British Requirements To Retire In The Uk

[maerim]

Vietnam boat people come to my mind.

A boat load of them turned up in Liverpool in the 70s the captain asked the scouse docker if he would offload them?

The scouser said he would providing that they were on pallettes.

[Khun Larry]

Whoa, talk about comparing different fruits of a feather..  that 800,000 refers to your own CAPITAL that you need to have in a regular Thai bank account. It says nothing about disposable income.  Or, if you can demonstrate that you make 40K (or so, I forgot) monthly then you also qualify.  So please compare the 25,000 GBP annually with 40K x 12 months = 480,000 baht.  (25K GBP is like 2 million baht)

Or is anyone advocating to come live in Thailand on the Thai minimum wage?  40-60K monthly isn't even all that much. 

Whoooooa there chanchao

40 - 60k may not be much but it is 10 times what the average Thai makes, i.e. 10 to 1

The GBP25,000 is about the same as the average brit makes i.e. 1 to 1

So we are comparing 1 apple to 1 apple in England with 10 mangos to 1 mango in Thailand.

I suggest the arrangement in England is more reasonable when compared to the standard of living in the country.

But thanks for the correction on the Bht 800,000

[stroll]

How many asylum seekers are there every day? How many get accepted? Are they a primary concern for depleting the state's resources?

I think there are more complex forces at work here, political and otherwise. But this is getting further off topic, it's material for the bearpit.

To get back to retirement visas, I think very few citizens from developing countries would qualify for this visa in the Uk. What is this rubbish about proving one's connection? But the required 25k, if erring a bit on the high side, is more realistic than the 800k required for retirement in Thailand.

But then, isn't it easier for 'us' to show 800k Baht , than for 'them' to come up with 25k pounds?

[chanchao]

> 40 - 60k may not be much but it is 10 times what the average

> Thai makes, i.e. 10 to 1

> The GBP25,000 is about the same as the average brit makes i.e. 1 to 1

So... everyone showing up at a Thai border with 4200 baht in hand should be given residency? :-) Keep in mind that the amounts are also relatively high to make sure that Burmese/Kmer/Lao/African etc etc etc don't stay in Thailand to leach off the relative wealth. (Well they come in anyway of coruse, but not legally so they can be deported)

If you're American (Aus/UK/Eur/etc) and retired then I think you'd pretty much want 40K coming in to live comfortably anyway right?

And, would it really be a good idea to let just everyone in who only has 4200 baht a month? Can you say "Bangladeshis arriving by the boat-load"?

Even backpackers need about double that. :-)

Cheers,

Chanchao

[Khun Larry]

And, would it really be a good idea to let just everyone in who only has 4200 baht a month?  Can you say "Bangladeshis arriving by the boat-load"?

Excellent point. Can't argue with that!!!

[maerim]

"Bangladeshis arriving by the boat-load"?

Will they be containerised or on pallettes?

[GuestHouse]

As you seem to be a bright sort

Yes that was confirmed with my 2:1 Honors in Engineering and a MSc with Distinction.

can you enlighten me as to why the vast majority of asylum seekers are young men?

I never denied that they aren't young men, nor have I ever said that they are real assylum seakers... infact that is the exact point I make.. did I not say that they are coming and working in the UK and supporting the ecconomy?

Here's a tip for you, if ever that silver spoon falls out of your mouth and you have to try and earn a crust in the real world

I can't say I ever had a silver spoon in my mouth, I started off my working life as an apprentice and won Apprentice of the Year with British Nuclear three years on the trot - they gave me a scholarship to go to university. I turned that down because I wanted to be a professional cyclist and that is what I was for seven years.

Got fed up with that, went to university (at my own expense - no grant only my course fees paid), got a 2:1, went on to do a Masters and got that with a distinction Then with that under my belt landed a job that pays the going rate for my qualifications and experience.

No silver spoon, no Daddy's friends helping me out, went to a state school, worked hard and had a bit of luck too.

All in the real world.. all without your help.

So I'll thank you not to lecture me on the real world right now.

[taxexile]

did I not say that they are coming and working in the UK and supporting the ecconomy?

working illegally,claiming benefits and a lot of the money gets sent home.

multiple identity usage, every trick in the book.

the social problems building up in the uk today as a direct result of uncontrolled immigration will give the uk a mighty slap in the face in the not too distant future.

the authorities dont seem to care.

yet when a thai marries a uk citizen, and that person will be supported and will not be allowed to claim benefit for the first few years, they still deny them permission to enter in many cases.

civilised......dont make me laugh.

[maerim]

Yes that was confirmed with my 2:1 Honors in Engineering and a MSc with Distinction.

After that diatribe and your masters degree you no doubt will know the meaning of xenophobia then won't you?

All in the real world.. all without your help.

I beg to differ as I am a taxpayer in the U.K. who do you think pays for the upkeep of the centres of learning there?

The albanians?

The vast majority of English people are already second class citizens in their own country, people here in Thailand say whats the U.K. like? I tell them it's great providing you are not white, a native of the U.K. do no wrong and pay taxes just the place to be.

Thats as true today as it ever was.

the social problems building up in the uk today as a direct result of uncontrolled immigration will give the uk a mighty slap in the face in the not too distant future.

This is going to happen susre as eggs are eggs never mind what Paul Boteng tells you and a few nitwits in the church hall with a guitar and singing Kumbya doing their bit for racial integration along with the overpaid cretins from the C.R.E.it's not happening,don't believe me?

Ask a (white) friend of mine who is unfortunate enough to live in Oldham Lancashire where there are racist attacks everyday of the week.

Before you get your handkerchief out feeling sorry for the Muslims it's the Muslims carrying out these attacks.

Whole enclaves of them streets where there are no white people,schools where the first language is not English.

Try this for size, the idiots who control the council in the "Peoples Republic of Manchester" were debating as to building a new school and by heck Manchester could do with one.

So where do you think it was going to be built?

Bangladesh!

Honest, as many bangladeshis were holidaying there during term time and their children were missing school on Manchester.

So instead of prosecuting them for not sending their children to school they were going to use taxpayers money to build a school 5,000 miles away.

So to put it a nutshell who in their right minds would want to retire in the U.K.?

[GuestHouse]

After that diatribe and your masters degree you no doubt will know the meaning of xenophobia then won't you?

Yes I know exactly what Xenophobia is, the comments above, generalizations about what people are simply because of their national origins are right out of the xenophobia that dominates the debate over access of foreigners to the UK.

Living in a foreign country does not negate xenophobia.

I beg to differ as I am a taxpayer in the U.K. who do you think pays for the upkeep of the centres of learning there?

The Albanians?

I pay taxes on income I earn in the UK and I paid taxes in the years before I went to University. Like I say, I did not get a grant, but I did get my course fees paid (again one of the civilized sides of life in Great Britain).

Albanians who pay taxes in the UK are suporting the universities!

I tell them it's great providing you are not white

Maybe you are getting the rough end of being white in the UK, this might be that the government is on your case and giving all your money to foreign work-shy immigrants, I suspect not.

My experience is that when you make and effort in the UK, you get a reward. Don't moan about others being given a chance, enjoy the chances you have ... and make the best of them.

The UK is a great place, and it's an even better place because of immigration.

[GuestHouse]

The social problems building up in the uk today as a direct result of uncontrolled immigration

Followed by...

yet when a thai marries a uk citizen, and that person will be supported and will not be allowed to claim benefit for the first few years, they still deny them permission to enter in many cases.

So I understand you want Controlled immigration, so long as it doesn't impact on you!

[GuestHouse]

If nothing else the influx of foreigners into the UK and the subsequent inter-racial births is improving the the looks of the avarage Brit.

[maerim]

The UK is a great place, and it's an even better place because of immigration.

Yup sure is just ask your parents.

[taxexile]

Albanians who pay taxes in the UK are suporting the universities!

i doubt if the total taxes paid by all the legal albanians in the uk would pay for a weeks old age pension for one person (about 60 pounds).

but many albanians are making very good money in the uk from arms smuggling and prostitution rackets, so much so that the police dont know what to do about it and are begging blunkett to put some controls on immigration, but of course as soon as someone mentions the immigration word, someone will come along and yell "racist", a word which like "paedophile", can destroy someones career and reputation quicker than a bullet to the head, before any facts are known.

stop accusing every one of being racist because they disagree with uncontrolled immigration. this is nothing to do with racism.

charity begins at home and the fact is that the social services are stretched to such a limit at the present time that basic services cannot even be provided to legal uk residents (of whatever colour and creed). i worked in a clinic treating mainly afghan/n.african/e.european/pakistan/bangladesh immigrants in north london, i was the only white clinician there, i had translators help me . the translators were legal residents. during lunch and coffee breaks, the comments made about the patients by the translators (of the same racial background) were enlightening to say the least...... and they, as immigrant taxpayers in the uk, would give comments and views that would get maerim and myself locked up for racism if we dared to put views like that.

they would not even let them get off the boats, and being familiar with people from their own countries, they could tell immediately if they were from a good class or a bad class, and what the real reason was for them being in the uk. they cannot understand why the uk allows it, and as immigrants themselves they see the problems ahead, those problems being extreme racism groups gaining in popularity and all immigrants being tarred with the same brush.

my time at that clinic opened my eyes to what lies ahead in the uk if things aren't controlled more thoroughly, and it was people from the very countries that you blather on about us being racist against that opened my eyes to it.

people will always throw down the racism card when they have run out of valid arguments and fail to see the big picture.

racist...my arse.

all taxpayers in the uk,black,white etc. and especially those who see first hand, like myself and the translators,what goes on, see the uk being ripped off by canny,lying,conniving chancers who know that the uk is a soft touch. to the detriment of the quality of life of all the legal,hardworking taxpaying uk citizens of all colours, religions etc.etc. etc.

[GuestHouse]

Yup my old man loved the place, never heard him say a bad word about it.

He found life long work there, never claimed the dole or any social benefits in over forty years.

Raised a family, all of whom have received a university education, all of whom are fully employed in the proffessions and all of whom are earning very good salaries.

I can't say enough good things about the place, nor can the members of my family.

[maerim]

Yes I know exactly what Xenophobia is,

Again I beg to differ, as you called me xenophobic ( and yes I know exactly what the definition is) do tell us what you think it means.

You must know with all your qualifications.

As I must be the only xenophobe here according to you.

[GuestHouse]

I've read my posts again and not once did I mention the word 'Racist'.

But Taxexile,

people will always throw down the racism card when they have run out of valid arguments and fail to see the big picture.

I didn't throw out the racist card, you did... Freudian slip ?

[GuestHouse]

xenophobe

Loathing of Foreigners.

And by that definition a xenophobe could verywell live in a foreign country because it would be he that is the foreigner..... I wonder if this turns into self hate?

I'm sure it has a lot to do with a lack of self confidence, a lack of self esteme and an undoubted lack of humanity.

[GuestHouse]

Look guys I understand.

You feel threatend. You worry about foreigners coming to your country, steeling your jobs, living off yuor hard earned taxes.... a few things with your women.

I can understand that.

I understand too that it can't be easy for you as you see the world you thought you knew being changed, and then when you escape to a foreign land and your find one of those nasty immigrants has got the best of the UK and moved to your new paradise on a full expat deal... that cannot be very reasuring.

But guys, listen.

I'm greatful, I say thankyou every day for what Great Britain has done for me and my family.

Not only that, but can you not see tha irony in me, the son of immigrants, defending the good name of Great Britain (my country too by the way) while you... True Blue Brits are not only slagging it off but slagging me off too for defending the place.

There in lies the difference between an immigrant to the UK and the indiginosu Brits.

We immigrants lack a certain deep routed envy... it is almost a British disease.

But you won't understand that will you.. to understand that you need to ask an immigrant what they really think abou the Brits.

Somewhere down the line the comments 'Class ridden' and 'a culture of envy' wll come up.

[taxexile]

xenophobe....A person unduly fearful or contemptuous of that which is foreign, especially of strangers or foreign peoples.

racism by any other name. you accused maerim of being xenophobic. thats why i said you played the racist card, because you havent put forward one valid reason yet why the uk should carry on allowing freeloaders to take services and benefits that they are not entitled to, away from people who are entitled to them.

its called theft. would you offer hospitality in your house to people at the expense of the comfort and food to your own family. would you pay for medical treatment for a complete stranger, knowing that your wife would go without her necessary operation because you had spent the money on the stranger.

So I understand you want Controlled immigration, so long as it doesn't impact on you!

as i have said before guesthouse, and i'll say it just one more time and hope it finds a way into your blinkered brain....i have no problem with allowing people to move to the uk so long as they can support and look after themselves and not be a burden on the state, which cannot afford to look after its own citizens properly let alone hundreds of thousands,yes hundreds of thousands, of mainly freeloaders, who have conned their way into the uk in the past few years.

would you open up your house to freeloaders ?

this is about freeloading, not immigration. they are two different things.

[maerim]

Loathing of Foreigners

So I take it that living here is some sort of aversion therapy according to you.

Don't patronise me, "hey guys" and all that stuff it won't work same as most of the immigrants into the U.K. won't.

If ever a better case for immigrants "taking over" is made I don't know where it is.

You are telling me what a great place the U.K. is,my point exactly, it is for immigrants.

As for me going back if the stuff hits the fan here well thanks a bunch I hope it's O.K. with you and your mates because the way things are going I will have to ask your permission soon if I can go back to my own country.

May I suggest along with all your qualifications you might like to read a dictionary now and then, you might just find out how to spell or is that not a requirement in the "nuclear industry"?

[GuestHouse]

Have you two ever thought of standing for the BNP?

Just a thought?

[maerim]

Have you two ever thought of standing for the BNP?

Nope, but there again I don't think they have a candidate in my Amphur.

[GuestHouse]

I've got to go now guys, work tomorrow and I need an early night.

If you yourselves aren't busy and this immigration thing is really worrying you, why not fire a letter off to your MP or perhaps the nearest Tory MP if your MP is Labour or Liberal.

Let them know your concerns.

That's another great thing about the UK, you can write to your MP and they do write back.

My mom wrote when she had a problem sorting her UK Passport out, she actually wrote to john Major, a week later she got call from the passport office and the head of the section dealing with immigrant applications took persnal charge of sorting her passport out.

Now that is what I call putting the Great in Britain.

[stroll]

you havent put forward one valid reason yet why the uk should carry on allowing freeloaders to take services and benefits that they are not entitled to, away from people who are entitled them.

Surely the British government know better than you who is entitled to benefits and who is not !??

If your name is anything to go by, it is not your taxmoney, either, although I am certain you feel that you will be entitled, and I believe you would be, if you return to the Uk?

Maybe you could take this topic to the bearpit, if you feel so strongly about it?

[maerim]

took persnal charge of sorting her passport out.

Not to worry,everything is O.K. sleep tight the nuclear industry is on good hands with educated people like this in charge.

Where did you serve your apprenticeship,Chernobyl?

[taxexile]

Look guys I understand.

You feel threatend. You worry about foreigners coming to your country, steeling your jobs, living off yuor hard earned taxes.... a few things with your women.

I can understand that.

I understand too that it can't be easy for you as you see the world you thought you knew being changed, and then when you escape to a foreign land and your find one of those nasty immigrants has got the best of the UK and moved to your new paradise on a full expat deal... that cannot be very reasuring.

Not only that, but can you not see tha irony in me, the son of immigrants, defending the good name of Great Britain (my country too by the way) while you... True Blue Brits are not only slagging it off but slagging me off too for defending the place.

There in lies the difference between an immigrant to the UK and the indiginosu Brits.

We immigrants lack a certain deep routed envy... it is almost a British disease.

But you won't understand that will you.. to understand that you need to ask an immigrant what they really think abou the Brits.

Somewhere down the line the comments 'Class ridden' and 'a culture of envy' wll come up.

now you are talking like the ignorant person i suspected you were.

i too come from immigrant stock. and you have singularly failed to read my posts and put forward any structured argument as to why you disagree with anything i said. you just reply by insulting the writer rather than destroying his reasoning.

[maerim]

Surely the British government know better than you who is entitled to benefits and who is not !??

Not to put a too finer point on it, no they don't.

The welfare state was set up just after the second world war, the benefits then were pitiful but it was for the needy not the greedy.

Over the years the system has grown into a huge beaurocratical nightmare with people who will never work because they can't afford to. as they get more money of the state than they would if they worked.

The checking system for fraud is a farce they might get the odd single parent working in a market or behind a bar but there is massive fraud with multiple identities and unfortunately it is from immigrants that do it.

The reason the white U.K. nationals don't do it is because they can't, as it's extremely difficult for white U.K. nationals to get multiple identities.

Some time ago there was some West Africans in London all they did day after day was to go round to different post offices with their Giro books and cash them a multi million pound fraud but how many are still at it?

A couple of years ago in Preston there was a family of Pakistanis who made millions, yes millions of pounds by running each other over and claiming compensation from the insurance companies,two days before they got arrested four million pounds left the U.K. never to be seen again.

So you can understand why many people in the U.K. have had enough ( me for instance) of this out and out fraud.

Many many of my friends in the U.K. hard working, never been on the dole are getting sick to death of it and I for one don't blame them work all your life and for what?

I have been invited by "guesthouse" to run for the BNP ( for those who don't know it's a far right political party) but they are gaining in popularity for the very reasons given above so I know the immigrants have the bit between their teeth at the moment.

As the saying goes the only constant thing in life is change.

[taxexile]

guesthouses ignorant comment inviting people to join the bnp was tasteless to say the least.

the bnp are a lot more than just a far right party.

they are a bunch of thugs with a philosophy lifted directly from hitler and the third reich. they delight in violent attacks on immigrants.

[wolf5370]

Every country needs legitimate immigration. The UK has a great need going forward because, as posted by someone earlier, we have more people now taking from than there are paying in to, the state pension scheme. People are simply living longer.

We have just emerged from Thatcher's 4 million unemployed - we still have unemployment figures of seven digits. The state has been paying out too much, and is obliged to keep paying more and more. The only way to pay for this is to get more, younger, people earning and paying back in.

We also have an obligation to take legitimate asylum seekers. This is our moral obligation and part of an international agreement we made. We, the UK, take less assylum seekers than the gutter-press wopuld have us realise; Germany takes nearly twice as much us us - even France beats us. The US takes more than double of any other country in the world at over 1m per year!

There are obviously always going to be illegal assylum seekers and smuggled people in Britain - or anywhere else - the job is to try and weed these people out.

True assylum seekers want to achieve a state of self sufficiency, they want to contribute and they want to work. They want their families to prosper - not possible on the dole however you look at it. They leave their countries because they are not free to do this.

I think everyone is saying this, but being too vague in just who they are talking about. This leaves us all standing in corners throwing sh1t at each other.

Immigration is good for the UK; assylum seekers is moral and good for the UK in the long term (as they become the same a the immigration group); cheats are bad as they can never contribute as they can not pay taxes as they are not in the UK legally and therefore no infrastructure exists for them.

The best way to limit the latter group is with ID Cards (ones that are verifyable and impossible to forge - Chipped). Make it a requirement to submit it for benefits, medical, school registration etc.