Any remain voters now thinking of leaving uk - and where too?

[Stripyhoglets]

Before the vote I had no real desire to move from UK to an EU country either now or when retired. I liked living in England and being English. The vote, and what it has revealed has changed how I feel about this. But now I'm thinking I may want to leave when retired, should finances and commitments and immigration rules allow (I can retain EU citizenship but dh cant).

Trouble is I don't know where I'd go.
Probably France or Portugal. I have family freinds who've retired to Portugal and it seems lovely - and I can speak some French - so that would be good too.

Anyone else making plans/having dreams of leaving this island and would like to share?

I've left already! I moved to France in the spring.

So you want AnywhereButEngland.
Have you thought of Scotland?

I have purist, I love Scotland and my family do too - I have Scottish and Irish heritage. So either also a possibility. I can't work in either (or Europe !😂) though without requalifying but its a possibility for retirement. My non transferable job shows how little I wanted to or planned to move before Brexit.

Newlife - exciting - was it just because of Brexit. I know people leaving but mostly to move back to home countries as they feel Brexit was a definate Fuck Off - so they have!

Like you OP, I've always thought I'd never emigrate. Were now seriously considering it and will spend the next few years researching various places. Mind you, the present give seem deeply incompetent and don't seem to have a scooby, so I'm hoping for a miracle and it won't actually happen.

I hope so to - but todays announcement in news, that we won't remain in the common market just depressed me all over again.

We always thought it would be nice to live abroad for a bit when the DC were a little older. (DH and I both PhD/higher-level research scientists in internationally employable field, willing to move anywhere nice, happy to learn languages). So in one sense, no change to our plans. OTOH, having watched the developments of the past 14-ish months, likelihood of us leaving has gone from "probably" to "definitely". And likelihood of us returning has gone steeply the other way.

I'm a Remain voter. I wouldn't consider emigrating though.

Yes, putting plans in place. My work is flexible and, if we go, it will be to start the academic year in autumn 2018 (three children). Ireland is currently looking most likely destination. I just don't want to be here, I don't like the direction this country is taking and what it is becoming - I am lucky enough to have dual nationality so can move if needs be.

I just don't want to be here, I don't like the direction this country is taking and what it is becoming

That's how I feel. I do love England though (or London, anyway, which I know is a bit different) and don't ACTIVELY want to leave or go anywhere else.

Have thought about Berlin, Canada, Ireland. Neither DP nor I have any dual citizenships or claims to any, though.

Lots of Academic chums are leaving, lots of people going to Europe some to the US.

People in business relocating some ops.

Nefarious people like me? Sitting on pile of cash waiting for asset prices to drop before I snap them up.

Stripy, it was Brexit that gave me the extra push, lots of circumstances conspired, it just didn't feel comfortable any more in the UK and suddenly found myself alone, so no one else to please. Although bizarrely, I'm now working for a UK University! A whole other story...

I have started putting things in motion in order to stay post Brexit, and so far I'm being made very welcome.

Not exactly the same situation but we moved abroad about a year before the Brexit vote and we've decided we are definitely not coming back. In fact I haven't even applied for DD's British passport (she's entitled to it), so low is my feeling towards Britain at the moment. We will either stay where we are in Asia or go to the US where I'm from.

We've already jumped to NZ. 2 x friends about to join us. Other pals have made the following moves:
Finland
Spain
Ireland
Germany

Other friends contemplating their options. None want to stay in the UK with the present political and social situation. It's an embarrassment.

All of us are highly educated specialists and professionals. The UK is going face a fuck ton of brain drain at this rate.

I'm a scientist too, STEM PhD in a growing field with wide applications in manufacturing industry.

I moved to Germany right after the referendum.
It was pretty easy for me though, because I have had contracts there since the late 1980s and I had recently finished a contract near Frankfurt.

Germany is very welcoming to scientists especially, so there are scientists from around the world.
Hence, the work language has increasingly become English over the years.

However, scientists from non-EU countries - which may include the UK from 1 April 2019 - have much more stringent entry and residence requirements, also for dependents.
So, if you want to work in the EU, it's MUCH easier to start doing so before Brexit.

After 5 years working in Germany, non-EU citizens can apply for permanent residence, but there are still conditions e.g. language and citizenship exams.

Yes I think we will move within the year to Asia with DHs job which will be moved out of London to there as part of his company's contingency plans to shrink their London office with follow on job losses in the back office in the North, along with all the suppliers. Not sad about it personally as each day the news of failures of government, and move to the right gets ever more depressing, and none of it reflecting the wishes of the majority of younger people, under 45 and the message they sent in the election. It just feels that nothing will change until we have gone over the cliff. I certainly could not live in a country where JRM is doing a posh Trump. DDs, one also a Scientist feel very much the same and don't see a future here. That will be a full house in the grandchildren, two others are already overseas, taking their skills, one in a trade, the other medical, with them.

I'm very taken with the idea of moving to Edinburgh - it feels very civilised - and even though we would all be going down the toilet together, it would at least be reassuring to know that most people agree with you about the unremitting stupidity of it all.

We moved 9 years ago to the Netherlands - very high levels of English, lots of international jobs that don't demand Dutch. Currently you can also get a nice tax break for moving here if you have qualifications they want (though this is often under review). Super-easy to get back to U.K. too. Oh and there's still mortgage interest tax relief

I love it here - the cycling and the freedom for children are 2 of the real pluses.

Would seriously think about it except dd now doing gcses and then As. When she's finished ds is in that cycle. Dd is definitely planning to leave and so is ds probably. (Not how I imagined future family life.)

Lots of interesting stories from you all! I do kind of wish I'd stayed in a science based/academic type career now as it would be alot more flexible. But Tbh my youngest needs stability and I will have caring responsibilities towards older relatives too in the future. But it reminds me of the 80's and early 90's when my STEM studying freinds all left the UK after they'd done PHDs. We are becoming such a regressive country now. My children are likely to study STEM subjects and as they can get an EU passport I will encourage them to consider moving to Europe if prospects are better there. If I can I do think retirement plans now may well be "by the sea in an EU country" rather than just "by the sea!"

We think about it very seriously. It's a bad time for us as we have 3 dc in secondary education, so I can't see how we can move abroad before the barriers start coming down and it gets harder, without messing up at least one dc's exams.
But we have plans. DP (computer programmer) has changed job to one based in Sweden, I'm an academic with links across Europe, so might be able to find something. Will definitely try and move, just not sure whether to uproot/leave dc, or wait and hope we haven't left it too late.
Am a bit aware that in 6 years we might not look quite so tempting as immigrant workers, we'll be 50-somethings by then and countries want younger workers, so I worry about delaying.

DP and I are in Dublin now. DP is non-EU but given the increasing level of issues the population of England & Wales have with immigrants and the resultant policy direction we decided to use my EU treaty rights whilst I still had them and move to a different country and bring DP as the Spouse of an EU citizen.

If Scotland had its own immigration policy (not totally requiring independence) then we might have stayed. But the whole control our borders thing is very disquieting to black people from overseas. Some of DPs friends have gone as well. Australia and Canada.

scottish, could I ask you how you're finding Ireland and if you're planning to apply for citizenship? I'm considering a move to Ireland but don't have any recent enough Irish ancestry to be entitled to citizenship; would have to do it the long way.

We are finding it quite good. Property is London esque in terms of prices in Dublin but we've got jobs not disimilar to what we had in Scotland. We are already planning taking the citizenship but will take five years. Its not been a bad move, the people are great and DP has had no issues related to immigration. Probably because the Irish know they traveled around the world so complaining about immigration would be a tad hypocritical. Unlike UK which, now I am on the outside, can give off a regretful vibe about the decline of the empire and those foreign oiks coming in. Most amusing part tends to be when someone proBrexit basically says Ireland should be part of UK again to make UKs Brexit easier.

scottish - can I ask if you have children of school age? I am finding the Irish system of applying to schools really hard to get to grips with so I wondered if you had any experience of it.