Howard1944

My Brother, 67, is a Global Traveller, Backpack, plane and train, no 2 star hotels, strictly B&B.

He is currently in Australia, but feels that the whole world is Global, Sydney, London, Toronto, Vancouver, Belfast, Stockholm, Amsterdam etc, all full of new arrivals, many chasing the dollar, most looking for a better life.

His choice, a 1 room cabin on 2 acres in Southern Ontario, city wise, Helsinki/Prague..

bazzz

We had some Polish builders in when we lived in London to put in a new kitchen. They were very hard working - we had to tell them to leave at 10 pm, but rubbish. I ended up finishing it off myself after they put in the work surface to low to get our fridge back under. There English gangmaster took 50% of the fee for basically turning up and saying "Yeah, it'll cost about two grand".

We went directly to the Poles the next time, but it still took one guy the best part of two days to do a bit of fairly rudimentary tiling.

I've been trying to figure out some kind of scale of foreigner fear that all these Daily Mail types have. Going from scariest to nicest, I reckon it's something like this:

Blacks
Muslim brown people
Non-muslim brown people
Chinese
Eastern Europeans
Germans
French
Irish
Other Europeans
White Australians, Kiwis, Canadians, Yanks and South Africans
Nice white British people

Any refinements on that?

dbd33

My business partner's sons packed in education after high school. Between the immigrants and the hiring quotas they, and presumably he, saw no future for them. I think this is a pretty stupid view, it would be equally stupid if he lived in England.

dbd33

Blacks are way down the list now, most of them are Yardies but even so they're not the immediate day-to-day threat the Poles and especially the Albanians are.

Dave+Jules

I'm not sure I agree with your slagging off of people by guessing their fear of foreigners. Different people are triggered by different circumstances and is a feeling of disconnection to your country any more distasteful than a desire to travel, or improve opportunities / better standard of living.

I completely understand the irony that people see immigration as an issue for their desire to leave and become an immigrant themselves. It would be interesting to know what are the reasons why people leave Poland or Estonia, etc...

I'm willing to bet some of the reasons will be identical to those you hear in here, and just picking out one of their reasons on the list and emphasizing that one negatively and out of proportion to the others would be easy too.

JonboyE

Worth repeating IMO.

Dave+Jules

I agree, but it depends on how they respond when the arrive. Emigrating is a life changing event and people have the opportunity to be different from what they were.

My daughters recently commented on how much more relaxed, and less snappy I am now compared to before. I also know my road rage / road ranting has disappeared. This change is more about the reduction in stress and it may be the same for everyone even those who quote some negative reasons for leaving the UK.

gapbap

Hi, we have recently moved to Calgary and have been here for just over 2 months. We have 2 children who miss their old school very much but have settled in well to their new school in Canada. Family life at weekends is fantastic, we go skiing (this being our new family hobby) and visit many beautiful locations such as Banff, Lake Louise etc which are on our doorstep. However, all is not as rosy as we sometimes hope when moving to a new country. Yes, family life is great when we are all together. However, when my husband and children are at work and school I feel quite isolated and lonely. There are not many people around as the weather is so cold (-40) and nobody seems to walk anywhere. The Canadians, I am finding, are very reserved, even more so than the British, and when you try and make friendly conversation, you only scratch the surface and dont really get to know that person. I am waiting for my work permit to come through and hope that things improve once I have job. What I am trying to say is that yes Canada is a wonderful, beautiful place and I hope we will be happy here but it does come with its problems. I have seen many drug induced individuals walking around in down town Calgary and there are times when I have not felt that safe. Schools here are great but you have to pay for a fair amount including lunch time supervision ($5 per child) which you dont even have to consider in the UK. There are lots of things I miss about the UK including the quirky characters you get, the eccentricity and the ability to talk to any body about anything. Dont get me wrong, I love Canada but anybody thinking about moving here should see beyond the rose tinted spectacles and accept there are problems everywhere, including here, and there are many things you will miss but hopefully with time this will get better. P.S sorry it was so long, got carried away!!

didikai

Edited - please refrain from flaming - see rules - Ray

didikai

Not exactly Daily Mail material.

Remember that song 'There'll always be an England'?
They got it wrong.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7215624.stm

Dave+Jules

Two reports from the BBC (not the Daily Mail) illustrate perhaps why people feel the way they do:

Abuse of Benefits

Over Stretched NHS Services

I have not posted these BBC reports here to be beligerent, but to illustrate why people are perhaps justified when they express the number of immigrants is a problem.

Novocastrian

Someone else already posted that link. Do try to keep up. Oh, and what has the song to do with it at all?

Novocastrian

Your post would be more readable if you took your poster-name more seriously and put some gaps in your pap. Oh sorry, bap.

bazzz

Abusing the benefits system is a venerable English tradition. You should be glad they're making an effort to fit in.

Dave+Jules

That was a totally unexpected response and the more funnier for it. I applaude you and your logic.

We could also view it as another way to give aid to poorer EU states