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.

Hmm it depends

I live abroad and I have to say there’s no way in the world I would move back to where I’m originally from in the North west/Cheshire. It was a lovely area and I have mainly fantastic memories of living there from my childhood to my early 20’s, when I left, travelled the world and settled abroad.
Yes it’s hot where I am at the moment, but currently lay down indoors in a cool house, fan on me. We went for a swim in the pool early on, ate breakfast outside. Later when cooler we’ll take a picnic to the beach and swim in the sea at sunset.
Dd currently has a friend over from our neighbourhood and they’re playing (talking together in the language here) we’ve had bbq fish and toasted marshmallows for lunch.
We wouldn’t have anything like this life from where i’m from and it would be criminal to move Dd there now after the life she has here, I really don’t think any of us would cope with the change in lifestyle now. I remember feeling trapped and depressed in the uk

However, having said all this, I think I possibly do want to move back in the next couple of years to where my family now lives, by the beach, similar lifestyle but winters not as nice as where we are, but i’m sure I’ll adapt, just need to get Dh on board (doesn’t want to return to the uk)

You lost me at calling everyone who voted Brexit "far right." That is just lazy stereotyping, plenty of ordinary people voted Leave for reasons that had nothing to do with politics at the extremes.

Also, you admit you have EU citizenship and could move tomorrow if you wanted, but then say you will not because the economies "aren’t great." That is exactly the contradiction you criticise in the influencers, holding up the UK as some sort of grey, declining place but then admitting you prefer the stability here.

Brexit was not perfect, but to pretend all its supporters were extremists while you sit comfortably in the UK with the option to live abroad does not really square with the picture you are painting.

I remember reading a newspaper column written by someone who by someone who had moved to rural France. He said that many people find the language challenging and the life lonely and in the end quite a high percentage moved back. I think some of the problem was the loss of the support network coupled with what could be a very different culture.
People I know who have migrated to France and to the best of my knowledge, intend staying there, are part of a massive expat/migrant community who meet frequently for social events.

Can you not just flick past the influencers you don’t want to see?

If your eyeball time is a second or less your algorithm will start to change because the social media platforms want you glued as long as possible, they make a lot of money from your time and data.

I find that last paragraph very intriguing. Almost like they are trying to create or even be the news, rather than reporting factually and perhaps offering insight.

@MathiasBroucektotally agree with you

My feed is full of Americans who love the UK and are already here, or want too move here. All of DD's Masters student friends from the US and Europe are staying here, want to work and live here. I have a lot of European friends, they are not moving back even though they are still citizens if their country.

I suppose it depends what you see, who you know.

@Prenoden. Yep my friends are back 2 years ago from SA after 12 years ( she is South African) after chatting about it I can see the advantages were somewhat limited and she was honest - a big house, help at home, cheap wine and sun - that was it really - on the downside were constant power outages, rarely going out in an evening, riots from some very threatening locals literally at end of road, husband having to do barricading duties, needing guns and multiple dogs and rarely going on holiday apart from safaris, ended up paying for schools and healthcare which they hadn’t really fully factored in and the fact no one wanted to go out to see them because it’s not exactly top of most people’s lists - the guy ended up working in a stressful quite physical job when the original idea had been for him to stop work - couldn’t afford it when it became clear private schools and health were very much needed

Whilst I understand your point regarding 'influencers', I'm British and have lived abroad for a long time. One of my sons was born abroad and my youngest 2 have been educated in the local state school system. They're both fluent in the local language. I would never want to move back to the UK, and can't imagine why I would need to. There are of course pros and cons, the health service here far surpasses the NHS but salaries are considerably lower. It's my home now though ☺️

A good friend of mine is part of the Digital Nomad community and she is so honest about it. She says it is full of people posting #LivingMyBestLife posing, smiling posts in front of azure seas, while swearing about the shitty wifi, the insects, the local laws, language barriers, the total inability to form close relationships etc etc. it's different, not better. She's tired of it.

Where are you, out of interest?

Cyprus 😊

Yeah Dawn Ward ( Real Housewives of Cheshire) and her family moved out to Dubai, can't understand it, it seems such a shallow lifestyle. You couldn't pay me to go out there.

Yes I agree op.
Each to their own.
For reasons unknown I keep seeing threads along the same lines.
All of the posters saying how wonderful it is to sit outside in the sunshine drinking cheap alcohol. Every single one of them mentions the cheap alcohol, as if that is what they use to wash, clean and heat their homes with!
I have friends who live abroad and I can tell you in Spain for example, you had better hope you don’t get old and infirm. The cheap alcohol will not replace carers which are virtually non existent where my friends live.
Neither do they mention the exhausting temperatures which mean they stay indoors with the air con on until evening time.
There are pros and cons wherever you live.
Ex pats will often state that they managed to move before Brexit, and it is a lot harder to move now and gain citizenship.

Just to add I agree with the poster upthread. Those who make a success of it integrate fully. Friends who have stayed in Spain and France are fluent in the national language, they stay out of the mid day sun and the like. Likewise those who have settled in Australia, New Zealand and The USA and Canada, are fully emerged in the culture.

You keep seeing this stuff because you're watching it. The algorithms can't differentiate between rage watching and enjoying the content.
But everywhere has it's pros and cons. People are allowed to choose different compromises than you and to have different priorities than you.
I think the UK is pretty great, but I've lived abroad and we're moving again next year. There's no singular best place in the world. Our passports and careers allow us some level of mobility and we will enjoy it unapologetically. Don't take it so personally.

I agree @Prenoden I don't give a shiny shite if someone claims to be happier in another country, sipping cocktails on a balmy beach. Fact is, they will still have to work for a living (probably full time) and pay taxes, and a mortgage or rent, and they won't have half of the benefits they had of living in the UK. So I don't envy them one iota.

I've had people I know move abroad (Australia/Portugal/Spain/South Of France, Florida etc) and send me photos 'to make me jealous' - (their words,) and I am like 'why would I be jealous? How odd for you to think that and say that.' They were like 'ha ha yes you are ha ha. 😆'

4 out 5 of them come back to the UK. And the ones who stay are not necessarily happy. Some have had children with a citizen of that country, and they're not allowed to bring them back without that person's permission. So they're forced to stay in that country. OR come back to the UK without the children.

I also think 'well, if you have to keep banging on about how amazing it is, and how wonderful your life is in said new country, who are you tryna convince babe?!'

They got the best of both worlds then didn't they? A few years in the sun, then back home when it suits. Good for them.
If it's making you angry you obviously are a little bit jealous. If you didn't care, you wouldn't care...

I thought this too…if you weren’t bothered/affected, why be so het up and invested..

The UK is crap I'm almost 40 I want out by 50 55 .there's nothing to stay for 🤷🏻‍♀️
Get a bigger better property , nicer weather ,less stress

I left my life in the UK for the sunny dream!

It was shit.

I came home and I never want to leave again. I know several families who have also returned. It isn’t one long happy sunny holiday. We lost money.

I wouldn’t tell someone else not to do it, but I wouldn’t be in a hurry. to do it again. Influencers are trying to sell a dream lifestyle, but life can be tricky to navigate wherever you are.

If Saudi is a haven I dread to think what a hellish place is. No money in the world would get me stepping foot there.

You say that, but all my relatives who at first emigrated to the UK from Jamaica and after living here a couple decades, emigrated to different regions of the US.

Not a one of them would move back to the UK.

Similarly, all my born and bred in the UK late Bloomer to late Millennial relatives who have made the move to the US.

I emigrated from the UK due to stagnant wages, but I loved everything else about living there. London will always be home.

Brits just like to moan which makes it seem like the UK is so much worse than other places. It’s weird now being surrounded by people who don’t whinge as a pastime - took some getting used to.

I don’t get all the competition about it though. I don’t publicly say how I felt about moving away, only here and between close family etc. I don’t think other countries are bad or that everyone who moves away will dislike it, I think it’s just not the easy dream some people portray it to be, well it wasn’t for us. I won’t mention where we loved to either because it’s a great place in general, just hard to move to and live in for a migrant, in my opinion (yes migrant, not ex-pat).

But all this ‘we moved to so and so and it’s SO MUCH BETTER than x country’ is really pathetic and it gives people a bad feeling about their lives. But then, that’s social media. If you’re happy where you live then be happy, but you don’t need to slag off the U.K. or the British or anywhere else or anyone else. It’s not necessary. Just enjoy.