Heading back to UK: anyone pondering it?

[thefoggiest]

Anyone here toying with the idea of moving back to the UK after years away? I keep hearing doom and gloom stories from people back home, but... Well, there's a reason they're still there, isn't there!

It's a tough decision. Covid suddenly made travel so much harder, and it's still horribly expensive, although I can at least get on a plane now.
When I return to the UK, everything just seems easy, I know how everything works, and my extended family and friends are there. Obviously I miss that. I miss the food & our winters and summers are extreme compared to the UK. I miss being able to travel around Europe.

BUT - 3 hours to do what should be a 45 minute train journey? Queueing up for petrol for over an hour at 11 pm? Not being able to register my father's death because of lack of services? My father actually dying because of the shitty handling of Covid? Being unable to afford a house anywhere near my family? I've had some really terrible experiences with the NHS - the kind that can kill people and alter your life for the worse. When I taught in the UK I was constantly sworn at, threatened, disrespected by children and parents and berated by school management - and I was a higher skills teacher.

I live in the US. For a modest fee I get great healthcare (so much better than the NHS, I honestly think I may have died if we hadn't moved to the US), I love my job, we have an amazing lifestyle as our housing is affordable compared to the UK. We're in a (relatively) left-wing, liberal area and people are incredibly friendly and helpful. There's a lot more space, beautiful scenery and still near a big city with all the facilities that offers.

The UK is quite a culture shock every time we return - noisy, dirty, crowded, (so crowded!) expensive and aggressive. But it still feels like home.

You have to apply for the permit from outside of the EU, you can't come for a holiday, somehow find a job (what employer is going to offer a job to someone on holiday with no home address in the country, after they have to first justify they can't find a native to do the job) sign the contract and apply for a permit while there.

Do you honestly believe Brexit has made no difference to the ease of moving to the EU? Do you think freedom of movement isn't an actual thing and everyone from anywhere is just as free to move and live and work around the EU as EU citizens are?

Do you think freedom of movement isn't an actual thing and everyone from anywhere is just as free to move and live and work around the EU as EU citizens are?

@Natsku no, but you seemed surprised that EU citizens have to fulfil requirements too, you seemed to assume the FoM meant anybody could just trump up anywhere with no limits or restrictions. If we had implemented the restrictions we already could have then we might have avoided Brexit, but a certain cohort seemed to want the Uk to be the only EU country where you really could come with nothing and stay forever, at the expense (or burden, as the EU regulations term it) of the host country. Brexit was partly the backlash to those who wanted no restrictions on anybody; now we have more restrictions on everyone - hope they're all happy with their prize.

I'm not surprised at the limitations for EU citizens, I do know them, I live in the EU and have done for 15 years. But you seem to think its no different to the limitations on British citizens, but it is.

Waiting for our kids to complete further education/hitting pensionable age at work. The UK is hideously expensive, riddled with racism and spite and the quality of life diminishes unstoppably.

Not at all.

Our lifestyle here in Central Europe could never compare if we moved back to the Uk.

The last time I visited a few months ago for 2 weeks I really couldn’t wait to get back after the first week.

We have a much much better work and life balance here.

@Bunnyfuller
Where are you considering moving to?

Because of brexit it's more effort and cost to get out, we're not planning to stay in UK. As soon as we can leave we will

It very much depends where you live. I find the UK far less racist than many places in Europe, likewise many places in Europe are incredibly welcoming and cosmopolitan. Don’t go to Sweden if cost of food shopping horrifies you- it’s v expensive!

I've lived abroad a few times (France, Australia, Portugal) and always felt my return to the UK as something of a relief, for very different reasons.

I suppose what it boils down to, for me, is that UK life can't be beaten for easy banter with strangers. On the other hand, there are also plenty of snobs and weirdos.

Given that I'm a bit of a weirdo myself, I think I value space more than the pleasure of talking to strangers. The kind of life I can live abroad is simply not available to me, financially, in the UK.

That doesn't stop me appreciating the easy banter when I do come back, nor the wild nostalgia when I visit places that were once less overrun!

I think Australia is a special case because it's on the other side of the world and in many ways rather like a different planet (despite the language overlap). It's hard to split your heart between two places, especially once kids are in the mix.

Exactly! We moved back to the UK after six years OS a few years ago now. We love living here. Yes, it has its problems, but so does everywhere. I've lived in three different countries OS and they all had pluses and minuses. Only you can decide which things are more important, but for us it was family, easy access to Europe for holidays, lower cost of living (we were in a very expensive area of the US), UK education system, UK history and culture, UK climate (more moderate than many other places), and more recently we've been glad not be living through Trump and the crazy culture wars. I never understand the 'anywhere is better than the shit UK' tone of many of the replies you get on threads like this.

Things may not be great in the UK, but where is that perfect country to move to?

You stay put because it is not too easy to start in a new country; leave family, friends, find new jobs, shools, etc. I did it when I was younger and single but couldn’t uproot the whole family

That’s the thing. As you get older you get the pull back home and to your roots even if that country is not perfect. It is still home, familiar, you miss the things you grow up with.

OP@thefoggiest - are you listening to the financial news coming out of the UK?

I wouldn’t move here. Awful times.

Nope. Honestly even when I visit the UK my anxiety goes through the roof. It all feels so negative, people moaning , etc etc.

I live in Spain. We still have seasons bit it's much more outdoors all year round. Blue skies instead of grey , I can see the sea from my lounge. The food is amazing , the people are lovely and I am recieving the very very best state health care

I can't imagine ever moving back.

Yet the financial situation doesn't mean doom and gloom for everyone. For us, we're better off here than in South Africa. Plus close to family and old (and new) friends. There is a difference between our standard of living 20 years ago - less eating out and expensive holidays, but this is outweighed by the positives.

On the other hand, I don't have access to cheap labour and have to do my own housework and gardening, but I never felt comfortable with people being so desperate for work that they would work for a pittance, so I am very happy to be in a society where people have better options. (for clarity, never had a gardener, and only when single mother working full time a cleaner once a fortnight - it never sat comfortably with me, but was completely standard for any white family to have both several times per week)