WHY
 

So, you have a nice middle-class or better lifestyle in a nice part of England/Scotland/Wales/NI. You own or are buying a nice house, you both have or one of you has a good job with an income(s) sufficient to support your lifestyle/family. You get 30-40 days vacation a year and take two or more family vacations each year. Two cars are on your driveway and you have all the boy’s/girl’s toys you want. Your children are happy in and doing well in school. You’re close physically to your families and value that greatly.

So why are you contemplating abandoning all this and travelling between 3,000 and 10,000 miles to move to Canada/Australia/New Zealand for, hopefully, a similar or perhaps slightly better lifestyle? The move will cost you a considerable amount of money to say nothing of the stress factors involved for all in the family.

There are a number of people on this site who have posted describing such a UK lifestyle. So what's in it for you?

Re: WHY
 

Far too many Brits in the UK.

Re: WHY
 

Far too many non-Brits in the UK!

Re: WHY
 

Weather, proximity to the mountains and an adventure

Re: WHY
 

....they're the ones that'll go back in a few years.

Re: WHY
 

Or months!

Re: WHY
 

Because (to me) life is not about toys, money, having two cars on the drive, Canada offers me a million things UK cannot regardless of money.

Scott

Re: WHY
 

Apart from customer service in French, what does it offer ?

Re: WHY
 

<feels a Python moment coming on>

Re: WHY
 

..far too many Daily Express readers in Canada.

Re: WHY
 

not worth biting tbh, but I believe it depends on your lifestyle, and what area of Canada you choose to live.

Re: WHY
 

I see that as rather backing down. If your argument is that living in Whistler offers you more than living in London because you're keen on skiing, I can see that, but I don't see how it applies to living in Mississauga vs. living in Basildon.

Re: WHY
 

The group you are asking this question to is going to be self selecting. You are also asking it in a slightly leading way (nobody is going to admit to being materialistic or that material things are important to them on BE). The fact is that we are all leading middle class aspirational lifestyles and that's the way we like it. I doubt many of us are living from pay-day to pay-day working in a factory or a coal mine (either now or before we came).

For me the reason is that I like it here (mostly), I like being an expat, I like travelling, I like skiing, I can afford to do it. The real question is why wouldn't you if you had the opportunity?

Re: WHY
 

I agree, which is why I said it depends on the area you move to and your intended lifestyle.
Personally Whistler offers mountains, skiing, a particular lifestyle, relaxed (sometimes too relaxed) attitude from people - a general sunny attitude, Biking, leisure, and 999,997 other things.

I don't see why the reason needs to be justified to anyone, as long as your happy thats all that matters.

Re: WHY
 

Fair enough, parts of Canada offer something you can't find in the UK. It's worth noting though that the reverse applies, whatever Conrad Black wanted was offered there but not here.

Re: WHY
 

Good point. But you also have to wonder whether this isn't basically a troll thread?

Re: WHY
 

With respect, my question assumed most materialistic things were already available. One can easily travel from UK into the many countries of Europe and beyond and, of course, ski there. The point was, if you can do all these things already, what was/is it that drove you all those miles away?
I can understand more if one is living day-to-day and working in a factory. Canada, I think, offers more to such people, assuming they can find work in today's Canada.
BTW, what does "I like being an expat" mean? I don't understand that.

Re: WHY
 

I can answer that, but first, convince me that you're not just doing a wind up.

Re: WHY
 

The ease of obtaining a firearm, jacked up 4x4, hunting season, wearing a baseball cap and not being called a Chav, Canadian Tire, extra large double double, cheap petrol, cheap houses, Hockey September till June. Need I go on?

Beats a 3 bed semi in Middlesex any day of the week.

Re: WHY
 

Why would you think it to be a troll thread? I've been on this site for almost a year now and the question(s) is/are genuine. Many threads/posts decry many aspects of this country and from what they say, they left a good, solid life in the UK and things seem to be no better here, for some even worse.
I just don't get it. What did they expect Canada to provide them that they didn't already have?

Re: WHY
 

I think that is a fair question ....

I knew you'd come back with something like this .... :sneaky::lol::thumbup:

I will admit that ....

And I agree - if I did not have much of my middle-class assets, I would not have taken the leap. I had no illusions that life would be 'cheaper' on this side - so I knew we could afford to risk a loss (and would be willing to take it on the chin) if it all went horribly wrong. It was definitely an opportunity worth exploring to us. Whether it was all worthwhile is still, on some days, up for debate .... but I was able to step off the treadmill for a while and take a breath, which was 'worth' a lot to me, and us regardless ...

I admire those that come with meagre savings because they have far more to lose - but also perhaps a stronger impetus to make it work out well. :sneaky:

Re: WHY
 

wearing a baseball cap

Have you checked out the spectators at a UK soccer match lately?

Re: WHY
 

I wouldn't know how to convince you. I am sincerely interested in what it means. If you'd said you enjoyed being a UK'er or a Canadian, that I can get, but an ex-pat?

Re: WHY
 

For me basically was to get away from the yob culture - Canada has it problems but we don't have fraction of the yob culture the UK does

Re: WHY
 

I beg your pardon? What on earth has that got to do with my post? I assume it's aimed at my post as you quoted me? I have to ask for clarification because the Daily Express was not a 'news'paper that I ever read in the UK.

Re: WHY
 

How many countries have you lived in?

Re: WHY
 

You have to admit that emigrating because of immigrants is odd.

Re: WHY
 

What has that got to do with it?

Re: WHY
 

Not really. If you're watching the Country you grew up in disintegrate before your eyes as swathes of foreigners move in, it can trigger an 'escape' reaction, especially to places like Australia and Canada.

There are posts on this site, and other sites, where people have stated that as being a reason for moving.

And before anyone asks.... I am not an emigrant! I am in Canada because my Company sent me here!

Any way... what on earth has the daily express got to do with it???/

Re: WHY
 

Nothing really - it wasn't meant in a boastful way. It was a genuine question - this is my second time being an ex-pat and that feeling you have when you live abroad is great. It's not quite the same as being on holiday, but it's similar. The feeling that there is all that opportunity to experience new things there for the taking. It's nice. Not sure what Novo's take is, but that's what I mean.

Re: WHY
 

It's an attitude beholden to daily express and daily mail readers. They blame immigrants for the 'disintegration' of their own country even though the changes for the worse are nothing to do with immigrants.

Re: WHY
 

Tee hee - that's funny. I used to live in Basildon and I'm looking to move to Toronto - so that's pretty close to my exact situation! Before anyone gets the wrong idea - it's not quite as straightforward as that though.

There's many reasons to change location. The idea isn't just to trade one destination for another, but to learn from what the new destination has to offer and to be able to improve the quality of life you have. One of my biggest draws to Canada is the scenery. There's not much of it around Basildon these days. Having said that, I've not been to the UK in six years, so perhaps there's more than when I left! I seriously doubt it though...

My overriding reasons though, are purely that I truly believe that it will offer my kids better opportunities, and a better all-round lifestyle than that which they would have grown up into where we were.

Each to his own, and - as I say - there's plenty more to it than that - but that's the crux of the matter for us! I think both Ray1968 and Alan2005 touched on two of our reasons... and all the 'little' reasons add up eventually!

Lisa.

Re: WHY
 

Says who!? Unemployment in Britain is nearly 2.5 million.... when did you last see a Brit working in a London Hotel?? How many Polish electricians are touting for your jobs?

I thought the Patriotic papers were the Telegraph and sometimes the Times? Yes, I know the Daily Mail can get on its high horse too... but the express? I thought that was a 'flip-flop say whatever is necessary to sell more papers' type of paper...

Re: WHY
 

What paper you actually read isn't really the point. Other than that the gist of your post is idiotic. There isn't a finite number of jobs which immigrants then come and steal. Think about it some more, ask yourself how jobs are created and lost. It isn't anything to do with immigration - or at least in the way you think.

Re: WHY
 

Firstly, there is no need to be insulting.

Secondly, you are obviously far more clever than most people on here... please explain why there is not a finite number of jobs in the UK, how jobs are created and lost and why immigrants from Eastern Europe and elsewhere do not actually deprive a UK Citizen of a job when they take one on?

Re: WHY
 

There is no finite number of jobs. The number of jobs available is based on the how much activity there is in the economy. The more activity there is the more jobs - it's that simple. To clarify even further, the more people there are, the more there is demand for goods and services, more food is required, more entertainments are required, more cars are required etc etc. You really can't blame the failure of the UK economic miracle on immigrants.

This is way off topic, but if you want to look at the cause of the recession then you will find it's government policy that was there purely for the benefit of the banks. The banks encouraged us to borrow and borrow for real estate, such that pretty much our entire collective productive output was sucked up into interest payments on loans to purchase it. There was no money left over for anyone to spend on other things, let alone on the debt repayment - hence the shit we are in now. I repeat... nothing to do with immigration at all!!

Re: WHY
 

There are people in Canada right now looking forward to their move to the UK in the same way as people here are planning to go to Van or To.

It isn't always that the grass is greener more than you have been in the UK for xx years now and on the premise that you only get one go at life maybe you should have some adventure and try other ways of life...

Re: WHY
 

rubbish........ sometimes its to change your lifestyle

Re: WHY
 

Met a lovely lady called Mary Juana. Man she made me laugh a lot.

Re: WHY
 

Exactly.:thumbsup: