What’s Stopping More of us From Moving Abroad?

Moving abroad can be wonderful. Let’s just admit it: we’ve all thought about it at one time or another. So, what makes some of us actually do it? You know: Make the leap, take the plunge, roll the dice…

The Good Life?

Is it the lure of a better life? The sun, sea, sand, sangria…skiing? Or the often quoted statistics on standard of living? I rather suspect that if there was a simple answer to that one, far more of us would have already gone.

Pull? How Much Harder?

Is it a pull factor at all? After all, increasingly greater numbers of us have now experienced the joys of international travel and are well aware of what we would be getting into. For the vast majority of us, the experience will have left us wanting more. So, surely, if all we needed to know was that the world is a truly wonderous place, net migration would have plummeted.

Brave Enough?

Then perhaps it is not merely a question of wanting too, but also of being brave enough to. As middle age has led me to increasingly suspect: the ability to overcome the natural anxiety of living overseas could arguably be a far more powerful determinate of future action, than any number of tales of sun drenched delights.

What’s to be Scared of?

So, what are these fears? According to one well known blog the most commonly cited fears include: money, language, safety, loneliness and failure. Assuming you’re a sensible adult who is willing to learn: I suspect a combination of careful planning mixed with a healthy dose of off we go may cut, at least some of, these fears down to a more appropriate size. After all, you can always make money, learn the language, take reasonable safety precautions and connect with the local expat community.

Bothered?

Or perhaps, for some, it comes down to something far more mundane. For all our dreams of migration, it is the seemingly overwhelming logistics of physically getting there that is stopping us from going.

Why?

There’s the dog for a start. And the car. And the clothes and the furniture and the bikes and the fridge and the TV and the…did I say the dog? (I did!) And the, you know…stuff. That endless array of odds and ends that have filled every draw in the house to the point of overflowing. Seldom looked at and much less used – it has nonetheless become a part of who we are. (Somewhere upstairs there’s an old telescope just sitting there: I know I wouldn’t feel the same without the comfort of knowing that.)

What to do with all That Stuff?

Stuff. Yes, maybe that’s it after all. I’ll ask around. Although a thought, now growing in my increasingly less energetic mind, is beginning to take hold: “I know I want to go, I know I can get over my fears. I just really don’t want all the hassle of carting my stuff from one part of the world to another.” If only there were experts in international removals out there who could help!?

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