Emigration..... The grass isn't greener after all...

kabayiri

Getting work done on my property in Canada is proving a lot more expensive than work on my house here in the UK. You have to factor that in to the pricing too.

drc

kabayiri wrote: »

Getting work done on my property in Canada is proving a lot more expensive than work on my house here in the UK. You have to factor that in to the pricing too.

A lot less Polish builders in Canada.

Sapphire

Graham_Devon wrote: »

It's just one single indicator.

Taxes are another, costs of living are another. All I know is the people I do know who moved out to Australia are much much happier and have a much higher standard of life there. It's my ex boss's son. She's looking to move out there now in 2 year also.

She does have another son here, so shes stuck between the two, but has pretty much chosen Aus as the better place to spend their retirement.

On the other hand, I have an aunt and uncle who have lived in Australia for 20 years, but who have recently moved back to Europe after retiring. This is mainly because once they finished work (in high-powered academic jobs), they actually found they had little in common with other Australians and missed the culture of Europe. :cool:

Plus, for myself the relentless hot weather during the summer would be too much for me.

I have been there, and it is a beautiful place as far as the natural history goes, but it wouldn't suit me to live there permanently. I love the ancient cultural heritage of Europe (history, architecture, art, and so on).

leveller2911

Very interesting thread .Just a question from me, when they work out the average wage do they include Tax credits as earnings?.

If they do then surely this gives a distorted view.I have nothing to back up my view that again wages in my area of the SE are far from the national average wage.
I was looking at statistics for my area which date back to 2006 which states the AW is lower here than the South East generally.

If they don't include TC in the AW then my area is genuinely poorer than most.

Wookster

Hamish, you're not thinking straight if you think people migrate only for lower house prices.

Have you heard of "lifestyle"?

Generali

House prices are very high in Sydney, Melbourne, Perth and some of the newer mining areas. However it is worth noting that you get a lot more house for your money in Australia than in the UK so the average house that you are buying in Australia is likely to be much larger and on a much larger plot of land than in Britain.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/11/30/2757168.htm

Mr James says the Australian Bureau of Statistics figures show the average floor area of a new home has hit a record high of 214.6 square metres in the past financial year....

"We are bigger than the US for the first time. Our newly built homes are 7 per cent bigger than those in the US, double the size of those in Europe, and triple the size of those in the UK."

As Hamish_MacTavish suggests, there is good and bad about living in Australia. The Bogan thing is a pain but my feeling is that random acts of drunken violence are more prevalent in the UK than Australia and theft seems to be much less of a problem in Sydney than London.

The thing I've found hardest about moving from the UK to Aus is that Australia has this very peculiar idea that you need a licence or specific training for everything. You even need a licence to work behind a bar or as a security guard!

lostinrates

OK, here is the thing. We talk about emmigration, but the point is that lots of the City employers, the employers of those stamping there feet, are not UK based, for hem withfdrawing business on the scale would be the opposite. And it would be very, very bad for us.

Emmigrating remains an option for us. I think from reading the boards the ey thing is that while we are both anglophiles, and wanted very much to be in England, and be truely English, our mixed heretage and somewhat gypsy upbringing has meant we already know we can e comfortable in other places. We have family almost anywhere else we would consider, and friends and social networks in many places too: and only one set of parents here. Its highly likely my immediate family remaining UK based will number only one, and living in other places might give us more disposable income to visit and helpthat one than we might have living in the same country as them.

Remaining in UK remains are prefered option: we've made financial decisions based on that preferred outcome, and DH has made professional ones, but, thats remaining in a UK we love for its freedom, oppertunity, its heretage AND its future. If the empoyment became somewhereelse then I think th future would be somewhere else too.

We're not pacng our bags just yet, but, personally, the situation is that in the next few months we might be forced to follow employment: we don't yet know.

Emmigration on the basis of running away from UK as the sole objective, will never be successful. As many point out, you cn never outrun yourself. For many, emmgigration based on moving towards something is a different thing. I have known both very unhappy and very happy expats, (the happy ones probably wouldn't identify with the term ''expat'') an its as much about the person as the country IMO.

The_White_Horse

Graham_Devon wrote: »

It's just one single indicator.

Taxes are another, costs of living are another. All I know is the people I do know who moved out to Australia are much much happier and have a much higher standard of life there. It's my ex boss's son. She's looking to move out there now in 2 year also.

She does have another son here, so shes stuck between the two, but has pretty much chosen Aus as the better place to spend their retirement.

but people who do move there will always say it is great. not many people will up and leave the UK for Oz and then say to people "actually we hate it here and it was a massive mistake"

People don't like admitting they were wrong.

mbga9pgf

Go on the expats forum. There are loads of them actually TWH!

StevieJ

Graham_Devon wrote: »

It's just one single indicator.

Taxes are another, costs of living are another. All I know is the people I do know who moved out to Australia are much much happier and have a much higher standard of life there. It's my ex boss's son. She's looking to move out there now in 2 year also.

She does have another son here, so shes stuck between the two, but has pretty much chosen Aus as the better place to spend their retirement.

But what about when the global warming kicks in :eek: