Immigration

[bovril]

We need an immigration thread. 

 

As someone who's lived abroad and is intending to emigrate again next year, I'd be interested in hearing people's experiences of being an immigrant in another country or living with immigrants in the UK. What interesting cultural differences have you experienced or language barriers have you faced? What do you or your acquaintances like or dislike about the experience? 

 

Would also be interesting to hear from people whose ancestors moved to or from the UK. I seem to remember Parafox mentioning his Grandfather was from Transylvania. That kind of thing interests me very much. 

[Beechey]

Can't speak for living with immigrants or living abroad personally so this isn't exactly what you're asking for. However, I work in academia, so I work almost exclusively with people born abroad and who might have lived in many countries. Depending where you go, if you only know English, you might well be able to get by, but you'll be much better off if you learn the native language. My experience (in academia) will inevitably leave me with that impression though, people in this field really need to know English to publish their work to a broad audience.

 

I have colleagues from Iran, but one did a postgraduate degree in Canada, and now lives and works in the UK (people in this field are from all over, really). The experience of culture in Canada was apparently very different to here. The work/life balance in the UK is significantly more tilted towards life, people are apparently more relaxed at work, and people do much more travelling. I do hear lots of complaints about UK bureaucracy, so those types of issues might be less prevalent in some other countries.

 

I know a number of people from Med countries, and all of them seem to be really "up front". Some struggle with the subtleness we show in the UK when confronted with a problem.

 

All anecdotal and second hand of course.

Edited 14 August 2024 by Beechey

[-sodapop]

Was expecting a very different thread when I clicked on it, lol.

 

I'm currently living in Berlin and have been for a few years. I've learned the language but honestly, you'd be fine without it. The city is nice enough and it's a great city if you're young and/or single, but I don't know if I'd want to start a family here.

 

Germans are generally nice enough, but I do find their bluntness and general grumpiness a bit grating after a few years here. Worth mentioning that South Germany is very much not grumpy in that way, but there you'd definitely need to speak some German. I've found in the workplace that being loud and confident is valued more than being competent, moreso than in the UK. The "squeaky wheel gets the oil" is the only way to get help with things. I find that difficult as a combination of Britishness and my personality makes making a fuss very uncomfortable for me.

 

I'm not white and I've had a couple of weird interactions here. While I feel that those sorts of things could happen anywhere, the few times they happened to me in the UK, people around me shut it down very quickly - that wasn't the case here, and I didn't like that.

 

Football culture is great and you've got two cool big clubs and lots of smaller clubs to get involved with. Berlin is probably the least football mad of the big cities in Germany, but it's still huge.

 

I can't see myself living here forever, but the last 5 years have been good and I'm in no hurry to leave.

 

 

[grobyfox1990]

Have lived and worked in 3 jurisdictions. We are so lucky as English speakers, can traverse the globe and pretty much be fine. If you are a male, drink beer and follow football, you're almost guaranteed to make friends in most parts of the world.

Have a lot of admiration for those moving from non-English speaking jurisdictions, on their own, to work full-time. Especially hot - cold countries. 

[bovril]

1 minute ago, -sodapop said:

Was expecting a very different thread when I clicked on it, lol.

 

I'm currently living in Berlin and have been for a few years. I've learned the language but honestly, you'd be fine without it.

 

You get a better experience though if you learn the language. Opens you up to a greater range of views and helps you feel part of the community. Although sometimes ignorance is bliss...

4 minutes ago, Beechey said:

Can't speak for living with immigrants or living abroad personally so this isn't exactly what you're asking for. However, I work in academia, so I work almost exclusively with people born abroad and who might have lived in many countries.

Same here. A perk of the job. 

 

5 minutes ago, Beechey said:

I know a number of people from Med countries, and all of them seem to be really "up front". Some struggle with the subtleness we show in the UK when confronted with a problem.

 

This is definitely one of the big cultural differences I experienced. I find it quite frustrating now in the UK how indirect and cautious everyone is. Prefer the direct style.

[bovril]

1 minute ago, grobyfox1990 said:

Have lived and worked in 3 jurisdictions. We are so lucky as English speakers, can traverse the globe and pretty much be fine. If you are a male, drink beer and follow football, you're almost guaranteed to make friends in most parts of the world.

Have a lot of admiration for those moving from non-English speaking jurisdictions, on their own, to work full-time. Especially hot - cold countries. 

Though there are drawbacks to our language being the global lingua franca. 

[-sodapop]

6 minutes ago, bovril said:

You get a better experience though if you learn the language. Opens you up to a greater range of views and helps you feel part of the community. Although sometimes ignorance is bliss...

Absolutely; but it's a big commitment - and Germans are not super willing to put up with shit German when they could just speak English. When I lived in Japan, that was definitely different though, and even stumbling through a coffee order in Japanese made a noticeable positive difference. I'm very glad to have learned German though - fun language to speak

[bovril]

2 minutes ago, -sodapop said:

Absolutely; but it's a big commitment - and Germans are not super willing to put up with shit German when they could just speak English. When I lived in Japan, that was definitely different though, and even stumbling through a coffee order in Japanese made a noticeable positive difference. I'm very glad to have learned German though - fun language to speak

The expectation level makes a difference. I feel more confident in Bulgarian than Italian because Bulgarians are generally delighted for people to just speak a few phrases in their language, especially out in the sticks where nobody speaks English. Whereas in Italy they'd just take the piss out of my inability to roll my 'r's and then switch to English. 

[Raj]

This thread wont last the weekend....

[ramboacdc]

Wouldn't this be better in the current affairs section?

[bovril]

23 minutes ago, ramboacdc said:

Wouldn't this be better in the current affairs section?

are you currently having an affair with an immigrant? 

[Stadt]

24 minutes ago, ramboacdc said:

Wouldn't this be better in the current affairs section?

It's much more a personal exeprience thread than a general issue one

[ramboacdc]

2 minutes ago, bovril said:

are you currently having an affair with an immigrant? 

Not this week......got to wait for the next shipment. 

[bovril]

3 minutes ago, ramboacdc said:

Not this week......got to wait for the next shipment. 

Hopefully you don't get an aircon controller from OzLeicester by mistake

[bovril]

54 minutes ago, Stadt said:

It's much more a personal exeprience thread than a general issue one

I'm actually just lulling the mods into thinking this thread is safe then when they're not looking...

[Dr The Singh]

5 hours ago, bovril said:

We need an immigration thread. 

 

As someone who's lived abroad and is intending to emigrate again next year, I'd be interested in hearing people's experiences of being an immigrant in another country or living with immigrants in the UK. What interesting cultural differences have you experienced or language barriers have you faced? What do you or your acquaintances like or dislike about the experience? 

 

Would also be interesting to hear from people whose ancestors moved to or from the UK. I seem to remember Parafox mentioning his Grandfather was from Transylvania. That kind of thing interests me very much. 

Lived and worked in Saudi, Bahrain and Dubai.  

 

Worked all over the GCC region.  I would never live there long term, for short term money making was fine.

 

Made lots of friends and enjoyed me time there.  Lots of cons and pros

[bovril]

1 minute ago, Dr The Singh said:

Lived and worked in Saudi, Bahrain and Dubai.  

Which did you like the most? 

[Free Falling Foxes]

3 hours ago, bovril said:

I'm actually just lulling the mods into thinking this thread is safe then when they're not looking...

At least they know which thread to check first when they get up in the morning.

[Dr The Singh]

Just now, bovril said:

Which did you like the most? 

Saudi was the least.

 

Its a tough one, for things to do Dubai and inparticular Abu Dhabi.  But i had the most fun and met the best people in Bahrain.

[grobyfox1990]

2 minutes ago, Dr The Singh said:

Saudi was the least.

 

Its a tough one, for things to do Dubai and inparticular Abu Dhabi.  But i had the most fun and met the best people in Bahrain.

Love Bahrain. Only place in that region I’d consider permanently working/living etc 

[VLC86]

Moved to Italy for 5 months about 8 years ago which was an experience being as I speak about 5 words of Italian.

 

Culturally I remember there being a much bigger sense of community with many small villages having excellent facilities.

 

Renting a house over there is an experience as well as they expect you to have your own kitchen (yes, worktops, units etc etc) and one was even asking us to plaster the walls. Lost our £1000 deposit as we hadn’t painted every wall in a basic white paint which just felt like an excuse to rip us off.

 

Its a lovely country to holiday in but very different to live there.

[MPH]

I love living in the United States. Beautiful area, but the only problem is that it’s full of Americans.

[Lako42]

17 hours ago, Raj said:

This thread wont last the weekend....

My erection won't make 9am but it's here and I intend to enjoy it whilst it lasts 

 

 

Gone 

[Bellend Sebastian]

Mad to see incredibly dour Polish decorator's face light up when he finds I've made the effort to learn one f***ing word of Polish. 

 

Probably helped that it was "thank you" and not an insult 

Edited 15 August 2024 by Bellend Sebastian

[bovril]

9 hours ago, MPH said:

I love living in the United States. Beautiful area, but the only problem is that it’s full of Americans.

I always think Brits and Americans are a lot closer culturally than we like to admit, but what do you think are the biggest differences?