Also, are you grateful?

Why I'm posting.

The subject of foreigners being "grateful" recently came up within the continuing general subject area of foreigners behaving badly and the Thai government cracking diown on that.

Now spike in nationalism or not, I don't think anyone can reasonably object to any country enforcing their laws.

But grateful? Really?

WHat's that all about?

Speaking only for myself I make a distinction between being a tourist and an expat.

i've travelled to very many countries in my life and I don't think I've felt "grateful" even once for being stamped in or in some cases getting a tourism visa.

I've assumed the countries want tourists for their own self interested reasons and there was nothing to feel grateful about.

But getting approval for longer term stays as an expat? The psychologiy of that is somewhat different.

Yeah, the nations are hoping to get a benefit out of your stay sure, but I feel they are kind of doing you a favor by actually letting you LIVE in their country,

For me the emotion isn't exactly gratitude, but perhaps its in the same emotional neighborhood.

When I've successfully (so far) gotten my annual extensions for retirement approved, the emotion I feel is actually RELIEF that I wasn't rejected.

So what about you/

Do you feel grateful just for being allowed in or do you think such an expectation from foreigners is a bit over the top?

Any guest in someone else's home should be appreciative and grateful that they were let in. To be otherwise is to be a cur

Grateful in the sense we have no "God given right" to be here.......even when married to a Thai......heaven forbid they make it as difficult to live with your spouse as the UK does.

3 minutes ago, Yagoda said:

Any guest in someone else's home should be appreciative and grateful that they were let in. To be otherwise is to be a cur

Tourists anyway are customers.

Edited 1 hour ago1 hr by Jingthing

7 minutes ago, Will B Good said:

Grateful in the sense we have no "God given right" to be here.......even when married to a Thai......heaven forbid they make it as difficult to live with your spouse as the UK does.

Don't want foreigners undermining our home grown prostitution trade.

TBF though, many of these women, once in receirpt of a Yookay passport will divorce the guy they convinced they love and suck the blood of the nation via the benefits system.

Seen it 1st hand so lets not pretend it doesn't happen.

Thailand doesn't give out free money - they insist on you having access to cash or u get kicked out pronto.
As you'll already be aware.

25 minutes ago, Yagoda said:

Any guest in someone else's home should be appreciative and grateful that they were let in. To be otherwise is to be a cur

Couldn't agree more, well said Sir.

Can you even sleep at night? Fair questions as you worry incessantly about Thailand immigration policies and how they may affect you. Really - that worry is unhealthy.

Am I grateful? I'm gratefully that there are multiple countries where I can live a good live and enjoy a solid middle-class existence which, as of the last decade, I can no longer do in my own country. The new middle-class in the United States was the old upper-middle-class of 20 years ago when I lived in the US. The old middle-class are now the working poor. The system began falling apart right after I left. I'm on a fixed income at a time when US rent doubled and then tripled. Example, my $87,000 4 bedroom home in the US is now over 1/2 a million USD. That is absurd.

So yeah - I'm grateful there are affordable countries left on this planet where an expat can still live a good life.

45 minutes ago, Yagoda said:

Any guest in someone else's home should be appreciative and grateful that they were let in.

Appreciative yes, grateful no. I prefer to think that there is mutual benefit.