I think there is also the assumption that the OP is looking to raise his relative standard of living.
Because the number illegally entering the US is so large, they’ve effectively become a community that often helps to look out for each other. If anything, their isolation by language, skills, and immigration status almost forces them to work together. And in many cases, they are leaving a horrible situation, so that ending up in a bad situation is still an improvement.
Compare that to leaving a country with better social protections, universal healthcare, and a shared love of an useless monarch [:D] to come here. Maybe there is an ex-UK illegal community willing to work together to ensure the survival of the group, but I’ve never heard of it.
I for one was under the impression that OP wanted to immigrate legally. Which is patently impossible as the US has all the semi-educated semiskilled white European slackers it needs.
If he wants to immigrate illegally and live 12 to an 1BR apartment while being entitled to no social services and only the most crappy, low paying, grueling, illegal work… Well I can’t stop him but I’m not going to help him.
The advantage that Mexicans have is that freedoms just another word for nothing left to lose. They are willing to risk death and work at any job because their other choice is being murdered or starving to death. 12 to an apartment with only cold running water is a huge step up in many cases.
And in addition, many people perceived as “Mexican” aren’t Mexican at all they are political asylees from other nations or are allowed entry under Temporary Protected Status ( including Honduras, El Salvador, and Nicaragua).
I’d like to keep my English accent and some quirks of English culture, but everything else is negotiable, I’m not really bothered about mixing with other English people.
No I’m not.
Oh? Upon what non-fraudulent basis are you eligible to immigrate with work authorization? Please share.
What convinces you that you’ll like it enough to make a life/future there, if you’ve never even visited the place?
How things are portrayed in media are often radically at odds with conditions on the ground. Surely you’re aware of that.
I’m just curious what drives a desire to leave it all behind for a place one’s never actually set foot in. Can you shine some light on that?
What’s with your antagonistic questioning? I’m just curious as to what it’s like in the US if I did emigrate, what I would expect, what’s good, what is not, whether or not it is extremely unlikely is moot.
Adventure, start a new life, new existence.
The UK is a pretty small place, if I don’t like it somewhere in the US, I have an entire continent to play with, without having to speak another language, plus Canada. I’ve heard of the positive attitude alot of Americans have, which is nice compared to the cynicism in the UK (Which is a cultural trait)
Plus the weather is better, where I live it’s permanent overcast.
I really think most Americans take this for granted. It’s a lot like a huge theme park when you think about it–the variety in scenery can be pretty dramatic in just an 8 hour drive, and although the culture might vary a bit from place to place it’s not usually so bad as to induce culture shock.
Tell that to Lewis and Bobby et al.
Unless you’ve family here to sponsor you (and I’ve no idea how that really works), legal immigration to the US is probably a fantasy. For good or bad (very bad, IMHO), we don’t want your kind over here. You would be attempting to climb Everest with nothing but a roll of dental floss…and almost used up at that. We’ve become a nation of we got here first, now you can’t come…nyah nyah (even though nearly everyone who promotes that attitude didn’t get here first, as half of my mother’s family can attest, but that’s another rant).
Now if you are just playing with the idea (in the same way I play with the idea of how I’m going to spend my lottery winnings from the ticket I didn’t buy), then you’ll find much of the same (in regards to people), just generally on a much grander scale. People are people; in larger cities, while your accent won’t go unnoticed, it also won’t be that big a deal. In smaller cities, the proper English accent will be a novelty. Given that locals will probably have as many misconceptions about the English (likely mostly positive, at least if you are white) as the English have about the US, this might work out in your favor if you are looking for work off the books. You would get to pick the climate you want to live in. You’ll get to experience more extreme weather patterns than you are probably used to, as most of the US gets some sort of extreme weather. Even bad living arrangements will likely be more spacious than equivalent bad living arrangements in the UK. As we’ve noted, there is no social safety net, and while you probably won’t be left to die in a pool of your own blood should you be hit by a car, there’s no universal medical and few employers of unskilled workers offer insurance (another American idiocy, IMHO). You might be alarmed at how armed our police are, and depending on where you settle, how armed the populace is. You’ll have greater freedom of speech here, and we have no David Cameron protecting you from the evils of porn (at least none wielding as much influence as he does). While I dislike the growing surveillance here, you might think “wow, there isn’t a police camera every 5 feet, only every 15 feet”. Oh yeah, we’re proud of the fact that we’re too stupid to switch to metric. You’ll never know how far away something is again.
The good:
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It is much cheaper if you pick the right place. That includes the vast majority of it but NYC isn’t one of those. As noted, NYC is an anomaly in the U.S. and it is more of a ‘world city’ than a U.S. one. NYC is the largest city in the U.S. but it isn’t representative of the rest of the country in any way. There are literally hundreds of other large to decent sized cities and many thousands of populated areas to choose from. We also have large areas that are almost completely devoid of people if someone is into that.
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The people are generally friendly except in some areas like my new home of Massachusetts and even that isn’t that bad. Many areas have really friendly people but you may not like their style of friendliness (they can often be nosy as well).
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The place is absolutely mind-boggling huge and most Americans do well to sample even half the highlights in their lifetime even if they try. You can pick any climate, terrain and general culture that you want.
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The overall crime rate is lower in the U.S. than the U.K. I know some people will balk at that one but it is true - look it up. It is one of the benefits of having millions of ‘undesirables’ locked up for a long time for better or for worse. Violent crime is higher in the U.S. but that is generally targeted among certain groups and not random especially for assaults and murders. Our rates of theft and home invasions is much lower than Britain.
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Even people with modest incomes and skills can still own rather large properties if they live in a low cost of living area. Some areas are ridiculously cheap (often for a good reason but not always - there are very pretty areas where you can live quite well and own property for not much money with one good skill like electrical work or construction if you are dependable).
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You don’t have to depend on public transportation to get around because everything is set up so well for cars. Many people claim this is a negative but I argue the opposite for me personally at least. I think public transportation is great (for other people) but you won’t see me on it. I love the open road and being able to go wherever I want whenever I want in the comfort of my own vehicle.
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Most Americans really like British people by instinct until given a reason not to. It is a favored country in terms of overall perceptions. Your foreign but not very status would probably help you in the dating and social scenes.
I know people are saying it would be almost impossible for you to immigrate legally and I understand the stated reasons. However, something is not adding up. There are a whole lot of British and Irish immigrants in the Boston area. My daughter’s best-friend’s parents who I know well are just two of them and I know lots of others. They have only been here for about 20 years and they honestly don’t have many desirable skills and are just now realizing that they need to get some because they are perpetually broke and frequently unemployed. I never asked them about the details of how they did it but they didn’t seem to have problem even though they didn’t even know anyone when they moved here. I went to a Guy Fawkes party at their house and it was loaded with British people roughly like them also here legally somehow. A few had professional jobs but others were complaining about unemployment not being enough to live on (yeah, that is kind of the point). The Boston area is also loaded with recent Irish immigrants as well and many of them don’t have any special skills unless you count being a good waitress or bartender as a rare one.
I can try to ask a couple of them how they did it if it comes up in polite conversation. I never really though about it before.
While I don’t know the particulars of how it works, it is probably through family sponsorship.
BTW, its summer here and it can get pretty dam HOT. Most Europeans aren’t used to it.
So move to Spain. You’re a citizen of the EU, you have the free choice to live and work legally in, what is it now, 27 countries? 28? If you can’t find something to like anywhere in Europe, I somehow can’t see you finding it in the U.S. either.
This is a really good point.
Ryan, if you’ve never lived abroad before, I’d suggest trying it out by moving somewhere within the EU first - if you choose somewhere with a big expat population, you don’t really need to learn the language to start with, and they’ll be used to dealing with foreigners. See whether the change of scenery helps in the way you think it will, before you try to wade through the notoriously complicated US immigration system, which seems designed to keep people out. I very much like not living in the UK, but a lot of people find it harder than they were expecting, and it’s a lot easier to move home from Spain or the Netherlands or Germany than it is from the US.
I don’t know if the weather is better, but it’s definitely more variable!
Most of the US has greater weather extremes than the UK - wetter, drier, hotter, colder, windier, etc. Some people love that. Others not so much.
Why is it so hard to get in Canada now? I’ve been told by so many people that its now impossible to get in. Is it really true that its so hard? Should I even try to apply?