That's quite true, but it was the opposite for us that has made it so successful for us here. Hyde is a scrunched up, filthy hole sat right on the edge of the beautiful Pennines/moors. They're a lovely sight to see from your bedroom window, but it's what you're surrounded by day in day out that got us so down. When we came out here, it was like a breath of fresh air. Even though we're in a townhouse, right on top of a busy intersection, we have a desirable walking trail across from us with water fountain, playground and bbq/picnic areas/fire pits. And just two minutes drive takes us right out into the countryside - flat yes, but with the big blue sky above, it makes it heavenly! And we can AFFORD things over here too......if we want to go out for a meal, we can because it's much more reasonably priced. We are seeing an increase in the volume of traffic here in Red Deer but it's still nothing compared to the choking congestion my parents still have to put up with in Hyde. Their local supermarket (Morrisons) is literally a mile down the road, but during rush hour, it can take them 45 minutes to crawl home!! I do believe that your circumstances in the UK can play an influential part on how you take to Canadian life. It has for us anyway.

Absolutely, and I'm really glad that you found what you were looking for in Red Deer, and that life is good for you all.

Thanks Deb. You'll do alright, I'm sure. For you, the main thing is you have agreed on what you really want out of life and you all seem pretty focussed on that.

I really wish you all the best.
Jaycee x

[QUOTE=dbd33;4682472]but you'll be happy to point and gesture in Canada?


AH, but Canada isn't England!!!!

The points system they are looking at for immigration to be brought in next year over here has already been slated as racist, sexist,religionist and every other kind of ist.
Funny tho that other places have one in place and have had for years.....known as taking the cream or brain drain

jo

That's because it's propagandist nonsense for the most part. I live in London and I do see the odd Polish numberplate, but that's it. Big deal. There is no "influx", no "wave", no "invasion" of immigrants... unless you're a racist with an agenda, of course. Some people come here, other people go somewhere else: that's the beauty of being part of Europe. Long may it continue.

Bear diesel get a life!!!

My daughter attends a catholic middle school and has made friends with some lovely children from Lituania, Poland, Russia, etc... These kids come from hard working families who have made a huge sacrifice to leave their families/culture to arrive in a country where they are considered the lowest of the low by ignorant xenophobics (sound familiar?).

These children and their families are working hard to make a new life for themselves and do not deserve the blanket revulsion people such as your self dole out.

My parents were irish immigrants in the 60s and we experienced a certain amount of racism from ingrates who lived locally who resented my parents being in the UK despite the fact that they never received so much as a penny in benefits. After the Birmingham pub bombings my mother was spat at in her local shop and we were generally looked down on by most of the dole receiving locals.
My father went on to create a successful business creating over 300 jobs for local people and contributing substantially to the local economy. (Bet he's paid more tax than you have!)

Plese keep your ignorant sweeping statements to yourself and
Good luck with your application...can't come quickly enough as far as I'm concerned.

Hi Debbie

I used to assess NVQ's in the Hospitality Industry and went around from hotel to hotel, restaurant to restaurant assessing.

My point I am going to make here is that in these larger Hotels and restaurants specifically in the major cities of the UK we have so many foreign workers from Poland, Finland etc who most are under 25 years old and getting fudnding to take an NVQ.

You know the saddest part about this is that these "immigrants" are better educated, can spell better and have better manners than some of the 17 -19 years British born kids of today.

Disclaimer : These are my thoughts and are in no way racist at all just a fact I have seen with my own eyes.

gay
x

[QUOTE=Ruby Murray;4683196]Their local supermarket (Morrisons) is literally a mile down the road, but during rush hour, it can take them 45 minutes to crawl home!! QUOTE]

Jaycee

You want to see the congestion that the new Morrison store has caused in Denton where I live - ridiculous

Ikea at Ashton Moss - When the plannin permission was given the council didnt even consider how they would manage the additional traffic and the Police had to patrol for the first month !!!

Gay

x

Hi The Smiths

Dont think that Bear was being racist at all just stating what she has found where she lives.

If you take a look at my other post in this thread above I have also found an increase in different nationalities in Manchester City Centre too and have stated my case for this - but I dont consider myself to be a racist.

Gay
x

Good original post.

There are a lot of good things about the UK. I went to London and visited the Natural History Museum for the first time in many years last week, and was astounded by the amazing architecture. The UK has a lot of history, a lot of amazing past to look back on.

It was a very good point about the UK being a nice place to live if you have the money.

Between us, my wife and I earn nearly £40k per year, not exactly high wage earners, but not too bad. We can barely afford to live in our ground floor one bedroom flat. There is no way on earth we could afford to get a larger mortgage and move into a larger home in the UK. We are fortunate that we were able to put a large deposit on the mortgage originally, which means we have a lot of equity in the property itself.

Our move to Canada is primarily to enable us to have more space, in beautiful surroundings, and maybe be able to start a family of our own one day. Neither of these things we will be able to achieve in the UK.

Ian

Then why is it something even worthy of discussion if you don't consider emmigration from eastern european nations as being a negative thing about britain?

These are people who, like yourselves, are hoping to make a better life for themselves in a foreign country.

Todays emmigrants are often tomorrows leaders and employers.

I've been reading this whole thread now and I feel like I have to post a reply of some sort, like other people have stated here your experiences in this country and Canada are all going to be different because we don't all necessarily look for the same things in our lives. I've lived in Stoke-on-Trent all my life although I've travelled all over the UK with being a Electrical Contractor, my wife comes from crewe and moved over here to join me. Crewe has lately had a lot of press regarding the "Invasion" of Poles, people comment that the individuals saying that there is an Invasion are just Racists. I think that comment is just plain ignorant, my wifes family are still in crewe and there have been a few comments on the noticable rise in Polish people and the fact that very few of them speak English. I've worked for a company in Staffordshire that deals with vauxhall cars and one Saturday morning a team of us went in to do some testing and we found forty people in a workshop working where we were and every single one was Polish. Every. One. And not one single person spoke a word of English, needless to say there was an accident with a car, an Apprentice and a Scissor-Lift that was down to Mis-communication and the Apprentice was blamed by Vauxhall.
Try being on the recieving end of that a few times and it sours your view on visitors to the country. Or try living in your Grandmothers house that she has lived in since World War II and you're the only white family in the street and every time you go out you have a lot of hostility thrown at you.
Its crackers and an indication of how bad this country is going when you can be victimised so much and when you complain you get branded a racist.

Politically speaking Britain is a lot more Socialist than what it used to be and I don't mind saying that (to me) is a very bad thing. Broken promises in Elections are nothing new but the scale of the lies and corruption in Government here these days is criminal we have to live with the aftermath, the OP stated that there are more new cars on the roads.......very astute and correct, according to Government statistics released last year Britain is responsible for 46% of the EUs debt with Credit Cards etc. Thats why Gordon Brown is known as the "Plastic Chancellor", what he does in Governemt is now reflected in society, more borrowing than ever, and all it does is create a false economy. It'll tumble down like a house of cards eventually.

Four weeks and I won't be here any longer and for that fact I'm very grateful.

Emmigration is a good thing when it is controlled - the problem with Britain is that it has NOT been controlled! The Government don't even know how many immigrants there are - they just do a random survey at a few airports but not at the ports and coach stations. The infrastructure of Britain cannot cope with the influx - this is NOT being racist (whatever that means) but just being practical!

It was an accident. I got headhunted, and ended up with a mortgage, wife and kids here. After I got here I liked the place, but with a house worth only £50k, it would be hard financially to get on the property ladder in the UK if I wanted to go back.

I cant say I noticed a huge immigrant problem in my week in the motherland, certainly not in terms of absolute numbers compared to Canada where 50% of the population at least are 1st or 2nd generation immigrants. The irony of prospective immigrants complaining about all the foreigners is a common one around here.

I do wonder about people who say they cant afford to get out of their lousy area of the UK, but who are prepared to throw the necessary money at going on an immigration adventure. Immigrating because you have wanderlust, or a taste for adventure or just want to see what its like is perfectly alright I guess, I just wonder about the wisdom of those who are doing it purely for materialistic reasons. I guess some of them end up happy, but there are a lot of other intangible things that might be missing from canadian life that are taken for granted in the UK.

Plenty of people raise kids in the UK alright one way or another, and finding the funds to relocate to Canada and start afresh is certainly no easier than scrimping and saving and doing whats necessary to find a new house and job in another part of the UK. There seemed to be a few places that still seemed to be alright to me.

i think bear diesel has a point, ! you dont have to be called a racist because you say you dont like the speed this country is filling up no in flux!! 500 000 in one year who you kidding, i dont have a problem with any one who want to work hard and be a nice person to know, but i do have a problem when you cant get a doctor or hospital appointment because there is'nt enough to go around, build more houses and hospitals etc before you let in un controlled amounts of people, why do you think canada and aus, control numbers !

for what good that it will do when new member states join they can come here and bypass any point system, we be better off outside the EU and a few billion pounds better of to, anyway rant over, i guess my roses colour glasses dont have as strong lenses as others