sean.eldridge

Hey, just wondering how the Australian people feel bout us moving into their country? Has anyone had any nightmare storys or are they quite laid back about the whole flood of expats?

quoll

Australians as a whole generally dont like immigrants until they have proved themselves to be able to take a joke and blend in. If you are a "at home we ..." kind of person they you will get short shrift but if you keep your head down and blend you will be fine. Aussies are generally quite judgemental about particular ethnic groups until they show that they "fit" - in the 50s and 60s it was the whingeing poms and the wogs (Italian, Greek etc) in the 70s and 80s it was the Asians (Vietnamese, Chinese etc) and Christian Lebanese and in the 90s and 00s attention has focussed on the muslim immigrants. As each new wave comes in, the old wave sort of gets subsumed under the "us" category so at the mo, the muslim incomers are perhaps less welcome by all than other immigrants.

They wont care that you are a Pom as long as you laugh when they call you a whinging Pom and dont try and come all high and mighty and judgemental about anything in their country.

s-jmelbournewannabe

That's me stuffed then! got a few 'Aussie' mates & as far as i know they think i'm ok.. (i use the term 'Aussie' loosely, most are originally from NZ, America, South Africa & guess what, UK! Even the Australians arn't local, so we're all newbies together!)

You'll be right, have a bbq invite the neighbours & make sure there's plenty of booze & laughter! Dont think too hard about it, if you had friends in the UK you'll make em here, they'll like who you are.

Good luck, S-j x

BadgeIsBack

OK depending on your circumstances.

The horror stories come from the bulk of expats who all have the same idea about what they think will work, but end up (predictably) making the same mistakes time and time again(!) even after they say they won't...

so be careful.

moneypenny20

It's hardly a flood and in fact I think it's less than it was years ago. Migration is how Australia has grown, they've known no different.

If you're arsey with them, they will be arsey back. If you're friendly, they will be friendly in return. They are almost like any other nationality in that respect

kiwi_child

Yeh they like to take the piss and criticise but can't handle it when the table is turned on them. The are not an overly friendly spieces; they just like to bignote themselves that they are great,easygoing,genuine people.Forewarned is forearmed as they say

Possums

It really depends where you live, the aussies we have met here have been fantastic with us and 9 times out of ten they ask us for comparisons to the uk. but then I think we are a bit of a novelty to them here. most of the young ones you talk to want to go to the UK to live.

Wendy

They are just people like everyone else. You get nice ones and you get idiots.

I work in the sales support department at the Trading Post with 3 other staff, there's a Japanese lady, an Indian lady, an Australian lady and me - the English one (notice I didn't say lady ) and we all get on really well. Out of the other 20 or so staff in the office only one is an idiot and he's from Kent!.

Ah, but you're from NZ, you should expect it - it's like us English people with the French. Aussie's and Kiwi's are known to have a rivalry

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kloid

Hi

I can honestly say that I've felt completely welcome in Australia ever since I arrived in 2002. I live in Sydney and practically every Aussie you meet either has ancestors from the UK or have at least spent time there so they're usually interested in hearing about where you come from, why you came here and so on. Also, a huge number of people (at least in Sydney) are exactly like you - they weren't born in Australia so they know exactly what it's like to be an outsider.

The one thing you should accept is that during any major sporting event e.g. Ashes, Rugby/Football world cup that you will get the pi$$ taken out of you before, during and after said event, unless by some miracle England happen to win. I remember that during the Rugby world cup in 2003 we were told at work that we could wear our favourite team's outfit/colours in celebration of Australia getting to the final (against England). I was working way out West so some people were wearing their Panther's shirts but most were wearing the Green and Gold. When I walked in with my England jersey one bloke just plain eviled me and I could hear people saying "what the F**k is he wearing? as I walked to the kitchen to make a coffee! I overheard one old bag saying "If he lives here then he should support Australia". In short, I spent the day being abused for what I was wearing rather than helping people sort out their Excel spreadsheets or whatever. Come Monday morning though it was a different story! One Aussie gentleman came up to me shook my hand and apologised for the abuse that I received a few days earlier (from him). Most people seemed to respect the fact that I hadn't just gone with the crowd and worn Aussie colours even though I wasn't going to support them. I think that is a quality that the Aussies admire.

You also have to remember that there is a reason for the "flood of expats" - there is still a strong job market here and low unemployment - if it weren't for the immigrants coming in then the country simply wouldn't be able to grow. Most people seem to realise this although you do get the occasional idiot complaining about the number of Chinese/Indians/Muslims or whatever, but thankfully those people are rare.

Anyway, hope your experiences are as pleasant as mine.

Cheers
Kloid

northernbird

Southerners Wendy, bloody typical

CharleneG

I hear they have two heads, smelly feet and everything

@boy

The wisest (and I believe most relevant) answer here. Good one Wendy.

Wendy

They certainly do have heads and feet - well most of them anyway

Thanks

Geelong Gent

Beginning the sentence

"Back in the UK...."



Life is what you make it. Sure you will meet or bump into some toe rags in life - no matter what country, but you also run into lots of big hearted people. Focus on thinking each person you are going to run into is from the 2nd grouping. Life has a funny way of then delivering

Ninijon

I have found the Australians to be sooooo friendly, in fact that helpful and friendly that it freaked me out at first.... I can remember when I first arrived sitting on a bus and someone talking to me and all I could think was what the hell do you want (coming from London and before that Chelmsford Essex no one talks to you on public transport). But after it happened a number of times I realised they wanted nothing other than conversation and to be friendly - I absolutely love this, I love people looking you in the eye on the street and smiling, it makes me feel great about being out and about. Also the amount of times i would ask for directions and have someone actually walk me to where i was going was so strange. So my experience in the 2 and a half years of being here is I love the Aussies, they are very friendly and rather happy relaxed people, well where i live in Torquay anyway, and before this Melbourne CBD. I have found the friendliness rather different from my experience of being in the UK where everyone is in a hurry, cold and feeling grey - please no attacks for me saying this only my opinion and experience

However saying this I think it can take a little longer to really get to know people here, I found it easier once you got through to people in the UK to become good hard friends for life, here I think they are much friendly to begin with but it takes much longer to really get in there. I hope that makes sense. Saying all this dont count on customer service here like the UK, to say its shocking would be an understatement, Aussie tell it like it is, even if you are the customer, I found that hard to get used to. Being told at ANZ to 'shush' actually putting her finger up to her lips as she did it was a shock, also being told by a waiter I couldn't order Foster beer even though it was on the menu because he didn't think anyone in their right mind should drink it - its for exporting he said. I did find this very funny and rather refreshing. Here everyone is equal, your checkout girl is as equal as any CEO here, and you certainly cant judge people by they way they look here, you will see someone looking so scruffy and then see them get into a $300,000 car.

The other thing that I have noticed lately about Aussies is this 'Tall Poppy' syndrome, I seem to have noticed it more now, didn't when I first arrived, you will find that if you get above your station, or are too articulate and like to use the full extent of the english language this wont do you any favours. Here in the news, in parliament everything is catered to the lowest common denominator no big words, so you will hear phrases like 'mate' being used often, something I could never hear Tony Blair using

I absolutely love Australia with a passion, it took me at least 2 years before i even noticed it wasn't perfect, I have started lately getting a little nostalgic for the UK, but i think its a familiarity thing rather than actually feeling a home sickness for the actual place. I would never leave Oz that is for sure and all the amazing things about this place far far far out weight all the not so good aspects.

hope this helps