Seriously thinking about leaving the UK - AIBU?

[HonoraBridge]

I love the UK in many ways but it has been going downhill for at least 20 years and it feels as if the speed of the decline is accelerating. I no longer see a happy, or particularly safe, future here. For the first time in my life, I am very seriously thinking about leaving the UK and that feeling gets stronger day by day. When I mention this to friends, many are feeling the same way. YANBU - you are right to think seriously about leaving the UK. YABU - the UK is a still a great country to live in and you are being unreasonable to want to leave.

I am aware of how mortgages work. But I own my house. That is both de facto and de jure the case. And if it was repossessed, I would get a proportion of the proceeds equivalent to the value of the house less the outstanding mortgage. Totally different to housing benefit recipients. Why can’t you accept this?

Check the age and health requirements for immigration too. Even with investments, sometimes there can be issues there.

I moved to UK in 2000 as 18yo. I worked my way up corporate ladder, did OU degree whilst working full time and got a great job earning six figures by 2008.
I had kids on full maternity pay but had to quit my job in 2018 and am now full time carer to my autistic son.
It seems that UK started slipping backwards about David Cameron/George Osborne austerity era. My son needs specialist school but there are none that fit have space.
He needed therapies, but guess what? None available, only privately. Local ofsted 'outstanding' was downgraded to 'require improvement' after 20 year gap in inspection. There are potholes everywhere. Rubbish strewn on sides of motorway.
Want to go from London to Manchester in January on train? That will be 200£.
The country has noticeably gone downhill post covid.
I travel often and each time I land, there are problems. Barcelona has wifi on underground, I can barely get 4g signal and we live just outside M25.
People seem miserable (me included and I'm not normally miserable).
We have been debating moving back to my country (eastern Europe) for about 2 years,
The difference between here and there is that every time I go back I can see progress. More money earned by everyone, more foreign shops, more good food. UK seems to be going backwards. Better weather too.
Husband is retiring this year on final salary, our mortgage is paid off.
We have sold our house STC and are going to risk it.
We can buy similar house to here for 1/3rd of price or less.
Stick the rest of cash into bank
and live off pension and interest, plus some kind of job, just to do something.
We will miss our local pub and family.

I think its not so much that UK is "declining" but the fact that people have different expectations and ideas about where the life would be "ideal". Some mentioned Australia, Malta, Spain, Asia - hmmm, a big no for me!

Besides, I think UK is great. There are literally hoards of young Europeans, Americans, Australians coming here to live and work, and fight tooth and nail to be able to stay - I wonder why. They, too, perhaps, think their home countries "gone to pot?"

Please tell me where your thinking of

What’s telling is this thread has descended into arguing about money.

The best bits about living in the uk are when money doesn’t count. A sense of humour. The NHS. Being able to get a job and leave a job and get a job. When your community is fun and thriving regardless of being richer or poorer.

You do know that other countries take more asylum seekers than we do, right? There’s a difference between an illegal immigrant snd an asylum seeker. An illegal immigrant is unknown to the authorities, so they don’t claim benefits because the government isn’t aware they’re still here. Illegal immigrants include those who were previously granted visas and have overstayed after expiration. They don’t drain any resources because the government does not give them any.

‘the Boat people’ are asylum seekers, they are known to the home office. They have to come over on a boat and declared themselves, because if they obtained a visa and came by air, they then wouldn’t be granted asylum because they had a visa.

I wish people knew the difference.

I was generalizing 're the middle East, but given Syria, yemem, Palestine, the Arab spring 15 years ago, the regular issues in Egypt....Plus I could add culturally a huge difference in most of it to the uk.

Canadians have a reputation as being, well, a little dull😁

Last time I needed an operation, the waitlist on NHS was 53 weeks.

Whenever I see these regular “The UK is shit and I’m leaving” threads I always wonder why, if the UK is so awful, do so many people risk their lives to come here? Is it because they’re misinformed, and they don’t know how shit it is? This is a genuine question. Can anyone explain the efforts that people make to come here, legally and illegally?

Waiting list

But we are bound by international law, and if it wasn’t for Brexit things wouldn’t be as bad as they currently are now. The Tories caused this so they could use asylum seekers as scapegoats. Your life wouldn’t get any better without them. All people are doing is punching down and blaming people even poorer than themselves for the reason they are poor! Then not seeing the irony in saying they want to go and live elsewhere and become a foreigner because there’s too many foreigners in the UK.

The whole cause of Brexit was because people don’t like foreigners, even though the vast majority were paying in and contributing, that still wasn’t good enough. Rabid xenophobia! People just love to ‘other’ people. It sure does make me ashamed to be British with these attitudes being so rife these days.

I don’t think we should speak in generalities of a large geographic area especially as the people are vilified and demonised so frequently in our media. The uae is far more safe than the Uk and there is cultural difference from the UK to France to Germany. So there is cultural difference there too. It’s not all the same country. It’s ok if it’s not your cup of tea but it’s stigmatising to term the entire region a powder keg. Furthers the ´barbarian’ stereotype.

I can't believe no one has mentioned Ireland. You pay to see the GP but healthcare is great. Rent/house buying is more expensive but no council tax. Tax is higher but you earn more. Childcare is significantly cheaper. Would never move back to UK

Do what is best for you op, but please be aware that the problems you see in the UK that make you want to move, are not exclusive to the UK, they are happening in most countries.

The irony of you encouraging your DC to leave the country and become an immigrant in another country when you despise immigrants here.

Yes if you have the right skills, of course.

The issue where I live is - we cannot offer a job in our country to a 'third country national', this means someone from outside the EU. We have to advertise the job and if we receive no applications from nationals, EU passport holders or Brits who are legally here pre-Brexit (with residency papers), only then can we consider third country nationals. This means going to the Ministry of Labour and providing evidence of the above, even then it might not be considered. Our company will not accept new employees who don't meet the criteria; we cannot take the risk of taking someone on whose immigration status is unverified, pending or likely to be rejected - if we get caught employing someone illegally we will be fined or even sent to prison, as will the employee.

This!

If the shoe was on the other foot and you were in need of seeking asylum somewhere to escape persecution, you'd be very grateful if someone accepted you into their country.

the Majority are not shredding their documents, how do you know this, because GB News told you? The home office has ways of finding out who people are, you know. Anyone trying to illegally claim will be, and is being, deported when their applications are processed.

Other countries take more than we do, and the notion that they get everything while waiting is utter nonsense, they stay in the shittiest of hotels such as Britannia hotels who no British people stay in because they are such shit holes (I’ve stayed in one years ago, never again). If they are granted asylum, then they can stay and work and contribute, not before, but then again that wouldn’t be good enough either because they’re foreign 🤣

Brexit took with it the Dublin agreement, which made the immigration crisis far worse than it ever was before