Editha

Can you give an example? If it's popular, I think I would be aware of it and I'm not.

vikingsail

Oh I don't know....:

Immigration for spouses to UK

NHS coverage denial

Benefits denial in general in the UK

Take your pick I'm sure the list is longer than that

Editha

Sorry, but I'm not following you. In what way do any of the above indicate 'disapproval' of ex-pats?

Shirtback

Add me as one not following ...

rebeccajo

Obviously I can't speak for vikingsail. But as the wife of an expat, I can tell you that my husband says he certainly feels (at least as far as the government is concerned) he would not be welcome back.

Pulaski

I don't get it either.

There is a process for spouse immigration. If you don't like the process that is a different matter.

If you're resident in the UK, as a British citizen, you have access to the NHS. You can't come back to visit just for free treatment. I don't see a problem with that.

Benefits denial - not sure what you mean. You can't just roll up and claim benefits. Again, I don't see a problem.

mikelincs

British Citizens have access to the NHS from day 1 of their return, Spouses on a Spouse visa do as well because they ahve paid the surcharge or qualify for no surcharge. Benefits denial for a certain length of time is an excellent idea, stops people returning to the UK because they have run out of money where they are. there are people who would look on the UK as a place to top up their bank accounts without working if they could claim benefits as soon as they came back.
Immigration visas for spouses, the requirements were increased to stop many people who had moved over to the UK, and were now living here, bringing their spouses over to create another benefits burden.

I agree that the cost of the spouse visa is too high, but the government is unlikely to lower it due to the perceived bad effect immigration has on UK people.

Editha

I don't actually agree with the denial of benefits at all. Someone returning to the UK is most likely to need benefits immediately after they arrive while they are getting on their feet. And, that is particularly true of people who are returning to the UK because things have not gone well abroad.

Nor do I agree with the financial requirements for spouses and step-children, which are much too high and quite illogical in their effect since they bar potentially high earning foreign spouses of low earning home-maker/carer British spouses.

But, I don't think either of these amounts to 'disapproval' of ex-pats, just bad, clumsy-policy making as a result of acceding to a populist anti-immigration lobby.

mikelincs

What the denial of benefits is about is the fact that there were many people coming to the UK to live, and just because they knew they would get beneifts from the moment they arrived, other EU countries are now finding this out and beginning to agree with the UK that something needs to be done. The UK doesn't deny benefits to people who enter as genuine assylum seekers, just those coming because they feel they can get something for nothing, and with the Spouse visa requirements being what they are, then those people will not be needing to apply for benefits in any case.

Editha

I don't think there is much if any evidence for that proposition. But since a number of far-right governments have recently been elected in Europe, I'm sure you are right that the idea of immigrant bashing is catching on.

Pulaski

Why does he feel that?

I think any valuable and contributing British citizen would be welcome. Doesn't he feel like a high contributor, or does he just have a downer on the Conservative party?

BristolUK

But your first part says contributing while the next bit says high contributing.

That one is welcome as a high contributor but not if merely a contributor might indicate not necessarily disapproval but maybe contempt.

Pulaski

They were about two different things - the first about people in general and the British Government, the second about how Mr RJ "feels".

BristolUK

But could he not have felt as if held in contempt or disapproved of without feeling like a high contributor?

That's the point isn't it?

rebeccajo

It is.

My husband talks about returning to the UK from living abroad and people labeling him a 'failure'. He says they don't understand that life in the US isn't really what they think it is. But it would bother him, nonetheless.

I could probably go into quite a long explanation of what my husband thinks of the current UK government and its stance on benefits and the people who use them. It's not your 'typical' opinion either (by that I mean either a left or right wing one). He grew up with Thatcher-ism while living through the Troubles. We could go on all day, if you get my drift.

My husband knows he could go back to the UK and still find most of society's safety nets in place for him, a British citizen. So that doesn't bother him.

My husband has always said there is a 'class' (for lack of a better term) of people who use benefits as a lifestyle. But because he was raised British he also believes that benefits are there to help people through legitimate rough times. He says he never felt ashamed to take benefits when he needed them. For him it wasn't a permanent situation and there was no stigma attached to it.

What does bother him is that through and using the excuse of immigration policy, the government has drawn a bright line in the sand of who is a valuable member of British society and who is not. He does not feel 'good enough' to return to the UK with his foreign wife. The government put a price on who earns enough. He never did earn that much even though he worked. It's like a poke in the eye for having worked instead of sitting on his butt and drawing benefits.

So he's pretty much unwilling to take on the societal stigma of a loser coming back to the UK, along with the government hurdles of being married to an immigrant pariah.