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Two thirds of Brits return to the UK within three years?


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[quote user="LanguedocGal"]

I’m not saying that the people you know are in the same situation; merely that it’s at times difficult to know what is truly going on.

[/quote]

Having read all the posts so far, I am beginning to think this sentence sums it up.  So far it would appear that some people get jobs here, and many are disappointed.  It seems true that anyone moving to France to find a job easily, AFTER they get here, is deluded.  On the other hand, people who move here with no need for a job seem to be less disapponted, although living in a foreign land with bad language skills and NO French qualifications is also a recipe for disaster.  What we still have no clear idea about is how many people actually move here and how many move back.  I blame it on Europe.  With all these open borders, who can tell who lives where.  And exactly what "living somewhere"means.  The French don't even know how many Muslims live in France. 

Having said all that, it is quite an eye opener to hear all the stories.  I am connected with a  group of Americans in Montpellier.  They all have jobs, although one couple moved back to America because their jobs vanished.  The paradox of Languedoc over the last 40 years, for example, is that there are both huge numbers of new jobs and huge numbers of unemployed.  What we need is someone who is a decent social scientist who can look up some accurate figures.  Anyone?

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The two thirds return after 3 years statistic has been around for a couple of years now.

As far as I can recall it came from a leading UK currency broker. So it may include holiday homes which is not quite the same.

Like the rest of you, I think this seems a very high figure. In this are people have returned, but nowhere near tho thirds.

 

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[quote user="RumziGal"][quote user="J.R."]

but they had got rid of the bar area which in my region is a must have for French buyers.

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I have never seen a French house with a bar in it!

[/quote]

I take it RG that you have not been to Brittany? And I'm talking French people's homes here.

Sue [:D]

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[quote user="RumziGal"][quote user="J.R."]

but they had got rid of the bar area which in my region is a must have for French buyers.

[/quote]

I have never seen a French house with a bar in it!

[/quote]

 

[:D] First thing our neighbour built when they moved in was an absolutely horrible bar. Put the chiminee in later.

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[quote user="RumziGal"][quote user="J.R."]

but they had got rid of the bar area which in my region is a must have for French buyers.

[/quote]

I have never seen a French house with a bar in it!

[/quote]

Perhaps a regional thing, nearly all French people I have visited have one, not the Del Boy enclosed formica 70.s type but more a raised narrow worktop at bar height, usually at one end of the kitchen, with tabourets (stools) where the host can serve aperos to guests while continuing to cook or whatever.

99% of the time I visit people I am directed to the "bar" for an apero or coffee before we discuss anything else.

It's very much a social thing, I have optics over mine!

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[quote user="Sprogster"]

According to a new series called 'Selling houses abroad' that started on Channel 4 at 8.00pm last Tuesday, two thirds of Brits that move to France return to the UK within three years. How accurate this statistic is I am sure is questionable, but  it does highlight what is undoubtedly a very high return rate. 

[/quote]

We moved here permanently in 10/2003, Di returned to UK for a week in 6/2004 and we both went back there for 2 weeks in 11/2006. Most of the Brits we know revisit Blighty every year so perhaps 95% is nearer the mark ? Or did the prog presenter not mean what he said ?

John

not

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I have been quite shocked by the number of folks that we have got to know here over the years, in the 55-80 age group that have returned to live in the UK after only a couple of years here in France. All of them have missed closed family,wanted a job or just did not fit in socially here because of the lack of language and understanding enough to communicate which caused a lot of frustration. One sad case lost everything and went back to a one bedroom rented flat which took most of the monthly income up just to be near their daughter and grandchildren. It seems to me that the older you are to move to France permanently if you are not a seasoned ex-pat having moved around the globe over the years, the reality is that it will be very difficult indeed to let go and start again and the more you go back on visits,the more you end wishing you had never moved. I certainly don't understand why elderly people want to go back for hospital treatment either because no matter what the language problem is here, there is always a professional that will communicate and illness is the same wherever you live.
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One reason for returning, which I have not seen mentioned, is the event of your spouse/partner's death. What seemed a great adventure for a couple can become a bewildering pit of loneliness if/when one of the two disappears. Sadly, this had happened to several Brits we know recently. Many are very ambivalent and finding it hard to make a decision about what to do. Some will stay here, but others do return to the UK if they have children and family, to be closer to them.

Another lady I know did come over here for her "last adventure". She is on her own, and was 70 when she moved (in the middle of town, renovating a large house). She spends 3 winter months in the UK at her children's, and is quite clear that she will return "back home" when she is about 80. I have been asking the question around, : "do you expect to stay here until you die?". The answer is always interesting, and not necessarily the one I imagined.

Many seem to be expecting to leave France. The other thing about a spouse dying, is that very often one of the two is much more integrated than the other, speaks better French, is much more sociable, and might have been the one who really wanted to move to France in the first place. It seems quite rare when there is perfect equality in those issues. I can think of several people I know who would definitely go back to the UK if their partner died first. For the few who do not have any family, it may be different.

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Mind you, we moved to a place where the property values have not gone up anything like where we came from.  I keep wondering  what would have happened if our property values had gone up like in England, and their values more like ours.  That is, if we could afford to return.  We just couldn't.  So maybe the two thirds is a sum of everyone who might like to return but can't.  Still trying to figure out how there could still be so many people stilll here, if so many moved back. 

Think of how many would have had to move here for all us 250-500,000 to still be here if 2/3 moved back.  I can't do the maths, as it is some kind of rolling series, but there would have to have been 2 or 3 million, I figure.  No way there could have been that many who left, could there?  Don't forget, there are two or three times more that move to Spain.  Are so many Brits so desperate for release or sun or cheap housing that SO MANY leave?  Its true that polls have consistently shown for years (although I have no example I have saved) that Brtis are the least happy with their coutnry of any Europeans.  But can tehy be so unhappy they up sticks and leave, even for three years?

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I've done a quick census from our address book and find we have met at least 36 british families here since we arrived. Average length of time in France is 8 years. There are 11 retired couples. The others all have work of some sort : 9 connected with building, 2 in agriculture,3 selling,3 teaching, 3 property maintenance and gites and various others including a doctor an immo and one working for Airbus and one motor repairs. Three have left, one due to death of partner, one moved to Spain for the hotter weather and one I think for financial reasons. I know of two families who are struggling financially as the children reach adolescence, but do want to stay. So this is nothing like two thirds leaving. The Gers is certainly not  near the top of the pile for employment opportunities, but possibly it is one of the cheaper departments to live in as there's nowt to do - everyone stays at home! Pat.
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 I don't know 36 brits never mind couples and families. Well not in my address book. I have very few brit friends here. There are some brits where my husband works and when we've been to the very rare do's that were held at work I would see some of them. We are on slightly more than nodding terms and they are all long termers like us. Like us they all came after they found a job. I have heard of brits starting work there and leaving quite quickly, even with a job, it doesn't suite everyone.

 

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[quote user="Dick Smith"]Are you being serious? Unless I have got this totally wrong, 'return' in this context means 'sell up and go back to live' not 'pop over for a visit'.
[/quote]

Serious - moi ? But I don't know what was meant, only what was written.

John

Not

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[quote user="Patf"]I've done a quick census from our address book and find we have met at least 36 british families here since we arrived. Average length of time in France is 8 years. There are 11 retired couples. The others all have work of some sort : 9 connected with building, 2 in agriculture,3 selling,3 teaching, 3 property maintenance and gites and various others including a doctor an immo and one working for Airbus and one motor repairs. Three have left, one due to death of partner, one moved to Spain for the hotter weather and one I think for financial reasons. I know of two families who are struggling financially as the children reach adolescence, but do want to stay. So this is nothing like two thirds leaving. The Gers is certainly not  near the top of the pile for employment opportunities, but possibly it is one of the cheaper departments to live in as there's nowt to do - everyone stays at home! Pat.[/quote]

Patf, thanks for that.

I can see that, on the whole, the jobs are very much the ‘usual suspects’ and it’s great that the families you know have made it work financially and spiritually (no boredom). One of the friends who left in 2006 turned his hand to most of the jobs you mention but after a while, the novelty wore off and he found it tedious doing unfulfilling badly paid ‘petits boulots’ (which they were). Working in construction if you are a professional in the field is one thing but if not, it can lose its interest quickly. Yes, some of it was illegal but for all those who want to get righteous, not because he wanted it that way.  He had little choice and that’s what a lot of the French he worked with did.

What was amusing too was the fact that he accepted jobs such as cleaning a hotel over a weekend that he would NEVER have contemplated in the UK.  Considering his professional background and qualifications, it was incredible how flexible he became in an attempt to make his French dream last. Luckily, he also had the pragmatism and intelligence to know when to wake up to the reality. I hope I have the same discernment should the need arise.

I was actually hoping you would say the families you know in Gers worked in a wider range of fields but would have been surprised had you said so. The only surprise was the Doctor because I also know someone who works for an Airbus subcontractor (though not for much longer by the sounds of things).

I know a few highly qualified Parisians in Montpellier and if they had to survive on the jobs you mentioned, they would have returned to Paris, so it’s not really a Brit issue. The lack of jobs in the regions (according to training and qualifications) concerns everyone in France.

Very glad that, in general, your lot are finding the rural France experience rewarding emotionally and financially.

 

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