steviedeluxe

Bad news for the Aussie expat businesses...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-25401024

BritInParis

Give it 18 months and they'll be back providing the visa regime doesn't get even stricter. The UK economy is officially booming and Australia's is about to crash.

Having said that an Aussie couple I know are about to leave as soon as they naturalise after seven years here.

Domino

having been out there in the late 1960's I found their attitude to life bizarre to say the least.
they have spent the decades since then still cuddling up to the UK for comfort, sending their children to the UK to get jobs as dish-washers, whilst paying huge sums to ship UK goods out there to keep that feeling of "home". Also seemed so intent on keeping that "special" relationship they would buy Japanese products at full list price from the UK when anyone with any sense just needed to catch a sampan across to Singapore or Hong Kong to get things at stonking discounts.

but it is only in very recent years they have suddenly switched on to the fact that their neighbours in the Pacific Rim can help them far more and that they really should get to know them, that they can contribute to Australia's economy as much as Australia can contribute to theirs.

Very much seems like someone has been sleeping with the sheets over their head for oh so long and mum has lifted them off enabling them to see a brave new world out there.

Dick Dasterdly

They don't do themselves any favours, still going around with a chip on their shoulders a mile high.

From what I gather from some overseas friends in the catering trade back in their own countries, the typical loud-mouthed Aussies are about as welcome as a fart in a perfume shop.

Domino

how many are second or third generation ? - very much like the Muslims in the Uk who believe they have every right God/Allah can give.

OK I raised the M word, but the parallels are so similar to be unbelievable.

BritInParis

"A well balanced Aussie has a chip on both shoulders" as my father likes to say. Well, for what it's worth, the cultural cringe factor has noticeably reduced in the last ten years IMHO.

HBG

Seeing that an eighth of my family live down under, my words are censored.

When I first went out to visit them I used to wonder at their attitude to their closest neighbours, those giant South Sea Islanders that never stop eating,

But as Domino said, they appear to have woken up to the fact that they need to trade with their neighbours and not the Commonwealth who is skint.

IamStu

You are joking right???

BritInParis

Nope. It avoided the last recession largely to exporting raw materials to China. It's too heavily reliant on the mining sector which is in turn reliant on continued high rates of Chinese growth. Now China's economy is starting to slow down.

IamStu

I was aware the Australia were able to avoid recession through their mining though it was about the only industry propping it up.
I wasn´t aware it too was starting to take a hit. Then again, China had to slow at some point and again, I didn´t realise Australia were solely dependant on them!

BritInParis

Australia was the only 'Western' country to avoid the recession largely because it was exporting raw materials to China. Unfortunately that also pushed the Aussie dollar sky high making exports expensive and creating a housing price bubble in the big cities. China's economy is still getting bigger but the rate of growth is now starting to slow.