Why don't a lot of English people live abroad?

[Booneymil]

Hi! I was just thinking about something. I am Irish originally. I have lived and worked in around seven different countries at my age. I am 40. I love moving around and living in different places. I have been working in england now for two years.

At my large workplace, there are a lot of English people and a lot foreign people working there. So we have people from Spain, Poland, Italy, Australia, and Lithuania working there. Every one of the foreign people there have lived all over the world. I was chatting to the lithuanian woman, she has lived in Indonesia, in Sweden, Switzerland and in Italy.

I was chatting to the Spanish woman - she has lived in Italy, Spain, Germany and Norway. She told me she was from a wealthy family in spain so she had no need to move, she just had a desire to see the rest of the world. I was the same, I always wanted to see more of the world.

The English people in my workplace, there are about thirty of them.

Not one of them has ever lived abroad. A lot of them are old enough that they could have moved around the EU before Brexit happened. But they didnt.

I was thinking about it. Why? Why is it so different in England.

I wrote that already

Have you ever moved to another country?

I am guessing that you haven't from your posts.

That is not belittling them. It is fact.

Of course living in one place for life, gives people a more narrow focus. And the English people that I know go on holiday for 2 weeks to the same place, Spain, every year. They don't go anywhere else.

they are not better or worse than me.

They just don't know a lot about the world. They say it themselves.

Brexit has been a problem for them

Why are you ignoring other people’s perspectives and being so adamant that the people you know are representative of all English people who have never lived abroad?

Where as you’ve lived in multiple countries yet still come across as very narrow minded and ignorant 🤷🏼‍♀️

Yeah, I think you are just trying to wind people up now. You have a very narrow view on how people can experience other cultures. Living in another country does not guarantee you learning about a country especially if you don't engage with the people of that country. I have English friends who live in other countries and they don't really engage with the locals. You don't really engage with the locals here in UK so what are you learning.

As someone who has worked in countries outside my own I am not convinced it in and of itself broadens my mind. I also think there are unspoken disadvantages to moving about a lot both to the individual and the local people. I never feel I quite belong anywhere. It's unsettling!

you clearly havent made much effort to broaden your horizons of English people you know!

In our broader circle of friends and friendly acquaintances and close work colleagues, I don't know a single family who go to the same place every year. the closest to this is families where one of the adults is from France/italy/Spain and they go back to their homeland to spend time with family/grandparents etc over the summer. DD's BFF is back this week after 6 weeks in France staying with her grandparents.

Other friends have visited: france, Spain, Italy, Norway, Finland, Peru. Many have travelled around the UK too - usually due to cost and/or children.

I wonder why you're struggling so much to meet British people who are closer to you in interest? I can't help wondering if you give off, "you're all twats" vibes. Which, as a non Brit I KNOW is surprisingly common - DH and I split the people from our country in the UK into two camps: the ones who basically think home is better and appear to think the UK should be grateful they're here, and the ones who are just normal people who live in the UK for specific reasons and benefits.

we don't hang out with the first group. My SIL is never going to leave her home country because she's in that group.

As an Irish person I just want to point out we do not all have the same ignorant views as the op. I have lived and worked abroad in one other country and am well travelled outside of that however I am back on Irish soil and not planning to live anywhere else possibly even after retirement because I now have children and they have their roots here. OP your posts are goady and rude and quite frankly I think you are projecting because while you have the freedom to move and work anywhere you want usually happy people do not try belittle others for doing different so my guess is you actually regret not having kids and setting down roots somewhere and are on here to try to make yourself feel better for your choices.

The very fact that you don't know that loads of English people do live abroad shows just how ignorant you are. You might think you are coming across as very worldly wise, but you actually aren't.

I have a friend who is very widely travelled and I know far more about the world in general than he does even though I'm staying at home.

Wow! How strange that you call some -one else ignorant, and then you write such an ignorant and immature post yourself.

"Regret having kids". Imagine having the ignorance to say that to a woman. The cheek of you!

Do you think that all women want to have children? They certainly don't. I knew from a young age that I never wanted children.

I have five female cousins in their forties.

Two have children, three of them don't have children.

They are all very happy. I never even think about having kids.

Of course English people live abroad. I never said that they didn't.

When I lived in Spain, i met loads of English retired people.

I didn't meet any young English people living there in Spain.

As I realise more and more, Brexit is affecting lots of English people. Especially the younger people.

A lot of the older English expats already lived in Spain and they were allowed to stay.

Apologies I missed that. You come across a lot younger.

Out of interest, what did you do when worked in Spain?

And by the same token of respect not everyone wants to live and work abroad. Look beyond the end of your own nose there. Live and let live and all that.

I never wrote that everyone wants to live abroad. Did I? No i didn't. So don't make that up.

I asked why so few people that I have met in England have lived abroad, compared to people that I have met in Spain, Italy, Ireland and Germany.

I wrote many, many times that not living abroad did not make them better or worse than me. I was just observing it. I see that Brexit is causing a lot of the difference

I was just observing it.

To be fair, OP, you weren’t just observing it.

You’ve commented more than once that people who haven’t lived abroad are more narrow-minded. At one point you said you can’t mix easily with them because of this.
In this way you’ve been quite critical of others who’ve made different choices than you have.

Ireland is very small. Like NZ. People have to travel to see more and have opportunities. Your Spanish experience is just weird. Not many Spanish I know of have lived abroad. .

Your thread title literally says Why don't a lot of English people live abroad?

As for Spain, you do realise there is a whole big wide world outside of Spain, and even Europe, where loads of young English people are living.

Incidentally, you have no way of knowing how many English people are living abroad. Working in a business, where apparently you have spoken to every single person and asked, does not tell you anything other than that the people in that particular workplace have chosen not to live abroad.

I give up, you seem to think you know more than everyone else, when it's quite clear that you don't.

The OP has ignored my question but I’d be really interested in what jobs she has done in these countries - especially given she’s quite steadfast in her claims that you don’t need to learn the local language to live and work in a non English speaking country.

The point a PP makes about Ireland is a good one too. It is very common for Irish people to move away from Ireland for study or work due to the size of the country and the opportunities available.

I still don't understand why OP doesn't ask the English people around them rather than come onto a platform which will have a mixture of people from all over. I think it's ironic that one of the advantages of travel and living abroad is engaging with the people and culture of the new country and yet OP won't or cannot engage with the English.

Are you talking about the UK, or England? So many people on this thread speaking as if they are the same thing.

The OP seems to reference English when making their points.

To many foreigners, it is.

I think OP is living in England now, that’s why she’s speaking about the English specifically.
Irish people do know the difference between England and the UK. Part of the UK is on the island of Ireland so why wouldn’t we?

ETA If people are looking up stats, however, it’s probably figures for the UK that they’ll find and quote. You’d have to look deeper to find figures for England alone.

I am talking about England.