maggie54

Hi! just joined, and I've already had very negative remarks about moving to spain! I regret joining now! It can't be that bad waking up to sunshine 8 months of the year?! What's so good about the UK anyway? maybe all the benefits everybody seems to abuse here. I have worked all my life, never afraid to 'get my hands dirty', but here as I watch all single girls with 3-4 babies with different fathers, people claiming benefits one day, and the next playing golf!! Spain is looking after itself by apploying spanish people first, nothing wrong with that! I work in a hotel at present, where polish and people
from other east european countries have or had more or less ' taken over'.
4 employees has been redundant or have had to cut their hours down because of the influx of east european workforce! No wonder Britain is in trouble- I could see this happening 10 years ago, and I was not wrong.
Anyway, if anybody has got something positive to say about moving to Spain, please replay to this message, so I can feel a bit happier in my decision to move. BE HAPPY

mrsjdr

Moved here 10 years ago, and no regrets, best thing we ever did, should have done it sooner.....but saying that, it does depend on where,how,when, age, retired, need to work etc., etc., everyone is different...hope all goes well for you

bil

You'll get for and against. That's life. As the last poster said, it also depends on whether you are retired, looking for work etc. We are retired, and love it here.

As to the Poles taking over. Did you see the programme about it where they offered some of the unemployed (who were whining about the Poles etc taking their jobs) jobs that the Poles were doing?

Of the whole lot there was one who had got qualifications in his line of work, got down to it and was offered a full time job.

The rest were without exception lazy, idle, shiftless and mostly useless. Half of them couldn't be arsed to turn up.

That is why the Poles are 'taking over'.

cricketman

You want to become an immigrant in Spain because there are too many immigrants in the UK

Sorry, that is pathetic, and proves you dont know much about Spain either. There have been 5 million immigrants to Spain over the past 10 years, yes even higher than in the UK!

And you will be very very luckly to get a job in Spain that is better than one in the UK, unless you speak fluent Spanish, are very qualified and know people in the right companies. I am afraid you just have "grass is greener" syndrome. Waking up in the sun is no good when you are hungry!

betris

maggie how are you going to keep your self.savings.uk dole.pension.work?tell us pease

Rosemary

I would not have moved here if we had needed to find work and there are so many Spanish people looking for work at the moment that I think anyone moving from UK looking for work will find it very, very difficult.

We rarely say anything negative about Spain as we took early retirement to come here so not had too many problems to be negative about. For us it was a good move and a good experience. Our negative experience has been due to OH´s health problems in the last 16 months but that is nothing to do with Spain and to be honest I do wonder whether he would be alive today if we had been receiving treatment in the UK rather than in Spain.

Life here is what you make it, if you are a negative person looking for things to moan about then there is plenty to keep you going. If on the other hand you enjoy different experiences and can find the positives in life there are a whole lot more than you would expect.

Rosemary

whitelinen

No it is not the reason at all.

The programme you refer to deliberately picked the feckless to appear on the programme. It is the type of programme that idiots watch who then try and tar every other Brit with the same brush.

maggie54

Hi! thanks for your replay, yes, maybe I have'grass is greener' syndrome, but if I don't try, I will never know. Life is short, and it's a lot nicer to wake up hungry to sunshine than to wind and rain. Most of the money Iam earning over the wintermonths (or nearly all year), seems to go to paying gas& el. bills. And what about waterrates!! I pay 46 pounds /month, and if I could use less than I do, I would have to stop washing myself and my clothes. I would not mind so much about the water, BUT IT IS RAINING 8 days out of ten here!! If the waterrates are higher in Spain I can understand that. At least I don't have to pay for single mothers there(I hope). I am sorry that you are so negative, but I am still trying to look positive to the future.
kind regards, Maggie54

jackytoo

I think the Polish have been an asset to the UK. Many are working in hotels and catering and they are very hard working.

cricketman

Poor single mothers, what have they ever done to hurt you

In Spain you will be paying for the unemployed as there is 20% unemployed, compared to 8% in the UK.

If you can fund yourself or you know someone who can give you a job then sure give it a go. You can live well and relatively cheaply in lots of places in Spain. But if you dont have a job and have no income you will have to rely on charities or hunt through the dustbins as you will not be entitled for benefits in Spain until you start paying into the system, and long-term they are a lot less generous than in the UK.

bil

Yep.

bil

Really? But I forget just how much of an expert you are. The rest of us just gaze in awe at your vast experience.

In the last 30 years we took on 16 people. With two or three exceptions, they were either thieves, incompetent, unreliable or just unwilling to do a fair day's work for a fair day's pay.

When we took someone on, we would usually look thru 20 to 30 applicants. In the end we stopped asking for applicants from the Jobcentre as none of them wanted a job.

Of course you overlook the person they picked who worked hard and got down to it. Which, quel surprise! turned out to be the winning formula.

So, oh expert on employment, if the majority of UK unemployed are hard working diligent types, how the hell do these poles get to take their jobs?

JLFS

Hi Maggie, If you have no need to work then there is no reason not to go ahead with the move to Spain.

Looking for a job is another matter, you have mentioned the E Europeans taking jobs in the UK, there are quite a lot here, and some will work without contracts and undercut the local workforce, the same applies to South Americans, I think it is the same the world over, and always will be.

The general advice seems to be to rent a place and then see where you want to buy, iif you want to buy at all.

cricketman

In London we got ripped off by some British plumbers. We deliberately paid a bit more for what we thought were well know local plumbers and they charged top whack and then ran off without finishing the job.

Next time round we got 3 quotes in for a redecorating job and gave it to a couple of Bulgarians who quoted less than half the price of the other two. Goes without saying they did a great job.

Nationality is an unreliable way to find a good worker. You need to give the job to people who want to do them, not those who what to make a quick buck or get paid for doing as little as possible.

Mama_Carol

I never understand people who give the reason for coming to Spain as an immigrant that there are too many immigrants in the UK

At least most of the Polish immigrants in the UK speak or are learning English. Do you speak Spanish?