Is the grass greener on the other side?

What makes a person or family move home or country? why do people leave everything behind to move? It may be a move down the road, to another street, town, city region or country. Some people move home because they want to move up the property ladder or because they have to, due to a growing family or a crazy neighbor or neighbors. People are leaving my home country, the UK, in their thousands to start a new life and who can blame them. The UK and other countries still have a romantic pull a romantic ideal that died long ago but a dream is a dream, we all search for the land of milk and honey. People leave other countries for economic reasons to look for work or to escape persecution, both real, and made up and imagined. People often leave their countries, because there are no opportunities and because other countries allow them to easily enter. My wife and I left our respective countries for economic reasons and because we no longer felt safe and were no longer happy living in the United Kingdom. Ironically, inflow is greater than outflow to and from the UK.

I would think, and this is just my own assumption, the majority of expats living in other countries and countries such as Russia, left because the money or package to leave, was just too attractive for them to turn down. So they packed up their bags, forwarded their mail, let the house or flat out and moved abroad, "we did for our children", "we have to pay a huge mortgage", "it was a great opportunity" are some of the cited reasons for moving. Many expats, get accommodation free when moving abroad. Sadly not in our case, many expats get health insurance when moving abroad, sadly not in our case, but please don't get out your violins, or feel sorry for us, the salary is a lot higher than it would be in our own countries and this is why we became expats. As I said before, I do not miss my country at all, so it is not a real hardship for me to live abroad. If my own country was better and if we had good lives and good jobs, we would have stayed put in the UK although not in London. I am fairly sure of that.

I do not wish to offend any Russian readers of this blog, but I would not have come to Russia if economic circumstance had not demanded it, I would not have visited Russia otherwise and would not want to visit Russia. I am not here by choice, but I am here by necessity. I am not saying Russia is worse or better than my own country, its just different and holds no real interest to me other than a mild interest in its metamorphosis to now and its past history. I am a visitor here and was allowed to move here and to live here. My own country for example, has had a disastrous open door policy since the mid 1980's and now the population is a time bomb of swelling populous and its only a matter of time before something breaks, and it will, trust me. Tick-tock, lets wait and see. I am not making any reference to "Enoch Powell", so please don't get over excited or label me a xenophobic.

Moscow, has many people from other countries living and working here legally and illegally. There are many Filipino women and girls working here as nannies and cleaners. Their reasons for moving to Russia, are in my opinion, purely economic. Many have children back home in the Philippines. They work hard for cash and send money back home to help their children. It must be heart breaking for them to leave their children behind but like so many counties nowadays, there are no opportunities for decent work and life is very hard for them. They have no choice but to leave. The same can be said for Africa, Poland, Romania and many other countries that can be corrupt and badly run. Host countries take the burden and welcome them in seeing them as cheap labor and a boost to their own greedy and expanding economies.

We all dream of a better life, a better situation, its only human nature. The grass is always greener on the other side. Why can't our own countries provide us with opportunity, safety, a sense of community and a chance of happiness? above all, why is pay so low in our own countries and why is it so cut throat and so damn competitive? Money the root of evil! but without it, we don't eat, we have no shelter and we die. So dear reader I leave with you this simple thought, should you move? or stay put? Is the grass really greener on the other side?