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.

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.

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...

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.

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?

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!!

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...

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

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

Exactly.

There's bugger all scenery around Toronto, getting to somewhere stunning from Toronto is more difficult than getting to the Alps, the Greek Riviera or the Highlands of Scotland from Basildon. You may have good reasons to move but I don't think that one stands up.

I know it's not your argument but the idea of moving from London to Toronto because of the immigrants is bewilderingly stupid. More than half the population of Toronto was born outside Canada, add in the people born here but following the culture of their parents' countries and you have a city with one of the largest foreign populations in the world. (I believe only Miami has a smaller proportion of people native to the country of the city). Whichever ethnic group one considers to be sending England to the dogs is heavily represented here and, of course, the few remaining unhyphenated Canadians bitch about it. That's really out of the frying pan...

We moved from Coventry to Milton - apples to apples in terms of facilities, etc. However, in England, although we owned a small home, 1 car, had no kids and 2 "good" jobs, we were living paycheck to paycheck. We were both underpaid for what we did, and that wasn't going to change any time soon.

Despite living in a quiet area of Coventry, we were also the victims of crime. Within 2 weeks of getting our car, some little thug carved his name into the roof (along with most of the other cars on the street). We had the window smashed, and right before we got the approval for my husband to emigrate to Canada (I was Canadian already), someone broke into our house while we were sleeping, took a number of items from our ground floor and then hauled it all away in our car (to which they took both sets of keys).

You couldn't walk around the city centre without feeling waves of aggression coming off the bored teenagers. We also strongly felt the "crabs in a bucket" mentality from family and other people (i.e. who are you to do well for yourself? You should be miserable with the rest of us!).

Now, we own our own home (double the size of the one in England), we have 2 cars, we are paid significantly more than we were in England for the same types of jobs (I'm earning well over double what I did in England), and we have a significant amount of savings, which we could never manage in the UK, so yes - materialistically and financially we are much better off here.

We have wonderful friends who are now more like family. We drive through the Niagara Escarpment on our way to work every day, and are watching the leaves change right now. We can be at the Falls in 45 minutes, or in Toronto at a concert or the theatre within 45 minutes. Our neighbours are friendly people who never fail to say hello to you, and we even have a street-wide party every summer.

I'm not saying things are perfect, there are some issues that we have to work through, but somehow it all feels a little easier and more laid-back.

Yup - accepted. But it's different scenery! Whether buildings, mountains (which I adore) or just a different set of faces - it's not the same ol' same ol'. I've lived abroad for six years now, and I love it. I just don't love 'here'. I've no desire to go back to all the same crap that I left, so I'd rather move forwards than backwards, and Canada fits the bill.

Regarding the immigrant side of the debate (I'd rather use that word than argument - I'm SOOOOooooo non-confrontational!!) There's immigrants in every country, and as one to here, and a prospective one to Canada, I'm not going to debate the pros and cons of immigration. I believe there's times that it works - and works well... and there's times that the balance needs to be looked at. I'm not talking about specific cases, just a generalisation. The statement of Alans that really struck me that he said was that it was "sort of like living on holiday" (or whatever his words were!). One of the great things about where I am now is that people come to visit me on holiday... and their excitement, enthusiasm and sheer joy of being away from their lives, is contagious! It's not quite like your own holiday, but like you're an extension of theirs... and I like that!!

I think everyone has their own reasons for moving - and if they're valid to the individual, then that's reason enough! I'm not decrying anyone for their reasons to move, or not to stay put. Each to his (or her!) own!!

Lisa.

Yes, and some of it is attractive, in a Home Counties kind of way, if not stunning.

Glad you took it in the spirit it was intended!!! Seriously - thanks for the inputs - even if some of them do lead to heated discussions!!!!

L.