What about us? Furious retirees/expats in Thailand slam proposals to attract wealthy foreigners

[jing jing]

33 minutes ago, Neeranam said:

He is a Pattaya dweller.

I've lived in various parts of Thailand, including a couple years in Bangkok and a few years upcountry.  Never actually lived in Pattaya, but I do have a place not too far from there.

 

I'm not 70 and not on a pension, but have nothing against those who are.  

 

Point is, everyone has their own ways and means of living as an expat in Thailand.  Please answer the question:  why do the older gents who've gotten a new lease on life with a younger woman bother you so much?

[WhiteBuffaloATM]

yes, suppose basic business or conversational level. language school would prepare you I guess.

hopeless with languages, couldnt even learn beyond basic Spanish, the easiest western language for native english.no way for me to learn asian tonal languges, six meanings to every word, using tone ! 

[Neeranam]

1 minute ago, jing jing said:

Please answer the question:  why do the older gents who've gotten a new lease on life with a younger woman bother you so much?

They don't bother me in the slightest. I was just saying that because there are so many of these types, compared to other countries, that the Thai Immigration policy must be different to others. 

[Neeranam]

2 minutes ago, WhiteBuffaloATM said:

yes, suppose basic business or conversational level. language school would prepare you I guess.

hopeless with languages, couldnt even learn beyond basic Spanish, the easiest western language for native english.no way for me to learn asian tonal languges, six meanings to every word, using tone ! 

You managed to learn English, so could learn any other; it's all to do with motivation. 

[mommysboy]

Really, the issue becomes more salient if you marry and start a family. One person, usually the breadwinner, is in a precarious position and has very little rights. The family unit, in fact, is stateless.  It's not a situation that helps anyone.  Stability and security within a family unit is regarded as wholesome.  Most countries make provision for this and indeed it is viewed as a basic human right.

 

For the single man, it probably doesn't matter, but some posters on this forum need to realize that the whole world is not a single man, whose life has been relatively easy thus far.

 

Nevertheless, we all have to understand that we made our choice to live in Thailand.  There's no point coming here and then endlessly complaining about the major things, because Thailand will not change in your lifetime, and possibly never at all.  The powers that be would prefer foreigners to be perpetual tourists rather than residents.  In particular, retirees are welcome only as long as they remain reasonably healthy, as they are wrongly viewed as a major burden on the state.

Edited September 18, 2021 by mommysboy

[John Drake]

12 hours ago, balo said:

If you are spending more than a million baht in a  year it's fine, but you will never be accepted as a local resident here. 
 Your skin color is different.   

How many people care, I wonder. I don't. I do not break into tears because someone in the village doesn't say hello or stop to talk for hours while walking down the street. And so what if they don't like my skin color. I'm not going to need therapy because of it. I'm fine. Of course, I was socially distant long before social distancing ever came into being. No other Westerners in village and I rarely even run into other farangs at all.  And I don't care about that either.

[jing jing]

8 minutes ago, Neeranam said:

They don't bother me in the slightest. I was just saying that because there are so many of these types, compared to other countries, that the Thai Immigration policy must be different to others. 

I get what you're saying but don't understand the rationale.  What horrible harm do these many (are there really so many?) sex-crazed old codgers inflict upon this country that it needs to protect itself with specifically tailored immigration laws?

[WhiteBuffaloATM]

Check out the relevant dictionary definitions.Compare with actual Imm. practice Here.

Allow me to amusingly simplify. Should make a Power Point Flowchart.

Non Immigrant = Longstay Visa= Temporary Resident= Extended Tourist= TOURIST.

Clue: official word “stay” in all procedures & passport stamps = Extended Visitor = TOURIST.

Retirement Stay = Tolerated Illegal Immigrant= Arrived Ten / Twenty Years Ago ( One Way Ticket) = Never Any Intention To Leave Thailand = But Still Never Learned Thai and/ or Never Married Thai =  Never Became Permanent RESIDENT or Citizen (Simple Path Exists) = ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT = TOURIST.

Conclusion : Any Farang here without PR is a Glorified Tourist ,even with Property, Wife, Kids, Business, Here Forever, etc……..NOT Citizen, Resident, Immigrant……. TOURIST Only…….hope thats Clear Now…..

[jerrymahoney]

21 minutes ago, mommysboy said:

There's no point coming here and then endlessly complaining about the major things ...

That's why I am glad there is such a thing as AN/TV where there are plenty of folks who will do all the complaining for me. I could go-on-and-on but I don't. If that puts me in the rose-colored-glasses brigade I don't care. Discern that!

 

[hgma]

The Hi-So tourist won't go to walking street Pattaya, or Patpong nor any venue which generates the backbone income for rural families, what will happen is that the general Thai society is not 'equipped' to receive the so-called experts and multi millionaires, it will destroy native money making, together with rooted culture and will crash in a year or two ,,,,,, 

[jacko45k]

Just now, hgma said:

The Hi-So tourist won't go to walking street Pattaya, or Patpong nor any venue which generates the backbone income for rural families, what will happen is that the general Thai society is not 'equipped' to receive the so-called experts and multi millionaires, it will destroy native money making, together with rooted culture and will crash in a year or two ,,,,,, 

Why not.... I took a very wealthy guy to a few Pattaya Bars and he loved it... particularly the most infamous one.

[Neeranam]

8 minutes ago, jing jing said:

I get what you're saying but don't understand the rationale.  What horrible harm do these many (are there really so many?) sex-crazed old codgers inflict upon this country that it needs to protect itself with specifically tailored immigration laws?

A lot of it has to do with the strict hierarchical social structures here.  

Yes, there really are that many. I have lived in a major NE city for many years and without a doubt, the older guys came here for the sex. 

[jerrymahoney]

2 minutes ago, Neeranam said:

A lot of it has to do with the strict hierarchical social structures here.  

Yes, there really are that many. I have lived in a major NE city for many years and without a doubt, the older guys came here for the sex. 

They didn't really come here for the sex-- they mostly met a girl in Pattaya or Samui or Phuket who is from Isaan and followed her back home to  her origins.

[jacko45k]

Just now, jerrymahoney said:

They didn't really come here for the sex-- they mostly met a girl in Pattaya or Samui or Phuket who is from Isaan and followed her back home to  her origins.

Perhaps he meant Newcastle?

[Rimmer]

A troll post removed

[Neeranam]

1 hour ago, Orinoco said:

not sure you need to be !00% fluent in Thai, 

but sure a good understand of it.

it's all done on a points system.

but think you need to sing the national anthem whilst 

hopping up and down on one leg, so i was told. !!!!!!!! LOL.

 

It is possible to become Thai if you don't speak any Thai, your wife can translate. However, you need to make up the points in another area, like salary, age, education, etc. 

No need to sing anything if going the marriage route. 

[jing jing]

12 minutes ago, Neeranam said:

A lot of it has to do with the strict hierarchical social structures here.  

Yes, there really are that many. I have lived in a major NE city for many years and without a doubt, the older guys came here for the sex. 

That's as good a reason as any to come here, no?  What harm does it inflict upon the country?  Happy old guy spending his pension money on Khon Kaen Lek and her family.  Some of them even get more than a meager 40k Thb/month farang English teacher wages.

[Neeranam]

5 minutes ago, jing jing said:

That's as good a reason as any to come here, no?  What harm does it inflict upon the country?  Happy old guy spending his pension money on Khon Kaen Lek and her family.  Some of them even get more than a meager 40k Thb/month farang English teacher wages.

No, you have been in Pattaya too long ???? 

Sexpats inflict lots of harm on the country, try visiting a drug or alcohol rehab in Isarn,  but that really is for another thread. Sexpats, and other types of addicts should not get long-term visas, citizenship. Migrant workers have a more worthy right, IMHO, as well as English teachers, who selflessly work their asses off for that 40k. Many, if not most, of the retirees use illegal agents as they don't earn 65k a month, or whatever it is.  

[fusion58]

Thailand: "Thailand is the geographical, cultural and spiritual center of the universe. The Thai way is the best way and the only way. Thais are superior to the farang in every way."

 

Also Thailand: "Please come by the millions and bring your boatloads of foreign cash with you, farang: we can't survive without you."

[jing jing]

Personally, I've got no dog in this fight.  I could be here on a marriage visa, a retirement visa, a visa for supporting Thai family (kids), or splurge for an Elite visa if I were so inclined.  Obviously having some money makes things easier, especially in Thailand.  Good on the lucky oldies who've escaped a dreary denouement in old Blighty.

[jerrymahoney]

43 minutes ago, jacko45k said:

Perhaps he meant Newcastle?

No -- it is not nearly so easy to come to the NE and meet a girl especially if not speaking Thai as it is to meet a girl in the tourist-type spots that I mentioned and THEN come to the NE.

[jing jing]

One could rightly say that any foreigner who came to the Kingdom and hooked up with a Thai woman (or man) came here for sex.  Only those who came with a partner from their home country -- and never, ever got any action on the side from a local -- are exempt from that label.  Any foreigner with a Thai partner who says they didn't come here for sex is a liar and/or in denial.  The holier than thou attitude displayed by some folks around here is hypocritical at best.

 

Maybe they should create a new visa category: sexpat-in-training, minimum investment one baht gold chain, a pickup truck, and a Chang singlet  ????

[pedro01]

28 minutes ago, jing jing said:

One could rightly say that any foreigner who came to the Kingdom and hooked up with a Thai woman (or man) came here for sex.  Only those who came with a partner from their home country -- and never, ever got any action on the side from a local -- are exempt from that label.  Any foreigner with a Thai partner who says they didn't come here for sex is a liar and/or in denial.  The holier than thou attitude displayed by some folks around here is hypocritical at best.

 

Maybe they should create a new visa category: sexpat-in-training, minimum investment one baht gold chain, a pickup truck, and a Chang singlet  ????

I came here because I was sent from Japan at 28 years old. At that age, of course I had a tickle in the bars. 

 

You are saying I came here for sex and not to help complete the  implementation of a new manufacturing system at a Japanese hard disk factory?

[jing jing]

1 minute ago, pedro01 said:

I came here because I was sent from Japan at 28 years old. At that age, of course I had a tickle in the bars. 

 

You are saying I came here for sex and not to help complete the  implementation of a new manufacturing system at a Japanese hard disk factory?

Sorry sir, I forgot to include those who were legitimately transferred here to work in the course of their career.

 

And then, after your job was done, did you pack up and go back home?

[pedro01]

7 minutes ago, jing jing said:

Sorry sir, I forgot to include those who were legitimately transferred here to work in the course of their career.

 

And then, after your job was done, did you pack up and go back home?

No, I was offered a position as regional director of a technology firm in Software Park, one of the first companies in the building. Why do you ask?

Edited September 18, 2021 by pedro01

[Nickelbeer]

I have to laugh, both at the outrage of mid and lower income retirees, and at the imperial hubris of the Thai government. They actually believe they are offering something special. I am reminded of Michael Corleone's "offer"..........."My offer is this..........NOTHING."    

[thaibeachlovers]

12 hours ago, Thunglom said:

Apart from he fat they are by any other definition immigrants "a person who comes to live permanently in a foreign country."

- what do you think they are?

 

Other than the yearly extensions they have no "right" to stay. Renewal is not guaranteed.

An immigrant would have some "right" to stay indefinitely, IMO.

 

IMO expats in LOS on non immigrant visas are long stay tourists.

[Wookie]

53 minutes ago, jing jing said:

One could rightly say that any foreigner who came to the Kingdom and hooked up with a Thai woman (or man) came here for sex.  Only those who came with a partner from their home country -- and never, ever got any action on the side from a local -- are exempt from that label.  Any foreigner with a Thai partner who says they didn't come here for sex is a liar and/or in denial.  The holier than thou attitude displayed by some folks around here is hypocritical at best.

 

Maybe they should create a new visa category: sexpat-in-training, minimum investment one baht gold chain, a pickup truck, and a Chang singlet  ????

That is a false generalization. I met my Thai wife on the internet before I visited Thailand. She is an educated woman and has never been to a bar in her life. 

[tomacht8]

1 hour ago, Neeranam said:

A lot of it has to do with the strict hierarchical social structures here.  

Yes, there really are that many. I have lived in a major NE city for many years and without a doubt, the older guys came here for the sex. 

So what if an older man marries a bar girl and takes care of her and her family? Suddenly the sex tourist becomes a husband. Most of the bar girls are abandoned mothers by their Thai husbands. Thai hierarchy? Ridiculous. These Thai women don't have a chance in the Thai hierarchy. Your image of people is ugly. The protection of marriage and the family is anchored in almost every country in the world. Just not in Thailand if the husband is a foreigner. Funny, when Thai men marry foreign girls, a lot of these xenophobic

rules don't apply.

[Neeranam]

25 minutes ago, jing jing said:

Oh, come on.  Couldn't you meditate and medicate where you were?  Like I said, lying or in denial, and I don't think you're a liar.

Yes, India is the best in the world for that. 

I came here for the weather and beaches, initially, the girls were an added bonus. Big difference in coming here in 20s or 50s.

Now, in my 50s, if i wasnt here, i would  probably come for the sex. But i didnt 30 years ago.