Are You A British Ex-Pat In Switzerland Considering A Move Back To The UK?

Are You In A Dilemma About Whether To Return?

If so ITV1 are making a documentary style series about expats who are weighing up the merits of returning home.

It is the great British dream to find a place in the sun which offers tranquility and a better quality of life. It is no surprise then that many people turn to Switzerland with its stunning weather, cultural heritage and fiscal benefits. Yet despite this one in three people who leave Britain are returning home every year.

In many cases this has nothing to do with their adopted country but more to do with personal circumstances. Upon making the decision to return some find they fall back in love with the country and decide to stay for good but others are surprised about how much has changed since they left and end up ruing their decision to return.

So how can you be sure the Britain you left offers you the opportunities you crave? How can you reconcile so many factors such as career, property and schooling decisions whilst abroad?

We are offering expats the opportunity to be flown back home to see what the UK has to offer them. They will spend a week back in the UK with a relocation expert who will show them some of the things they have missed about Britain whilst also highlighting the reasons why they moved in the first place.

We hope by the end of the week our contributors will have either developed a new appreciation for what their adopted country offers them, or been inspired to return home.

If you would like to find out more please contact us on michael.hanney@fevermedia.co.uk or call 0044 207 4285752.

Stunning weather?

I don't suppose the show is going to be called "No Place Like Home" is it, nplh?

I like the cryptic user name....

The person who wrote this had obviously not read all the posts on this Forum about Swiss taxes and never looked at our weather forecast. Not too sure about the culture sometimes either.
Let's apply 'en masse' to go home!

Hi,

I will be very interested to see the finished documentary. I have now lived in Basel for 20 years and have no intention of moving back so I would not be a good subject for the programme. I know that seeing the television news and newspapers from the UK can give a distorted view of what life is really like back in the UK but to be honest there is very little that would make me want to go back.

A lot of the people who I know have gone back miss Basel and Switzerland if they could would like to come back. Naturally many other people who go back and are really happy.

I have found the families with young children where one partner is not working often find the most difficulty settling in to living in Switzerland and tend to go back sooner.

Have fun

Martin

missed that one!

our coreespondant should be checking here for that ... or rather not cutting pasting the last email shot that went out.

Relocation Swap. I like it.

I miss avoiding tax. I miss getting 3 points on my licence for threatening the lives of kittens. I miss general lawlessness and the chance of some stranger wanting to smack my head in because he lost 2cc of his drink because we knocked each other.

Considering couples or families:

Breadwinner ,usually male comes over alone , lives in 1 room apartment for three months and tries to find somewhere live. Miserable weekend commmuting.

Partner or family come over. High stress. Partner tries to find work or a social circle.

Six months later comes the crunch point, when patience is at an end and the family either move back or they stick it out long term.

I would say in the vast majority of cases the experience of the trailing partner is what dictates whether or not to stay. If they can either get a job or find some way to socialise and integrate then they are in with a chance.

The next test comes after about three years, when the novelty has worn off and it time to consider whether to really call this home.

Beyond that, and you're here forever, no parole.

dave

We get this sort of thing all the time in re-enactment. Bloody companies try to set you up to look a complete arse on TV and as often as not don't actually pay you for it.
Much like reenactment, but without the TV...
Someone we know went on one of their shows where they swapped holidays and it consisted of the crew telling one family that the other had said such-and-such about them in order to get a nice ratings-inducing punch up.

Put the TV onto VOX almost any day of the week: it's full of these leaving-the-country / returning-home shows. It's getting ridiculous. No idea about British TV programming, but I guess it won't be long before you've got all those shows too, if you don't already.

Can you make it sometime around July or August? I have weddings to go back for and wouldn't mind free flights and accommodation.

Yeah, and all only about people setting up either a hotel, a restaurant or a farm.

Well Switzerland or indeed any country in Europe isn’t the ideal place to focus on, most of us get back to UK a couple of times a year and have guests and family visiting here throughout, and we keep up to date thanks to BBC and ITV etc, so we’re all well aware of changes and stuff going on.
They need to find expats in Oz, Thailand Dubai etc where visits home are far more infrequent and ties really are cut with the homeland, those expats will have far more of a shock when they return.

Especially if they been away long-time.

dave

Agree with much of the above. What also occurred to me was that someone somewhere reckons it's a good idea to increase the population of the UK (OK, only v. slightly...) by encouraging ex-pats to re-pat. And trying to do so targeting Switzerland? District Line to Barking. Methinks their filming schedule will be shifted to winter, so the crew et al can do a cursory amount of work & spend the rest of the time on skis & moaning about the UK. I know I would :-)

With the recent storms here, that phrase gave me visions of people getting knocked out by giant hailstones.

Not quite what the author intended, I'm sure.

Cheap telly. Don't you just love it

There's a German (Kabel 1) format called "Mein neues Leben" about Germans who move abroad. Often they portrait underprepared families to amuse the viewer. "Oh, your budget was wrong / The craftsmen have another work ethic than craftsmen back home / Your neighbour has a different mentality? HAHAHA" - And the language barrier slapstick that is their #1 dead horse beating.

I don't know if ITV1 follows a similar concept but they are after all searching British expats whose stay abroad is only a partial success. So I'd keep this in mind, on the other hand doing the portrait could be an interesting experience.