cheapflightsgatwick

We go to Spain at least three times a year and in the good old days people were excited about moving over to Spain and when you spoke to people living in Spain they said what a great life it was, but now when you speak to people who have moved from the UK to live in Spain, they tell you how hard life is.

We have a lot of friends who live in Spain with a large number of them know talking about moving back to the UK due to it being hard to earn a distant living out there. Even entertainers who have been living in Spain are now moving back to the UK because pubs and clubs are going out of business with the lack of holiday makers visiting Spain.

So my question is, has the dream of living in Spain burst its bubble or is Spain still a great place to move to.

Veleta

Ask a hundred people and you'll get a hundred different answers. We can only speak for ourselves, not everyone who has moved here.

For me, nothing much has changed. I hear about the crisis on TV, I read about it in the newspapers, I read about British people going back home on this forum, but the reality for me is that nothing changed since I moved here.

cheapflightsgatwick

I know in Benidorm for example, lots of the entertainment team have come back home and even that annoying father and son act were on the verg of coming home due to the lack of work and the high cost of living. But what they did not understand was, how expensive the UK has become and they decided to stay.

When I was last over i was being told of horror stories of more and more british people living on the streets because they could no longer get work and could no longer afford to rent apartments which made me wonder, why do they not just come home.

bfg69bug

yes.

Veleta

Don't know. Maybe the UK isn't "home" any more. If I found myself in dire straights for whatever reason and couldn't make ends meet here in Spain, I wouldn't be able to move back to my old town in the UK and just pick up where I left off. My family have moved on to a different part of the UK and I wouldn't be able to get my old job back. I'm not sure I'd be any better off in the UK than I would be in Spain where I at least have friends and contacts.

scampicat

But you would get Jobseekers' Allowance if you were jobless in the UK, plus your rent and Council Tax paid. I don't think many expats are entitled to that in Spain. You can't live off friends and contacts (unless they are prepared to support you).

I do not think the UK is more expensive on the whole, other than rents, but as I say you can get help with that if you have a low family income. Groceries are certainly a lot cheaper although petrol/diesel is more expensive.

But there is more help in the UK if you are poor.

Lenox

Spain has changed over the time since many of us moved here. Unfortunately, many of us haven't. Now we can participate in our municipality's affairs, be on the padrón, vote, integrate and help plan our town's future.
Don't (choke!) go back... go forward!

jay01

Surely many countries appear to have had their day, that is what is called progression. You can fly to Turkey and places like that and experience what Spain was like 30 yrs ago, Spain is where the UK was 30yrs ago and so on.

Any country is what you make it and people seems to live retrospectively comparing things to how they were xyz yrs ago, but xyz yrs ago many things were different and not always for the better.

To many the UK is utopia as it provides for almost all your needs and those that have left have understood that this level of pampering is not available else where but it comes at a cost, cameras on every corner, agencies wanting to know every rats ass of your personal business and being judged by what you have and do not have by almost everyone, you can be lay dead in your house and no one misses you is that really a better place?.

Spain may not be a utopia to many but they call it home because there is something here that still has a sense of freedom, people put them selves out to know their neighbours, people still take a little time to watch what is going on around them, people still have the time to watch what is going on around them so it is horses for courses, has Spain had it day no more than anywhere else that has seen time pass by.

agoreira

Of course, if you were in "dire straights", you´d be far better off in UK. There´s a lot wrong with UK, but if you´re skint, I can´t think of too many places where you´d be better off.

agoreira

Glad everything is great there, but I´m always amazed when I read comments " know their neighbours" and "people are friendlier". Some of you must have come from some very unwelcoming places in UK if you didn´t even know your neighbours, have any friends etc. I know everyone in my street, speak to everyone, know where they all work, know all their kids etc. We don´t live in each other´s houses, but they are there if we need them. I think you did the right thing moving out, sounds like you lived the life of a social pariah where you were.

HBG

Before doing the shopping yesterday, we sat outside a little Spanish bar when the tables around us filled with holidaymakers. I recognised the accents and was quite happy and nostalgic for a while.

There they were, people from back home with pure white skin quaffing pints of lager in the hot sun while trying to get brown. We got talking to a couple of them and when we told them that we lived in Spain permanently one of them kept saying, 'You lucky buggers.'

And then they told us of their troubles back home. We got so depressed that we left them to do our shopping. An experience like that, along with an occasional look at the Daily Mail online keeps us from dreaming of a return. Until the next time.

jojojojojo

The days of coming to Spain, setting up a small business and making enough money to live on are gone. Its been done and done again and again. There are only so many pool cleaners, bars, cleaners, builders, gardeners..... that a country can support before its full. Besides, the Spanish are no longer sitting back and watching expats come over and do it! Couple that with the euro/pound exchange rate depreciation over the last few years and the rise in the cost of living in Spain. So no, its not as easy as it was, say, 6+ years ago. IMO the easy money and the relaxing lifestyle is pretty much finished. Will it return???? Not for the forseeable future, if at all!

Jo xxx

Veleta

Well, no. I have a support network in Spain which I don't have in the UK. I know everybody seems to knock the paro on here but I have always considered it to be quite generous. What is it in the UK....I don't know,400GBP per month??? Spain will pay out over 1000 euros per month if you are on the top whack (for a single person...more if you are a couple and both unemployed). Yes, it expires (or rather drops down to 420€ per month), but I think that is a good thing as it deters the career benefit spongers.

One question.....I have a vague memory of when I was about 10 years old and my father broke his leg playing tennis. I remember my parents complaining bitterly about how he wasn't entitled to (UK) unemployment benefit because he was self-employed. Is that still the case?

jay01

Many people and places never know their neighbours for what ever reason, they work odd hours, never there, to scared to open the door to anyone, to concerned that what they have they want to keep.

I worked, I left the house with my dogs at 7am at the latest, got the train to work and was there till 6/7pm an hour and a half or so home, got in by 8/9pm, did that 6 days a week Sunday was at my daughters so no I never knew my neighbours. It was not until my parents came to visit that my neighbour realised she had 2 dogs living next door as they do not bark and walking them as I did they never needed to go into the back.

Lots of people live this life, to busy to stop and look around them or not wanting to stop in case they see things they should not. Lady dies and no one notices as they were never seen anyway and her disabled daughter dies as a result all because they did not want any help or be a burden, this does not just happen in the UK but it does indicate that going forward where people are more concerned about themselves is not always for the better.

Few places retain that sense of community as most lives are lived solo but it is nice to hear that sometimes people do take an interest in what is going on around them and care enough to stick their oar in and help.

All my neighbours are Spanish and some friendlier than others, but we nod at worst, elderly gent stopped and after many giggles, phrase book out and blank looks on my behalf he was trying to explain that he lived round the corner and knew my landlady how many of us in the UK would have taken the time to make someone comprehend what we were saying or make the effort in the first place to a complete stranger, Spain has many faults as does each and every country in the world but I do not think it has had it's day

bil

So many points, so little time.

Usual post, usual answers.

Nowhere is perfect, everywhere has its ups and downs.

To go to Spain to work is obviously a lot harder than it was in the bbom times, but retiring is still pretty damn good.

Me, I was pig sick of the UK. Sick of the crap weather, sick of snooty, backstabbing neighbours and deathly sick of having to run harder and harder just to stand still.

From personal experience it is possible to live in a street in the UK and never talk to your neighbours. Here in Spain, it's impossible NOT to talk to them. The exception to that are the communities where they put up walls so that you can't see each other. Now that is dumb as it destroys social cohesion.

Should I ever get to the state here where I am destitute sick and the only option open to me is to go back to the UK, then I just pray to god that I will still have the strength left to crawl under the next passing lorry.

Personally I would rather die here than live in the UK, with its Daily Mail lifestyle.