Living abroad and being a foreigner or immigrant

Second Summer

Second Summer

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Oxfordshire, UK
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I think there are a couple of members here, including myself, who either currently or in the past have lived in countries other than the one in which they were born, grew up or have citizenship. So I thought it might be interesting to 'compare notes' and share experiences.

Some questions to get the discussion going - answer as many as you like :)
  • How did you end up living in another country?
  • Is the language an issue?
  • How do you cope with living far away from your parents and other family? Do you often go back on vacation?
  • Do you ever intentionally meet up with fellow countrymen while in your new country? Do you still keep up with the news and TV series etc. from your home country?
  • What aspect of your home country do you miss the most?
  • Do you miss living in your home country? Do you plan/hope to ever move back?
  • Do you plan on getting citizenship in the country where you live?
 
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To answer for myself:

I moved to the UK (England) because of work and because it seemed a nice compromise for a US and Norwegian couple. I applied for several jobs, and eventually I landed a super nice job at a research facility. I've stayed there ever since.

We were taught English in school since about third grade, and it also helps that popular culture has a lot of English language films and music, so it's not a big issue. Sometimes I struggle to find the right words, and sometimes I'm confused about British and American English words, but on the whole it's not a big deal. But I do miss speaking my native language. Fortunately, my daughter has learned Norwegian quite well - I can speak to her in my own dialect and she will understand almost anything I say. And then she replies in English, but sometimes Norwegian.

I visit my home country about once a year, though have been trying to go a bit more often recently as both my parents are quite old now. It's not easy.

We watch some Norwegian TV series occasionally, and I read Norwegian news sites all the time. We also go to the Norwegian Constitution Day celebration in London, but it's a bit lame ... Occasionally I will run into other Norwegians just by chance, but it's not usually all that exciting :p We celebrate with presents on both the 24th and 25th December - 24th is the tradition in Norway, 25th is the tradition in the US and also for most Brits, I believe.

One thing I miss is direct access to nature. Where I grew up in Norway I could just go out the door and be just a few hundred metres from the path up to the mountain or a forest or the sea. There were majestic, snow-clad mountains in the horizon, rising seemingly straight out of the sea. Trees surrounded our property. Every winter was guaranteed to bring much snow, ice, sleet, hail.

I think there are a few places a bit like that in the northern parts of the UK, so perhaps one day I'll be able to convince the other two Summers that we should move up there. I don't think we'll move to Norway, though.

I may end up applying for British citizenship at some point, but not until next year when the law allowing dual citizenship for Norwegians finally comes into force.
 
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  • How did you end up living in another country? To improve my French.
  • Is the language an issue? No. However, written French is very difficult to master.
  • How do you cope with living far away from your parents and other family? Do you often go back on vacation? I miss my family and do go and visit them a few times per year.
  • Do you ever intentionally meet up with fellow countrymen while in your new country? Do you still keep up with the news and TV series etc. from your home country? I used to meet up with a British friend but she has moved away quite recently, to another town. There is an Anglo/American group over here but they are quite well off ex pats and most of them are married, which makes it difficult to socialise. I only ever watch UK TV and especially all the news channels. It's far better than French TV.
  • What aspect of your home country do you miss the most? The atmosphere, the people, the more orderly way of life and the British sense of humour. I also miss the shops and the food. I miss everything except for the weather.:rolleyes:
  • Do you miss living in your home country? Do you plan/hope to ever move back? Yes, and yes. I would move back in a jiffy if I could. If you came into my flat, you would think that you were in the UK. Everything is either from the UK or US.;)
  • Do you plan on getting citizenship in the country where you live? I'm a dual national but never use my French ID.
 
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  • How did you end up living in another country?
    I am what could be called an "Economic Migrant", left my home country (Austria) to pursue more attractive job opportunities in Germany after having completed my studies. That was some 25 years ago.
  • Is the language an issue?
    In my case, no, same language (kind of) in both countries. Also did not have big issues with language when living in Spain and Malaysia earlier, tried to learn the local language as much as possible.
  • How do you cope with living far away from your parents and other family? Do you often go back on vacation?
    Go back on vacation about once or twice a year. Big difference to if your family is living close, IMO, is that babysitters are not easily available. My wife and I so envy those friends where the kids go to the grandparents' house once a week.
  • Do you ever intentionally meet up with fellow countrymen while in your new country? Do you still keep up with the news and TV series etc. from your home country?
    Not intentionally. As a matter of fact, the politic development in my home country (slide to right-wing government, regardless of how I voted in every single election) has reinforced my view that I am better off being far away from there...
    I did hang out with other German and Austrian people now and then when I was living in Asia for 3 years.
  • What aspect of your home country do you miss the most?
    Can't think of a single thing I can not also have abroad. Maybe some food ... but that was before I went vegan, now these also won't work for me anymore. Sure, my hometown, Vienna, does have a vibrant vegan scene, but you have that in many places.
  • Do you miss living in your home country? Do you plan/hope to ever move back?
    Not sure. Currently no plans. Rather think of retiring in Asia, where it is sunny (or, lately, rather in more moderate region like Sweden or Norway, if Climate Change comes as bad as it is feared)
  • Do you plan on getting citizenship in the country where you live?
    I am seriously considering it right now, just to be able to participate in the political decision making in the country where I spend most of my time. No real other difference in switching from on EU citizenship to another (Wait, that is what people in the UK also thought before Brexit, right?)
 
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Andy_T said:
Big difference to if your family is living close, IMO, is that babysitters are not easily available. My wife and I so envy those friends where the kids go to the grandparents' house once a week.
Click to expand...
Same! It is sooo rare we get to go out to a movie or dinner just the two of us without the little rascal in tow ...
 
shyvas said:
Why don't you both get baby (kid) sitters ?
Click to expand...
They demand payment! :hmm: But mostly it's because we want someone we know well and can trust 100%, and the only people we know that we'd consider are other parents, but they obviously wouldn't be able to come to our house. And little miss Summer is not keen (yet) to spend the night at a friend's house. One day, though, one day ...
 
Indian Summer said:
They demand payment! :hmm: But mostly it's because we want someone we know well and can trust 100%, and the only people we know that we'd consider are other parents, but they obviously wouldn't be able to come to our house. And little miss Summer is not keen (yet) to spend the night at a friend's house. One day, though, one day ...
Click to expand...

Times have changed as I used to do babysitting ( for extra pocket money) for lots of people when I a teenager. I remember even taking our next door neighbour's youngsters to a restaurant for lunch.

Perhaps a 7 yr old is a bit too young to do sleepovers, but that would seem ideal in your situation.
 
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It's not only the payment, it is the diffficulty of finding a person you can trust, that has time.

And it is a huge difference if the kids are guests in the house of a babysitter for 2 hours or so or if they spend the time in the house from somebody in your family, where they are more or less "at home" and can spend the night without any issues.
 
Andy_T said:
It's not only the payment, it is the diffficulty of finding a person you can trust, that has time.

And it is a huge difference if the kids are guests in the house of a babysitter for 2 hours or so or if they spend the time in the house from somebody in your family, where they are more or less "at home" and can spend the night without any issues.
Click to expand...

I'm a bit surprised that you don't have someone that is recommended to babysit for you. It's not that difficult if you ask around to find someone that is trustworthy.

Granted, it's not cheap but really worth it if it means that you can go out on a romantic date from time to time.
 
  • How did you end up living in another country? I am living in Chile because my wife is from here and she wanted to return home.
  • Is the language an issue? Not usually, my Spanish is pretty good.
  • How do you cope with living far away from your parents and other family? Do you often go back on vacation? Only been back once in 5 years so far due to the high cost of the flights and also a need to reduce carbon emissions.
  • Do you ever intentionally meet up with fellow countrymen while in your new country? Do you still keep up with the news and TV series etc. from your home country? Meeting up, not really, I don't seek that out and there aren't many in my area. I do keep up with the news. Not the TV series.
  • What aspect of your home country do you miss the most? Probably close family. Does that count?
  • Do you miss living in your home country? Do you plan/hope to ever move back? I think there is a good chance I'll live in the UK again at least for a short time.
  • Do you plan on getting citizenship in the country where you live? I looked in this very recently and decided, for now, not to. Because it's a lot of bureaucracy and in the case of Chile no real additional rights.
 
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shyvas said:
I also find it highly interesting.

Even if you have nothing to share, perhaps you have some questions for us foreigners !:p
Click to expand...
Nope. I got nuthin’. :lol:

I’ll try and think of something, though! :)
 

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