So bored of 'we left our life in the UK' influencers

[Prenoden]

Seem to be so many now. 'We left our life in the shitty UK for a dream life in [insert any sunnier country]. I'm not actually following these, they just seem to pop up on my social feeds uninvited.

Content on a lot of them is boringly similar, contrasting dull grey skies of previous life vs them now sat on a beach sipping from a coconut with clichéd POV captions.

Obviously everyone is entitled to do what they like and move wherever but why does it always have to be contrasted in this way? As if everyone is crazy for staying in UK. Every place has pros and cons and a lot of these sunny places aren't all they're cracked up to be.

A friend moved to Spain a decade ago in search of this kind of idyllic life and although the weather was lovely etc they said the bureaucracy was terrible, the school system was appalling and once her partner lost his job and couldn't find another that pretty much ended it and they willingly moved back.

Before anyone asks, I'm not bitter because I am stuck on this island. I like it here, it's not perfect and if you watch the news it's all negative, but I live in a lovely town, we have a nice network and I work remotely 4 days a week which is flexible with DC, earning enough money for what we need but always budget etc.

I do think Brexit was a terrible mistake though and the country has been in decline since. We will come to see it as a historic mistake but at the moment the far right loons seem to have a grip on setting the narrative (even though Brexit is their fault).

It's ironic that a lot of these new life influencers are now in sunnier EU countries that Brits could have easily moved to at the drop of a hat before Brexit but now it's a lot harder and bureaucratic, a lot of them create content about how to navigate visas etc. It's like it's become more desirable because it's not so easy anymore.

I actually have Eu citizenship thankfully so can still move to Southern Europe if I wanted to but the economies don't seem great so unless you're retired/ digital nomad it doesn't work. Climate change is also a worry a summers getting hotter everywhere and I wonder what that will mean in 10- 15 years.

Completely not true!

You're spot on about Brexit. It's really impoverished the country and will remain the elephant in the room until the right wing whose fault it is are prepared to admit that. I suspect hell will gave frozen over...

Same about climate change. I'm lucky enough to have an EU passport but Europe will be unbearably hot in summer, the UK is slowly turning into a hot country, never mind anywhere else.

Once my kids are done with uni, they’ve said they’re not looking to stay in the UK so there’ll be nothing keeping me here. I may keep a little place here but would love to buy a little bolthold on a tiny Greek island (not the big touristy ones!) where the pace of life is slow, people are friendly and as long as there’s internet, I’ll be fine! My kids said home is wherever I am and wherever that is, they’ll come and visit regularly…there’s a lot of positives in the UK but at the same time, there’s a lot that has changed and not for the better sadly…

I longingly look at photographs of benbecula ❤️

Anyone else raising an eyebrow at "indigenous"? Just me?

I think influencers get paid to present the upsides of whatever they're contracted to.

I don't love our politics here but on the whole Britain is all right. And it's stunningly beautiful in parts. I can think of a lot of things that are better than in the 80s and 90s, when I was a young thing and spent some time living abroad. (But not enough to run into bureaucracy!)

the weather was lovely etc they said the bureaucracy was terrible, the school system was appalling

This is exactly my experience of Spain. Not to mention the terrible burden the mahoosive influx of tourists are every summer. I completely understand why over tourism is being protested against now. Which added to the lack of the locals being prepared to accept our family when we lived there. Because we were just an extension of the tourists albeit living and working there. Spain in particular really doesn't want us Brits there not even as permanent, tax paying residents. There is active hostility towards us and that was a very large part of our decision to come home again.

It does make me laugh when it's the same people who wang on about immigrants.

Twas ever thus. Remember that TV programme - A Place In The Sun?

Real Estate programme about people moving to sunnier climates. They'd be out there house shopping with the intent of selling up lock-stock-and-barrel in the UK.

When the programme did its "how are they getting on" visit the result was always the same:

"We're still arguing and the pool didn't bring us closer together."

yeah no shit 🙄

Im not in the UK but have noticed the same from influencers from my country. My biggest problem with them is most of their content seems to be slagging off the country they came from and saying how great Australia, Spain, France...wherever is in comparison. Smacks of trying too hard to convince everyone they are doing better than everyone at home. It's smug and unnecessary.

It just annoys me. No country is perfect and my country is actually not that bad but you'd think it was hell the way some of them go on. Also I'd die of boredom sitting on a beach everyday.

That’s because it is though.

If you’re “so bored” of them then don’t look at their posts. Isn’t that obvious?

Not an influencer, but we moved to Belgium in 2019 as my husband got a job here. There are many positives, we prefer the weather (it is sunnier despite being in northern europe), the schools, and the healthcare system. The big negatives are the taxes (crazy), employment regulations (too long to explain here but complicated and very pro-employer) and bureaucracy. We miss a lot of things about the UK. Mainly cultural, it’s hard to explain but just the British sense of humor, manners and so on. I miss pubs and British food, even finding good cheddar cheese is hard lol. Luckily we do live in an area where nearly everyone speaks English, but I dread making phone calls and so on as my Dutch and French are basic. We did NOT live in a nice area in the UK, so I wouldn’t want to move back there and I think that played a big part in our decision. I have lived in many places as an adult, in the US and England, they all have positives and negatives. You’re absolutely right, portraying the UK as all negative and Europe as all positive is boring. It all depends on what’s important and relevant for you and your family.

As with all influencers, they only show the top 1% of the life they are leading. It’s all smoke and mirrors

I think it’s partly your algorithms, partly a cultural oddity. I’m Irish, there’s a long tradition of economic migration and a huge diaspora, but even when I left Ireland during a stinking recession that saw mass unemployment (pretty much everyone I know who graduated when I did left for work), no one bored on about leaving because Ireland was shit. We left for economic opportunities, absolutely, but didn’t need to convince ourselves that our home country was a dreadful place. You can love where you’re from and still choose to go and live somewhere else, out of choice or economic necessity. It seems to be a British cultural quirk that a lot of emigrants seem to need to convince themselves that wherever they’ve chosen to emigrate to is objectively ‘better’ and the UK is shit.

Hear hear!!!!

I'm mixed nationality too, and it's frustrating to see UK celebs "giving it all up" to just go and find a McDonalds elsewhere. We have to appreciate what there is abroad but also be extremely grateful for what we have here in the UK.

Compeltely agree!! On my social media, its Australia presented as the only place worth living. They paint such a stereotypical, bleak picture of the UK but a couple have ended up moving back! I live in a beautiful part of the UK so have no envy over scenery but for me it rotally comes down to home is where you're family are. Nothing could convince me to move far from Sunday lunches at my parents, kids being picked up from school by grandparents or just totally random, quiet, Tuesday teas with their cousins. I truly believe these are the things that count. (But also made easier by the lovely, sunny weather we have had this year!).

I just hate how they always have to compare by making the UK look dire. Great. You're happy you have moced, I am pleased for you. But don't dump all over where you came from!

And what some of them do to earn money no thanks 🤮

We have a house in a sunny country as well as here in the UK. Will I move there, absolutely not. More plus’s here than cons.

Why not change your preferences? If you set your preferences to say you aren't interested and don't want to see that type of content it should really decrease the amount in your feed.

I love our country even though it's far from perfect & I would never move somewhere 'hot' as I find summer's unbearably hot here, never mind Spain etc. In my social circle I have a friend from South Africa that came to live in the UK a few years ago who regularly tells me how much better life is here in the UK, a friend who lives in UAE who is 'definitely coming back to the UK in the next few years' & a friend who made a go of life in Australia & ended up back home in less than a year. It is not all it's cracked up to be.

EU citizenship isn’t a thing, you either have or are eligible for citizenship of an EU member state. How often do you read on here about a poster who thinks the UK is failing and they want to move to the monolith they refer to as Europe. Every country has it’s positive and negative points.

I have four years to decide if I will apply for citizenship of the EU member state I have residency permit for.

Well, I live in Spain and it has his pros and cons as does the UK. At least this country is geared up for the heat though - the UK has no idea of how to cope with hot weather. I won’t be rushing back to England for the NHS either when I get old.

my feed seems to be full of influencers trying to peddle dubious skincare, makeup and crap clothes so I think I’d prefer yours. If an influencer is recommending something, I am steering well clear of it!

Give them a break, they are trying to earn a living. My content fills up with US citixens who have moved to Mexico and, frankly, they are deadly boring

Give them a break, they are trying to earn a living. My content fills up with US citixens who have moved to Mexico and, frankly, they are deadly boring

Social media is awash with insecure people trying to justify their life choices by glamorising them.

Similar to you @PrenodenI am happy in the UK. But I don’t feel the need to bleat about it on social media and put other people’s choices down.

The latest one I saw was some couple with 3 kids who have moved into a “1 bed apartment”. For some reason.

Massively glamorising it, video of cute little kids beds in the corner, softplay set up at other end of the room, happy kids running around, with an overlaid caption about moving into a 1 bed flat so that they can “free up money for experiences” blah blah blah.

I mean, you do do. If that’s what they can afford, that’s fine. Nobodies going to judge them for being in financial difficulty.

But the dressing it up as something it’s not and making it into a whole “thing” is just something I’m so bored of.