pomstar

Nice to see I've started a discussion with my controversial post. That was the point of it - to shake the expat tree and see what thoughts fell out. I note the returned goading along the usual lines of "tried", "failed" & "wasted years". For you - I never tried to assimilate, never planned to die in Aus, thus did not fail. Years were not wasted, I've had some great times, made some good like-minded friends (Aus & others), seen the different flora and fauna of the continent and seen neighbouring countries.

I said OR from a lower socio economic background, etc, etc. Out of curiosity what do you think of England?

As a long time reader, first time poster I decided I should finally contribute my thoughts on why I'm leaving. Brace yourself if you have willingly assimilated into Aus life :wacko:. My situation: Professional, married (not aussie) with kid, live in Sydney, seen most of Aus due to job. Been here 10 years and will be leaving within the next 12 months. I find the thought of staying here forever very depressing and for some time I've felt like I'm isolated and missing out on real life somewhere else in the real world and that every concept/service/product/event/etc is just a lousy copy of something out of UK/Europe/America i.e. there is no original cutting edge thinking/innovation in Aus. Being from UK, I find the underlying problem with Australia is that it feels like an incomplete country and lacking in soul - scratch beneath the glossy plastic surface of their immigration brochure and there is nothing further to see. Incomplete in that the lack of history, constant dumbing down of everything and nannying by government creates a shallow existence for the locals who seem to do as they're told, never question, think little and only focus on material new stuff. This in turn creates a majority of individuals that, to me, are like apathetic cardboard cut outs of real people - they lack a fully developed personality and their goals are very simplistic and materialistic. If you have personality here, you will intimidate a lot of locals during conversation (if you can actually get conversation momentum going) - quite easy to spot as their eyes glaze over. They think personality & character means adopting some over animated wooden caricature of the white anglo nation’s expectations of, for example, a footballer, or slapstick comedian, shock jock, tough guy, news reporter, intellectual and so on i.e. lots of people with the same wooden personality. You only need to look at the TV personalities to confirm it – they’re second rate. People who love Australia are usually a combination of thick skinned, materialistic, lack good taste, don’t appreciate culture/the arts/history (indigenous history is not aussie)/architecture or have come from a lower socio economic background/place in their home country which they resent/blame (chip on shoulder type - say home country has "gone to the dogs" , etc). The latter are the aussies' favourite immigrant because they don't challenge them and actually (and I think it really demonstrates a weak mind) try to adopt the aussie accent/swagger. The parochialism, blind nationalism and ignorant “aus is best” mentality is also intolerable as is the nanny state approach to everything which the locals just seem to accept. Time to start planning a well deserved escape (and no, I won't let the door hit me on the way out for all you hilarious types).