Potential Showstoppers for migrating

[Arbrodin]

Hi, we are looking to migrate, I am a nurse, completed AMNAC, waiting for outcome of APHRA then will submit Eoi, following a holiday to visit my sister in Sydney, we were raring to go in the process. What are our concerns that may impact upon moving.

1. My wife is very in dependant, has always worked, as a hca for the NHS for 20 years in different services, adult, child, specialist complex care, if she moves, she will want to work, however, with losing our support for childcare, she will need to be on hand for kids schooling and school holidays. How is she going to be able to find work that fits in with our needs.

2. She will also not want to be dependant financially, she never has been and probably never will, she has always had her own money etc. work is important.

3. Is lifestyle better in Australia than in Britain, you hear so much about a better quality of life for families, is this true, work life balance, a better place to bring up kids. It is not about earning more money for us.

4. Socially, I am guessing I will gain a social circle with work colleagues, she will need to find a way to,do this, hopefully through links with the children etc, is this a reality.

 

it is such a big life changing decision, maybe I have been reading to many negative posts on the forums, peoples views would be gratefully received. Paul

[Petals]

If you have so many worries, do you really want to go?

 

There are no guarantees that your wife will get a job in what she does, there are no guarantees for anyone, its the luck of the draw. She may have to do something different to get school hours and school hour jobs are highly sought by all mums.

 

Migration is not easy, its different, nothing is the same here as it is in UK. Bits of paper are the key to getting work. Degrees are becoming the passport for employment in a lot of careers that previously relied on technical certificates.

 

Whether you succeed or not as a migrant depends on acceptance of difference and non comparison, once you start hankering for what you had or how things were done, misery follows.

 

Good luck

[Guest Ptp113]

Hi, we are looking to migrate, I am a nurse, completed AMNAC, waiting for outcome of APHRA then will submit Eoi, following a holiday to visit my sister in Sydney, we were raring to go in the process. What are our concerns that may impact upon moving.

1. My wife is very in dependant, has always worked, as a hca for the NHS for 20 years in different services, adult, child, specialist complex care, if she moves, she will want to work, however, with losing our support for childcare, she will need to be on hand for kids schooling and school holidays. How is she going to be able to find work that fits in with our needs.

2. She will also not want to be dependant financially, she never has been and probably never will, she has always had her own money etc. work is important.

3. Is lifestyle better in Australia than in Britain, you hear so much about a better quality of life for families, is this true, work life balance, a better place to bring up kids. It is not about earning more money for us.

4. Socially, I am guessing I will gain a social circle with work colleagues, she will need to find a way to,do this, hopefully through links with the children etc, is this a reality.

 

it is such a big life changing decision, maybe I have been reading to many negative posts on the forums, peoples views would be gratefully received. Paul

There are no guarantees in life except death and taxes. If you want 'safe' stay in Blighty as Australia definitely isn't 'safe'

[Rupert]

My thoughts:

 

1)and 2). Why have you decided that your wife will not work if she wants to work? There is such a thing as child care, I think most people use it.

 

3) No, Australia does not provide a better lifestyle. The lifestyle you will lead is all down to you. We are happy here, but our lifestyle is pretty much identical to the UK, because guess what it is the lifestyle we have implemented for ourselves. You might hear about the better lifestyle on TV programs or from people thinking of moving, but you don't get that many who have actually made the move going on about it, even amongst the happy migrants. Work life balance is often unfavourable; Australians are hard working and often need to be to manage the high cost of living and leave allowances are very stingy compared to typical European allowances, that includes annual leave, parental leave, sick leave etc.

 

4) See 1 & 2 above. Why you have you decided that she is to stay at home?

[NicF]

Agree with Rupert - why does your wife need to stay at home? Both me and my OH work full time and the kids go to childcare after school and in the school holidays. In fact the youngest often chooses childcare to being at home during the holidays when given the choice. I'd be asking more about the logistics of her getting a job and finding childcare than how she will cope not working.

 

I also agree with Rupert about the lifestyle thing. Life is what you make it. For us we have a much worse work/life balance as I used to work part time in the UK and we both have much longer commutes here. However we now live in an area with more to do close by and we are more motivated to make the most of the things there are to do. It is possible to have a better lifestyle living where you are now by making changes, you certainly don't need to move half way round the world to do it.

 

What Rupert hasn't mentioned is that you have to accrue annual leave here before you can take any time off, so even though you normally get 20 days a year you can't take leave until you have accrued it, although some companies will let you take leave before accruing. Sick leave also has to be accrued so if you have to take more time off sick than you have sick days available you will not be paid for the days you don't have sick leave for. I'm lucky in that I work for an organisation with generous leave arrangements so I get 20 days holiday a year, plus I can trade in my leave loading for another 4 days, plus by working a few extra minutes everyday on top of the contracted hours I get an extra 4 days off over Xmas for free as well. And I get 9 days careers leave a year on top of my sick leave and I don't have to accrue this time (I can't carry it over to the following year either).

 

I do love it here and I am very much pro Australia but I am realistic and know it doesn't suit everyone and life isn't going to be magically much better just because you move. The kids still argue, the washing still needs doing and I still get bored and fed up sometimes. If you fancy an adventure or a change then move over and see how it goes. Don't move for some magical better life as it may not happen.

[Arbrodin]

If you have so many worries, do you really want to go?

 

There are no guarantees that your wife will get a job in what she does, there are no guarantees for anyone, its the luck of the draw. She may have to do something different to get school hours and school hour jobs are highly sought by all mums.

 

Migration is not easy, its different, nothing is the same here as it is in UK. Bits of paper are the key to getting work. Degrees are becoming the passport for employment in a lot of careers that previously relied on technical certificates.

 

Whether you succeed or not as a migrant depends on acceptance of difference and non comparison, once you start hankering for what you had or how things were done, misery follows.

 

Good luck

thanks, i the closer we get in the process, it is natural to worry, we have no idea how easy or difficult it will be for my wife to find work. We will only move if I have a job to come out to, but that is different for her. As it is, she would change jobs tomorrow, so that is something I guess.

[Arbrodin]

My thoughts:

 

1)and 2). Why have you decided that your wife will not work if she wants to work? There is such a thing as child care, I think most people use it.

 

3) No, Australia does not provide a better lifestyle. The lifestyle you will lead is all down to you. We are happy here, but our lifestyle is pretty much identical to the UK, because guess what it is the lifestyle we have implemented for ourselves. You might hear about the better lifestyle on TV programs or from people thinking of moving, but you don't get that many who have actually made the move going on about it, even amongst the happy migrants. Work life balance is often unfavourable; Australians are hard working and often need to be to manage the high cost of living and leave allowances are very stingy compared to typical European allowances, that includes annual leave, parental leave, sick leave etc.

 

4) See 1 & 2 above. Why you have you decided that she is to stay at home?

 

No, my wife wants to work and could not imagine not working, that is more of the issue, we are not blinkered we have to use childcare now, occasionally family, but holiday clubs by the school, sports activity clubs etc. no matter how excited or positive we are, and I do not want to be blinded by media views, I guess we will always worry.

[Arbrodin]

Agree with Rupert - why does your wife need to stay at home? Both me and my OH work full time and the kids go to childcare after school and in the school holidays. In fact the youngest often chooses childcare to being at home during the holidays when given the choice. I'd be asking more about the logistics of her getting a job and finding childcare than how she will cope not working.

 

I also agree with Rupert about the lifestyle thing. Life is what you make it. For us we have a much worse work/life balance as I used to work part time in the UK and we both have much longer commutes here. However we now live in an area with more to do close by and we are more motivated to make the most of the things there are to do. It is possible to have a better lifestyle living where you are now by making changes, you certainly don't need to move half way round the world to do it.

 

What Rupert hasn't mentioned is that you have to accrue annual leave here before you can take any time off, so even though you normally get 20 days a year you can't take leave until you have accrued it, although some companies will let you take leave before accruing. Sick leave also has to be accrued so if you have to take more time off sick than you have sick days available you will not be paid for the days you don't have sick leave for. I'm lucky in that I work for an organisation with generous leave arrangements so I get 20 days holiday a year, plus I can trade in my leave loading for another 4 days, plus by working a few extra minutes everyday on top of the contracted hours I get an extra 4 days off over Xmas for free as well. And I get 9 days careers leave a year on top of my sick leave and I don't have to accrue this time (I can't carry it over to the following year either).

 

I do love it here and I am very much pro Australia but I am realistic and know it doesn't suit everyone and life isn't going to be magically much better just because you move. The kids still argue, the washing still needs doing and I still get bored and fed up sometimes. If you fancy an adventure or a change then move over and see how it goes. Don't move for some magical better life as it may not happen.

Thanks for the info, we understand the risks, what we would give up here, but I wanted to try to get a balanced view of what to expect, the issues that worry us are not major, but do impact upon some degree of happiness or success for us, my wife would not be happy if she could not work, using childcare is what we have to do here, but use sports and school holiday clubs, hopefully this would be the same. We know it will be hard socially initially and will need work from us. I think it is natural to worry about major life changes and hope that we are no different in this respect than anyone else.

in terms of leave, I imagine you adapt to whatever the situation is, luckily I have been healthy and not had a sick day for over 4 years now, holidays are important, but last year we came out to Australia and I virtually used up all my years leave in one go, just had to make the most of weekends and public holidays for the rest of the year.

We love our lifestyle now, I read a lot about don't use migration to change an unhappy life and poor lifestyle, quality of life etc, so if we do it we should when we are happy, with a view of positives and negatives. Hopefully that is what you are giving, a balanced view. It may be that we get to the end of the process and stop or we go for it, I guess you never really know until it is a reality and you have to jump one way or the other