Mountain Girl

I am curious as to what reasons people have for emigrating to Canada.

Immigrants traditionally left their countries because of "push" factors like economic hardship, political oppression and religious persecution, but these elements do not exist in the UK, or if so to a lesser degree.

It could be said that you have to have a real yearning to leave your birth country and all things familiar, family friends, support network and culture. The major "pull' factors for Canada as I see it are largely lifestyle, and economic factors.

Here are my push and pull reasons from a micro perspective.

Push
Long term London life wasn't for me. I enjoyed my life in the UK , but I was looking for more.


Pull
The Canadian Rockies
Home work life balance.
To enjoy more of an outdoor life.
Adventure.
To learn and experience new things.
To have more space.
To SKI all the time.



So what are your push and pull factors?

dbd33

Cheap houses.

Oakvillian

Push and pull factors were inextricably linked for us, and included:

• running out of space in London flat (planning/expecting 2nd child at start of process)
• needed to move out of London, probably westward, to afford bigger place and a garden
• commute into London would have been hideous if we'd moved far enough out to afford what we wanted
• Intra-company transfer opportunity came up in the middle of discussing all this
• had been thinking about Canada for a while, but not done anything concrete about it
• thought process along the lines of "OK, it's a bit further west than we first thought but what the hell"
• sorted out WP, sold up and shipped out in 6 months

rwin

Hey, just because they're made of wood doesn't make them cheap

MikeUK

Reasons?

More Money, Better job...

Reason I returned to the UK

More Money, Better job...

Reason I came back

More Money Better Job!!

rwin

I've never emigrated. But have thought about it from time to time over the years. Nothing really pushing the thoughts. The pull is mostly adventure.

Although I was quite taken with England when we went for a vacation last summer (3 weeks in July and August with about 2 days of rain). Since being there, there hasn't been a day go by that I haven't wondered what it would be like to live there. There is a pull to visit again at the very least. What did it for me was you can't go anywhere without finding history.

bazzz

Don't like the English.

Atlantic Xpat

Push: Mrs AX wanted to come home
Pull: Space, Cheap housing, doing something different. Continuing to be with Mrs AX!

gryphea

Ok so we are not emigrating at the moment but ours are very similar to yours:

Push
We really like most of our life in UK but for various reasons have got really fed up with our respective jobs. Long commutes/travel for OH. Way more stress for OH for no more money- job moving away from any technical capacity into purely management (70 staff from 20) due to takeover.

We need to move house anyway (bigger, neeed garage for bikes etc) but are having problems affording it given where we live.

Lots of our friends/relations have recently popped away for a few years or more NZ, Singapore, Kiev, The Hague and we realised we can do it to and in some ways this gave us lots of confidence.

Relatively poor pay for OH profession

Pull
Skiing
Rockies
Adventure
A change
Less commute for OH- so more time with kids and more time for excercise
A change for my job which will pull me in a direction I want to go back to
Relatively better pay for OH profession plus company look really nice (think they have less stress at work - in a similar manner to Almost Candian was saying)
Relocation package
Dental for free!
Have more of an outdoor lifestyle (eg mountains in summer)
Better lifestyle/economic factors

Some of our pulls could be achieved in the UK and at the moment we plan to return to UK after around 5 years. BUT we are pretty fluid and admit plans could change.

We had thought about canada a very short time really. Thought about NZ 10 years ago and pretty much got job there, but we relocated in UK due to other job offers. France (again the pull of the mountains) came up around 6 years ago pre-kids when I applied for a redundancy package which I didn't get- would have been 2 years pay) Canada came up in October when we saw an ad for recruitment drive in UK, but we did nothing as we were worried about 10 days annual leave (and I know this statement won't make me popular). End Jan / feb having got back from skiing (last cheaper holiday outside school hols) we gave it more thought, realised 10 days wouldn't apply and went for it. Looks like its coming off as its just dependant on LMO/work permit which should be a formality.

Gryphea

Suzyanne

Push - After completing 22 years in the Army, spending most of that time away from the UK and spending lots of time away from wife and kids, just didn't want to settle into life in UK.

Pull - Quality time with family, working hard mon to fri with weekends free.
Community spirit and quality of life in area we have chosen to relocate to. The great outdoors to explore and be active as a family. Calgary Flames!

edinburgh

for us i can pick out a lot of the above reasons but one big one is to let our kids experience a move , learn and grow .
hopefully it will give them the confidence to do more exploring in their lives.
i spoke to someone who came back from 6 months work exchange in NZ with the view to moving there . and they said there just wasnt enough of a good reason to leave the UK .
i think this will be a hard question to answer whilst still living in the UK

The TWs

Push:

• Worn out from daily london life (attitudes, commutes, dirtiness, yob culture)
• House prices so high couldn't really move up the ladder just sort of along it unless we moved out of London but our jobs are London-centric
• So tired of being far from friends (even a few miles takes ages to travel in London)
• Wanted our kids to have similar childhoods to us (playing outside w/neighbourhood kids - not yobs, lots of activities)

Pull

• Mountains
• Sea
• Friends
• Affordable nice houses
• Friendly people

Souvenir

Pull:

Souvette had no real option but to come back to Canada. I could just as easily be living in Latvia, Mongolia or wherever she hailed from.

Push:

None whatsoever.

Suck-back?:

I've had a few days on draught London Pride (I'm in the UK at the moment). That does tug on the heart strings a bit.

welshmountie

Push
None at moment because we currently live is one of the last small pockets of the UK where quality/standard of life is above average, but future pushes will probably be:

• UK employement culture - back stabbers, staleness
• UK inevitable demise in economy. Currently unsubstainable.
• Spread of yob culture.

Pull

• Better future for our kids as a result of larger country, small population
• Open spaces
• Better value for money - housing at least
• Weather although at present, UK (Wales at least) is basking in typically Canadian blue skies and has done for over a month with only one day of rain!
• Experience and adventure, particularly for the kids.

Retention

• Family
• Risk of losing quality/standard of life we already have

kazbob

Have to echo what Welshmountie said, although I am from Wales (not as nice a place as you I expect - Merthyr Tydfil ), now live in Cornwall.

I have always had this yearning to go and live in a different country, just to experience what it is like and to learn about different cultures etc. Did think about NZ and OZ but they are too far away from UK and really wanted somewhere with all types of weather. I like the cold in winter and heat in summer.

Good thread.

Karen