The Cumbrian

Just browsing the titles of posts on the forum and I just can not help thinking that people should just take a deep breath and make the jump. Forget about snakes in Brissie, cost of living in W.A and other drivel. Just do it. If it doesn't work out as you would like it, then move back home. If you see obstacles then you get obstacles. We are here for a very short time, just do it, at least you can look back and say you had the guts to try something different.

Beoz

Cost of Living in WA is a cracker. This guy is on a quest to break it down to the cent ....... it aint gonna happen.

Yep. Just do it.

spouse of scouse

Nope. If people have a question, they should ask it. It's not up to anyone else to decide if it's a valid question or not, and nobody's forced to answer.

geoff52

There is a lot of hand holding on this forum.
That is maybe because our lives have moved to online.
Once, things we would have asked friends or family. know we ask on the forum, because our nearest and dearest may not be there, or are not interested.

mikelincs

or do not know the answer in any case, yes, there is hand holding, but moving to, say, Australia from the UK is a major undertaking, and also mega expensive, and if you do as the OP suggests and just move, then can't find a job, then you have wasted many thousands of pounds. Unless friends and family had made the move, then they would now absolutely nothing about what to do, how to get a visa, where to look for the information etc, so yes there is hand holding, but if I was contemplating moving to the other side of the world I would have questions and hope I would find a knowledge base like BE to help me through the process. Many people come to BE knowing nothing about emigrating except whatever the friendly, unregistered, agent has told them, Yes, we will do it all for you, it will only cost £4000 plus the visa fees, but don't worry you are certain to get a visa with your 4 GCSEs.

xizzles

Just to throw my hat into the ring and offer my 2 cents for what it's worth, it's not only the costs, the job risks, the friendships that will be left behind and/or the difficulties of making new ones in a new land many thousands of miles away.

It's sometimes also a question of whether Australia is the right place for one or not. Am I really hoping for a better life, or am I merely running away from a less than perfect one right now? Moving from one developed country (in most cases on this forum, the UK) to another developed nation like Australia can sometimes means dealing with the same shit, but just in a different bucket.

It's obviously different if one was moving say, from a less developed nation to a first world country, but even then, there'd be different challenges that are no less daunting to overcome.

Oh, sod it, the wife already takes a fortnight to decide if she looks better in one pair of shoes versus another - surely a couple of questions on a forum to decide if Australia's the place to spend your life isn't one too many to ask?

spouse of scouse

Hand holding? Do you means providing answers to questions from people contemplating emigration? Er - that's what BE is for.

verystormy

Because it is a huge thing and the concequences of it not working can be massive.

We found our selves moving back after losing everything in Oz. Not to massive for us as we don't have children. But, landing back in the UK with nothing but a suitcase each would be devastating for a family with children.

A lot of people use their life savings to pay for this. They then sell there homes and use a lot of that for the move and to set up. But, about half find themselves moving back. No longer owning a home, no job and minus tens of thousands.

Beoz

Yeah but Singapore messes with an expats head. There's the difference.

carcajou

We do get some daydreamers who explore the idea but don't really intend to take the plunge. I don't consider a potential migrant on the forum as being "serious" about migrating until they apply for, and receive, a positive skills assessment. That shows both that they are willing to back up their words with some money (the +/- $700 is not a whole lot, but enough to deter dreamers), and more importantly, that they actually have a chance to get a visa (or, if not going for PR, actually get a visa / have a firm job offer in some other category).

But the forum is to provide information, it's their lives and not ours, people are free to do what they wish.

It's been my sense - and others may disagree - that a lot of posters don't understand the actual scope of the finances involved until after they already have their visas and have committed to coming. Forget counting up pennies on cost-of-living differences; just the start-up costs alone (ie, almost everything has to be re-bought including knives and forks) can sink most people.

But a lot of the posts I read are potential migrants fretting about the visa cost or the plane ticket cost (or, as in the other thread, council rates . . .). I usually reply (if I rely) with something like if you are worried about that and pinching pennies about that, it probably isn't going to work out as that money is just the tip of the iceberg. Some OPs accept that, some don't, some get crabby. Yes, I do know there are some who come here with nothing and end up making it - but that is a tiny tiny subset.

The "living costs in WA thread," if OP is really worried that the "rego cost of a used car with a value of $7000" might be a make-or-break the move, then the answer is "break" without even knowing the rego cost (which I do know but I digress).

I think the true number of undecideds who just need a little push to make the plunge is actually quite low.

geoff52

evets

Back to the OP, I see a lot of posts from people who have not really done any research for themselves and asking questions that could have been answered from a few hours search on the net then coming up with a slightly different question.

Some of the posters are not prepared to put in initial investigation them selves and want, hand holding, answers to questions that could be answered or addressed by some initial research.
I see this type of attitude from one country in particular especially working with them! They will not think out off the box and want everything handed to them step by step.

xizzles

Warning, off topic reply below. Click on the spoiler at your own risk:

moneypenny20

It would be a very sad day for BE if people came on asking, what for them, are very important or interesting questions only to be told they were neither important nor interesting and not to bother thinking about stuff like that.

For many many people BE has been the most useful reference library imaginable for what is a major upheaval in their lives. We have had unbelievable queries made, some have made us laugh, some have made us scratch our heads but to the people asking, they simply want the answer. How can that possibly be wrong?

The one question that makes me chuckle every time I think of it was someone who asked about curtains. They had just put new curtains up in a child's bedroom in the UK and wanted to know if they would fit here. No measurements, no other info, no houses bought. To her it was something that occurred to her and she wanted an answer, to the rest of us it was possibly the most ridiculous thing we'd ever been asked but from memory, along with the gentle piss taking she did get vaguely sensible answers.

Kim67

The reason most of us have joined BE is to ask questions about moving overseas. That's the whole point of this forum.

Then we stay to answer new posters questions and to have something to do at 2am when you're bored and real people don't wanna play.