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.

Not very coherently or convincingly it must be said.

"In your opinion" it must be said.

Yes, it’s my opinion based on your posts.

Maybe because the ones at your workplace have stayed in the UK and the ones who've moved abroad aren't there, because they're abroad. I tend to fund Brits who move abroad to work stay abroad and don't return to the UK.

But most of those tend to be language degrees (or something joint with a language). Someone like me doing a straight STEM degree is now (sadly) highly unlikely to get that experience.

Without my ERASMUS experience I doubt I would have gone on to live in Japan for almost a decade.

I lived in Spain and there was tons of Brits. We are really bad at teaching languages which presents a barrier to working abroad but loads of retirees leave the country.

OP I have family who are currently working in Saudi, Dubai and Australia. My inlaws lived in France for a while. All are English people apart from one spouse who is Scottish - do they count?

I prefer to stay in my English home where I am nice, cosy, looked after healthwise and have enjoyed a great career. I holiday several times a year and have travelled all over the world, visited some beautiful locations, but England is my home.

I'm off to Canada next month, was in India in April, the Canaries at New Year and last year had a few weeks in Iceland, Czechia, Montenegro and Greece.

If we worked together, you probably wouldn't hang out with me (as you previously stated), but I bet I've experienced more of the world than you.

I've lived and worked in 5 different countries and I agree with you 100%! I hate touristy travel, but LOVE going to live and work somewhere and trying to integrate into the culture.

I'd be away again next week if it wasn't going to be so much upheaval now I have a family, pets etc.

The healthcare system in some of the countries I've worked in has been so superior to the UK's that I wonder really why we tolerate such poor healthcare. Also the level of violence. I've lived places overseas where women could walk safely around day or night.

I lived in Italy for many years,2 of my children were born there.In Milan there were a lot of English working,not unusual,we travel and live overseas the same as other nationalities.

It probably depends partly on who you know, too. I grew up with extended family in the former colonies - they had moved out there when it was part of the Empire.

I'm also interested in languages, and habe done CELTA, so I know a lot of people who have lived overseas teaching English. I worked in a medical library, and lots of people there, probably the majority, had been overseas for extended periods, because they specialised in tropical medicine and epidemiology. Academia is usually fairly international, though it depends partly on the subject. Working for multinationals helps, too.

But it also meant I grew up knowing that living abroad was a possibility, and I had people I could ask what I would need to do if I wanted to - I have contacts in a lot of countries, and if I had wanted to move when working for a multinational, I could have probably had support from them.

Not everyone will be working in companies with overseas offices, nor will everyone have family overseas (though many will.) Some towns (like Slough) and cities are far more multicultural than others. Not everyone will have the same visibility of opportunities.

I’ve travelled a bit but there’s no place like home 😉

I like England, my family and friends are here, I like the weather (most of the time) and feel lucky to be English.

I found after I'd been in tropical areas for some months, I was really missing the British weather. Hot every day got boring. Here, you don't know what the weather will be when you wake, and whatever it is then, it could be entirely different at the end of the day. But that just means I prefer to live in temperate countries, not necessarily the UK. Also, our landscape is so varied (says person who crossed the Nullarbor Plain by bus, which is very much not varied, for days.)

So you’re only talking about English people on this thread, and excluding the Welsh and Scots? It’s an odd thing to do. You don’t think Brexit has affected them?

You're not comparing like with like.

The English people who emigrated, have gone! And these people's home towns will be full of people who stayed - the equivalent of your English colleagues.

Of course there are other relevant factors such as that English speakers are more likely to emigrate to the English speaking countries, Asia and the Middle East (where the jobs are) and as a nation, our command of foreign languages is poor and getting worse, so with Brexit as well, you'd have to be pretty motivated and determined to swap a job in this country for one in e.g. Spain and your salary would be lower.

I live in a different country to the one I grew up. You seem to think travel broadens the mind. I am not convinced. I have known people who travel a lot and they are not very open minded and I have known people who travel very little and are open minded.

Living and working in multiple non-Western countries for over a decade made me appreciate Western culture and peoples a lot more tbh.

Languages

I don't think you can say culturally the English (and the Weslh and Scots) are not good at travelling or working abroad - how do you think we acquired and administered a massive empire for centuries.

Scottish diaspora - Wikipedia https://share.google/od3vLk32DnJJ6ik5x

Also depends on your time frame of course.

Massive emigration abroad from Scotland, Ireland, Wales and poorer parts of England if you go back a generation or two.

Both sides of my family had members who emigrated to Canada in the 1950s and DH's family emigrated from Ireland to the NE and from the NE to Canada. My best friend emigrated to Switzerland and two of my parents' friends, to France - one because he married a French lady and the other for lifestyle reasons. Other friends and acquaintances have gone to America, Australia and New Zealand.

The difference is these are often much longer distances and a much more permanent decision than e.g. a young person using freedom of movement within the EU and command of languages to move about.

To be fair to the English, they love their country, what's wrong with staying home if your home take covers your basics bar few luxuries

Your case is a bit different, like mine

I've decided actively to marry well off my daughters so they too, can work abroad for pleasure and not basics

Interesting. The NHS is the reason I would not move back to the UK at the moment.

It depends. If you work in an area where expats or seasonal workers are more regularly, enough people will speak English for you to think you will be fine.
If you go to any area with mainly "natives", English is not the frequent.

In Germany you need to speak German to deal with the local authorities, council, banks, insurances, doctors etc. In a major city like Munich, Berlin, Frankfurt you will find enough people who can help. In others - not so much. Even when English is taught in school, most Germans don't have more than a passing knowledge like knowing how to order a drink or read a sign.
Lots of my German colleagues are able to read and write in English but hate talking in it.

I had the unfortunate experience of an A&E in France - major tourist city. Lovely staff but with some I wasn't able to communicate as my French is non existing when it comes to body functions and medical wording. Luckily 2 out of 5 nurses spoke some English and the doctor was fluent enough to communicate what I had and needed to do.

There are obviously enough countries where English a the main or a second language but equally, you can be stuck.

I don't think it's actually true that English and British people don't move though. Look at the emigration figures.

The foreigners you're coming across in your job are also possibly not typical of people from those countries because they're people who are very willing to move around.

I've probably already missed quite a few posts about parts of France, like the Dordogne, where there are loads of English people, certain parts of Spain and many European capital cities...

People now will rage , call me old gangsta gold digger. Do you know who parted me with my own gold lol. My daughters fathers. Good, for balance, we found them well to do husbands

I mean the numbers are huge. That Wikipedia link says 28m-40m people round the world with Scottish ancestry and no doubt the numbers with Irish are even higher.

It's all about push factors and pull factors isn't it?

No-one was emigrating to Switzerland in the 1950s. They were really poor then. Now it's a different story!