Expats

I was first married to someone from abroad, we have members of the extended family from abroad. From my experience of speaking to them they still retain/ed an interest, affection for their parent culture. Some in this country still stay so rooted from whence they came, they might as well still live there. Why shouldn't a previous citizen take an interest in their original homeland, it's quite understandable, unlike your unbelievably rude post OP.

Oh I would love to be an ex Pat living somewhere warmer, this winter has caused my arthritis to flare up like never before. But is a vain hope since Brexit seeing as we would love to live in Southern Spain.
And I don’t suppose I would shut up talking about the UK or other countries around the world. Can’t see why not.

GrannyGravy13

Maybe for the same reasons U.K. residents feel it’s ok to comment on politics and politicians around the world 🤷‍♀️

Do they go on a social media site that mainly serve that country to run it down? To me that is the difference.

TerriBull

I was first married to someone from abroad, we have members of the extended family from abroad. From my experience of speaking to them they still retain/ed an interest, affection for their parent culture. Some in this country still stay so rooted from whence they came, they might as well still live there. Why shouldn't a previous citizen take an interest in their original homeland, it's quite understandable, unlike your unbelievably rude post OP.

I'm also married to someone from another country he's interested in news about it but only in passing and certainly wouldn't go on an internet site based in that country to keep telling them what they are doing wrong.

We were expats for a while but still maintained an interest in the UK especially as we kept our house there.

dragonfly46

We were expats for a while but still maintained an interest in the UK especially as we kept our house there.

That was my situation for 10 years, going back and forth.

Hear, hear, OP. They don’t see the irony of waffling on about migrants to the UK, do they?

Who waffles on about migrants ? Never seen that on here. Without migrants most countries would go under. Maybe except Japan but I think they are in trouble because they need more migrants to survive.

dragonfly46

We were expats for a while but still maintained an interest in the UK especially as we kept our house there.

Nothing wrong with that in my book, the irritating ones for me are the ones that say I emigrated x years ago, haven't been back in years but Britain is scary/there's Sharia law etc etc and followed by how that would never happen where they are.

Reminds me of SIL who would criticise everything even down to our washing machines took longer to fill than Australian ones. I'm always tempted to say how boring must life be in Australia that you have to time the washing machine filling to pass your time. I've resisted for over 30 years but who knows maybe the next time she says it I might just.

theworriedwell

GrannyGravy13

Maybe for the same reasons U.K. residents feel it’s ok to comment on politics and politicians around the world 🤷‍♀️

Do they go on a social media site that mainly serve that country to run it down? To me that is the difference.

I agree (and with the refusal to equate their situation with people who are immigrants here ).

I once went to a dinner with my husband's work, and got trapped next to a (boring) chap who went on and on and on about how he was going to live is Spain when he retired, because the UK was overrun (his word) by immigrants. There was no hint of irony.

I think a lot of it is an inability to 'read the room'. I have a friend who lived abroad for many years, as she married someone from the country she lived in. All the time we heard how wonderful it was compared to what she remembered about the UK. So basically she was comparing 21st Century Europe with her recollections of 1970s England. Of course her new life seemed more sophisticated, but she didn't factor in that things had moved on here, too.

Similarly, we have a lot of people moving to my hometown (a small county town) from London, as there is a lot of housebuilding here and it is cheaper than London, but still expensive by local standards, so out of reach of younger local people. Many of them love telling us how they miss the connectivity, the cheap transport, the ready availability of international food etc etc etc, and about how the houses that we all worked hard to pay for are so cheap that they managed to retire early and use the sale of their flat to buy a large detached home. It's tone deaf.

I understand that this is their reality, and that they have a right to do talk about whatever they like, but not only is all the housebuilding impacting on what used to be our lovely quiet little town, but they are putting it down by comparing it with the place they chose to leave behind.

It's a clash of perspective in both cases, I think.

The overused immigrant platitudes are almost to be expected now, wherever.
We bought several properties during our time in France, and when we bought our main residence, the Notaire (solicitor), professional working on behalf of the government no less, turned to us and said, "We don't mind your coming to live here, it's these **** we don't want." My husband nearly fell off his chair, but his French at the time wasn't good enough to provide a suitable comeback.

I missed the UK a lot when we moved abroad, that I probably sounded a bit unenthusiastic about certain things in France.
When I returned to the UK I missed so many things about France that I probably sounded less than impressed with things here. When I moved from London recently to Devon I missed the diversity back there and no doubt had a moan of two about

.... the lack of things here in the sticks.
And so it goes, round and round. It is what it is.

MartavTaurus

.... the lack of things here in the sticks.
And so it goes, round and round. It is what it is.

It is.

I think the irritation comes from the total lack of awareness (in some cases) of the audience. In my examples, Londoners moaning amongst themselves about the provinces is one thing, but choosing to move to a provincial town (and in the process pricing out younger people and contributing to the 'growing population/lack of infrastructure' situation familiar across the UK) and then moaning to the local population is very different. It can seem boastful and insensitive.

Similarly, moving away, as my friend did and commenting on the differences between your home country and your adopted one is to be expected in the early days, but after decades, when you really don't know how things have changed, it is tedious.

As a small example, my friend is always saying that 'parmesan' in the UK comes in small tubs and is powdered, unlike the Parmigiano Reggiano she eats at home. The fact that Parmigiano Reggiano has been available in every UK supermarket for ages and I don't think you can still get the horrible powdered stuff has entirely passed her by. Of course it has - she doesn't live here. She has been told many times that this is the case, but it is her memories of the UK that (mis)inform her, and those memories are decades out of date.

I think if you haven't been back in forty years, don't watch UK TV, don't read newspapers and don't catch up regularly with family and friends online then you might live in blissful ignorance of life in the UK.
I can't believe that is true of many people these days.

theworriedwell

GrannyGravy13

Maybe for the same reasons U.K. residents feel it’s ok to comment on politics and politicians around the world 🤷‍♀️

Do they go on a social media site that mainly serve that country to run it down? To me that is the difference.

Oh yes!!

Face it. We are all interdependent, world citizens now!
No country can pull up the draw-bridge - or if they try, things usually go from bad to worse pretty quickly!

As a small example, my friend is always saying that 'parmesan' in the UK comes in small tubs and is powdered, unlike the Parmigiano Reggiano she eats at home

I used to buy those small tubs of proper grated Parmesan because DD and I liked it.
When it became unavailable in Tesco I asked Customer Services and was told "Oh, there's no call for it so we don't stock it any more. Customers are always asking for it".
😁

I do find it very annoying when I read newspaper articles always from US expats commenting on our cute', unusual, comical or downright non-sensical ways of life or language. They seem to think the US way is the only correct way to live instead of just accepting our differences and embracing life here. Having lived in the US (and other countries) and having seen some of these many differences first hand I would say neither place has the upper hand and if we choose to live elsewhere then we should just accept things as they are.

And another thing that annoys me is I have a few people that I follow on FB that slag off the UK and happy to remind us why they left - then the next thing they are saying they are coming back to the UK for their smear tests, breast check, dentist appt etc - now that really winds me up

Nanny123

And another thing that annoys me is I have a few people that I follow on FB that slag off the UK and happy to remind us why they left - then the next thing they are saying they are coming back to the UK for their smear tests, breast check, dentist appt etc - now that really winds me up

If they are UK state pensioners living in the EU they are perfectly entitled to be treated in the UK, as holders of the S1 form. The UK is their competent state.
faq.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/knowledgebase/article/KA-26747/en-us

Ex-pat = ex-patriate = ex-patriot . That’s it exactly!!

Riversidegirl Well you certainly think it’s OK to lambast the USA constantly, so we ExPats feel we can throw it right back at you.

I am an admin for a Facebook group for British immigrants living in the EU, called not surprisingly
Brits living in the EU27 (9 years after)
We have 9,000 members and many of us still take an interest in the UK.
It might be because they still have family here or might one day return to the UK. Therefore there is a keen interest in how the UK might or will change.
However most are also very interested in other countries as once you have lived in another country you have the experience to make some comparisons.

Nanny123

And another thing that annoys me is I have a few people that I follow on FB that slag off the UK and happy to remind us why they left - then the next thing they are saying they are coming back to the UK for their smear tests, breast check, dentist appt etc - now that really winds me up

That is surprising but they must be in a minority as the health care in many European countries is the equal of better than the UK.