legal profession. These faults need to be resolved yet some people criticise the UK for stupid reasons.Proof? :

1.Those who say they are fed up with crime - and move to areas of the world with a higher crime rate.

2.Those who complain about too many foreigners - and move to areas of the world where they are outnumbered 10-1 by foreigners.

3.Those who moan about the weather - and move to areas of the world with such extremes of weather that they are confined indoors for half the year.

4.Those who complain about high taxes - and move to areas of the world with even higher taxes.

5.Those who complain about stress/long working hours - and then move to a country with longer working hours and fewer paid holidays.

EXPERIENCE

I've been a Brit abroad for over 30 years and when I first arrived in Canada I was stunned at all the things I hadn't been told about. It was clear to me, and to many others I've met since, that if we had known, our passage from Britain might never had happened. You get used to anything in time - we Brits are good at that, but to know ALL the pros AND the cons beats getting only the happy-face stuff. To this day it's hard for people in Britain to realize that you still can't get our kind of tea here, you can't get bacon (only streaky), a good meat pie, or any of our sweets.!

EMIGRATING: DO IT IN HASTE REPENT IT AT LEISURE.
People leave this country in their thousands every year. Last year the figures show that over 200,000 British citizens left Britain to live in other countries. These are not all emigrants the reports say, mostly being the older folk looking to retire in the sun somewhere. South Africa is a popular destination where sunshine is guaranteed and the cost of buying a property is far below the prices seen even in the more rustic and
rural parts of England. Obviously the fact South Africa is a country where blacks outnumber whites 11 to 1, and the murder rate of about 22,000 homicides every year being the highest in the world, doesn’t bother these Brits bound for retirement.

Now let’s look at that other section within that group of emigrating Brits, which comprises about 5,000 to 6,000 each year to Australia alone. Why are they emigrating you might ask. Most will tell you it’s to get away from exactly what the retirees are finding, and accepting, in South Africa, being too many non-whites and high crime figures. So one group wants out for sun and economy, and to hell with racial mix and crime, whilst the other wants out from too much racial mix and too many crimes. Puzzling you might ask. Confusing is another word. So, what is it all about, this emigrating thing, and why are so many people leaving Britain prepared to
turn the other cheek abroad, but not at home.

Many of you reading this are emigrants. You left Britain as long ago as the 1950’s and as recent as last year. You all made your decisive and determined exodus based on some very solid reasoning. Do you remember what your reasons were? Did you leave Britain because of the influx of non-whites - now be honest. If you did are you now living in a country void of non-whites? Or are they just as dominant, or more so, than here in Britain? Did you leave Britain because the 725 murders a year in a population of 62 million was too hard to take? If you did are you now living in South Africa,(22,000 murders a year - population 48 million),or the USA - 17,000 murders a year (population 303 million) or Australia where they have as many murders as Britain but in a population of only 18 million.

Can’t be for any of the reasons above, because that’s not logical. You don’t emigrate on a whim of fancy because some non-white moved into the corner store, or some old man got robbed by a gang of thugs. If you did you won’t last long in your new country.

There are plenty of other reasons for chucking it all in and flying off to a foreign country to spend the rest of your life. The big cop-out for a lot of people is that, ‘we did it for the children.’ Don’t you get fed up with hearing that. The education system is much the same wherever you go - it’s your kids that’ll be inner-smart or not. In fact teaching has been so dumb-downed from the UK to Canada, OZ, US, NZ, and RSA,
that it’s lucky kids leaving school come out at all ready for the great big world.
Look, we all have our reasons for up and leaving, I did years ago, but once I realised how much I missed my roots, my heritage, and my way of life I soon came back home. I left because I thought there were better opportunities abroad. There weren’t.
In the final analysis it’s the individual, yourself, that’ll make it - no matter where you are, be it Wagga Wagga or Middle Wallop.

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