not2old

how many of you can relate to this?

As a wannabe immigrant you make the decision for whatever reason to leave the UK & emigrate, then the doubt sets in even before you get the visa, becomes worse after the visa is in your passports. Is it the reality that OMG we are leaving or we should not have gone down this path or do you become scared of the unknown - what is it?

For those that make it to their new land, some become homesick and/or whinge & compare to back home, cannot settle for whatever reason after being in OZ for 1, 5, 10 or 20 years on & want to return back home.

Do you have challenges with 'shall we stay or shall we go' How did you make the decision?

chris955

I think you would be lying if you said there werent some niggling doubts. For us it was pretty clear cut but we were concerned the kids wouldnt take to their new country, fortunately our fears were unfounded. We miss things, mostly friends and family but overall there were no doubts.

OzTennis

The Joe Strummer conundrum you could say! (just in case some of you think One Direction had an original idea and came up with The Clash song).

I guess nearly everyone on the forum has been there and got the T shirt on this one. It is natural to have doubts. In our case we made the decision and just went for it! We were unusual in that we did the opposite to the usual. We gave up jobs and a comfortable life in Australia to turn up in Scotland and look for work, house etc in the area Mrs OzT came from. It was a bit harrowing at times but we got there.

My comment would therefore be that it is natural to have all these doubts but once you've made the decision, go for it and enjoy the adventure.

quoll

Nothing is forever and as long as you have the freedom to come and go then what's the problem. Treat it like an adventure and you should be fine. If it turns into a life sentence then you could be in trouble!

KJCherokee

Of course you are going to have doubts. We had no problem applying for the visas - after all, if we didn't use them we weren't out a lot of money. Buying the air tickets was harder, as was selling the house and quitting our jobs, and on the plane coming over with my wife and two daughters (5 & 3) I was almost literally sh1tting myself - what was I getting us into? But after we'd landed, been met by friends, found somewhere to live and (finally!) got a job we were fine. We had never lived particularly near to either of our families, so not seeing them regularly wasn't a problem, and it's amazing how quickly you can make friends whilst waiting for the children to come out of school.

How did we make the decision? By looking at the alternatives: we could stay in dead-end jobs, living on a housing estate and struggling to make ends meet (the mortgage rate was 15% in 1982!) or we could strike out and make a new start in Australia. We had no idea what we would do once we got here, only that we were fed up with the life we had in the UK.

Do your best to get over the fears: as Franklin Roosavelt said "There is nothing to fear except fear itself.".

verystormy

We didnt have a should we or shouldnt we. But that was a error on our behalf as if we had weighed things up properly we wouldnt have come.

ainitcskarachi

Country of birth is always missed. You should consider staying only if you cannot find work in your country of birth other wise the next best option is to stay and enjoy.

Pollyana

Bit of a generalisation really. Many people leave their native lands without a backward glance, and there are numerous reasons for staying in or leaving a country after migrating to it.Work is not always the sole motivator.

not2old

maybe I can add some points to the OP with the following in no particular order. These can be a two way, or if you are here or there, going to, coming from or returning

not to stay reasons

Its now or never - we have just got get get out of this place

A better future for oneself & family

Atrocities

Get away from the family

Work

Government controls - too many to list

Education

Reasons to stay

Family & friends

Life is better where I am at than the places folks emigrate to

I have no need to emigrate whatsoever - its a fools notion

And by staying where I am, I can always travel without restriction to any place I wish for the cost of a few dollars - then return home.

Reasons that I emigrated

I believed I had no future living in the UK

I was young & foolish & wanted the adventure - I had no fear (the younger as an adult the better)

I wanted out of the UK because of the perception of the institutionalization & controls on me.

I felt that I could not get ahead of myself because there was too many of us in our 20-30 age group wanting the same thing in trying to reach the unreachable target.

Money

The 60's UK ... felt like I was living in a small overcrowded society in a confined space, small minded people that were constantly whinging & it seemed to rain constantly, too much smog, poorly heated homes ....

I knew that I could return back at anytime if I chose to

I gave it two years & if it did not work out, then I would return back. It took two years to get over the homesickness.

46 years on - I'm still an immigrant .... I do not live in the UK

dave99

You make it sound like a bad thing, everyone has doubts, some people dont settle even after years, myself included.

The thing that troubles me is when people feel the need to convince someone one way or another, this is often to justify their own choices. They feel like everyone must agree with them, their choice must be the right one because its the one they made. These people start to call others whingers or whiners to degrade them and lessen their value to try to degrade them in the eyes of others. All so they can justify their own choices and have a clearer conscience

quoll

Yup, the psychs call that cognitive dissonance! There's a fair bit of it about!

I "settled" and then I "unsettled" - life is about moving on to where your needs are best met at the time you are living it, not sticking your feet in concrete until the day they pop you in a box.

DML

"life is about moving on to where your needs are best met at the time you are living it, not sticking your feet in concrete until the day they pop you in a box"

+1. well said

skkfof

I left the UK in 2002 to emigrate to Australia. Even though I'd been coming here since I was 4 and had also done a working visa in 1998 and wanted badly to live here, it was still very hard, scary and daunting. At the time I was single.

I met an Aussie not long after I moved here and still I missed home. After 18 months of being here and talking non-stop about missed friends, things etc. I went home for 2 weeks. I hated it and couldn't wait to get back to Aus.

I have never been homesick since.

I still love to read/watch things about the UK - TV shows etc. etc. but I'll never go back.

My point is, that if you don't do it you will never know and may regret it for the rest of your life. If you try it and hate it at least you'll know.

Good luck.

Saxy

We tried NSW twice (we have family there). What I really didn't like was everyone continually going on about it being the best country in the world to live in! I found that very annoying!
The adoption of what seems like the American way of life and language e.g. -
Inundated - flooded, Power Outage - Power cut, Lip Synching - Miming, etc. wouldn't suit me. The TV channels are quite poor as well.
Outside the big cities you can't go out to a restaurant for a meal in the evening, as they all close early (everyone goes to the local bowls club to eat, drink and play the "One Armed Bandits". It's like going to a working mans' club).
These are just a few of the things that "got under my skin".
Then there is the unstable climate. With floods in Queensland and bush fires in NSW (it was 49 deg. in Sydney one day this year!). I saw many people on TV, sobbing their hearts out, because they had just finished rebuilding their homes, destroyed by floods two years ogo, paid for by the insurance companies (who then refused to insure them) and destroyed again in January this year (and the bush fires, as you know, have just happened in the beautiful Blue Mountains).
I also think that the mining industry is about to take a hit, as Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC) have got together to exploit South Africas minerals!
Australia doesn't seem like the best country in the world to me, but that's just my take on it. It is a long way to go to find out that you have made a mistake!
The "Victoria Bitter" is OK though!!!!!!!!

KJCherokee

I would have thought VB was a compelling reason not to live here.