Escaping England

[Sir Shockwave]

My fellow Escapists,

You might have seen me around, you might not - but for the uninitiated, I am Sir Shockwave, and I'm a British person.

Which, as you know is approaching Bankruptcy as we speak. You could just say I'm being propagandised by a bunch of scaremongerers - that's fine. But it does pay to have a contingency plan I feel. One minute your nation is in a hopeless financial situation. The next, it's Roman Empire-esque collapse, warlordism and more leather jackets than you can shake a Mad Max movie at.

As fun as that sounds, I don't fancy my chances in any potential armageddon Great Britain might be facing - if it comes to the absolute worst case scenario, I would not survive. There is a reason that I was stamped "Not eligible for Service" the time I tried joining the British Army after all. Or as Yahtzee would put it - "Unlike you, I know full well my odds of surviving in an apocalypse. My only hope is that I can leave behind a skeleton in a weird pose that confuses any future archeologists that might happen to stumble upon it."

So the best option I view right now is fleeing the country. But the problem there (as ever) is money. As an unemployed who has been seeking work for just over half a decade now, you can imagine I've not had many opportunities to make a quick buck like the rest of you. What I would be able to amass is essentially a pittance - even if I did sell off anything I wouldn't be able to take with us on the plane.

Assuming I've been able to afford a passport and all, my odds still look to be on the streets, seeking work. As much as I'm not a fan of the Sheltered Accomidation where I currently reside, it is at least a better option than the streets. Which would make me a Canadian Bum or something.

So...is there any advice you might offer for escaping my own country, preferably before any perceived apocalypse happens?

 

[Simalacrum]

Yeah, to be honest, if financial apocalypse is what you're afraid of, nowhere is safe.

The likeliest thing to bring the UK to its knees is as part of a wider financial collapse on a global scale; in fact, if Britain falls, it could be one of those major economies that brings the rest of the world down with it.

But at the same time, imagining a "Roman Empire-esque collapse" is soooort of paranoia (no offence). Not to mention the Roman Empire didn't really collapse in the way that its stereotyped, it actually arguably lasted for several hundred years after its supposed 'collapse'.

This is the modern world. Britain won't collapse like the scare-mongers say, far more likely to be a steady decline (as we've been having for the past 100-odd years) which is far easier storm to weather... and if it DOES have a sudden collapse, then you're probably screwed whatever you do in this globalised economy. Sorry.

 

[Raikas]

Where are you thinking of going? Different countries have different immigration regulations, so that's pretty central. And what skills are you bringing to your new country? How are you planning to market yourself once you land wherever it is you're planning to migrate to?

 

[Tiger King]

My fellow Escapists,

You might have seen me around, you might not - but for the uninitiated, I am Sir Shockwave, and I'm a British person.

Which, as you know is approaching Bankruptcy as we speak. You could just say I'm being propagandised by a bunch of scaremongerers - that's fine. But it does pay to have a contingency plan I feel. One minute your nation is in a hopeless financial situation. The next, it's Roman Empire-esque collapse, warlordism and more leather jackets than you can shake a Mad Max movie at.

As fun as that sounds, I don't fancy my chances in any potential armageddon Great Britain might be facing - if it comes to the absolute worst case scenario, I would not survive. There is a reason that I was stamped "Not eligible for Service" the time I tried joining the British Army after all. Or as Yahtzee would put it - "Unlike you, I know full well my odds of surviving in an apocalypse. My only hope is that I can leave behind a skeleton in a weird pose that confuses any future archeologists that might happen to stumble upon it."

So the best option I view right now is fleeing the country. But the problem there (as ever) is money. As an unemployed who has been seeking work for just over half a decade now, you can imagine I've not had many opportunities to make a quick buck like the rest of you. What I would be able to amass is essentially a pittance - even if I did sell off anything I wouldn't be able to take with us on the plane.

Assuming I've been able to afford a passport and all, my odds still look to be on the streets, seeking work. As much as I'm not a fan of the Sheltered Accomidation where I currently reside, it is at least a better option than the streets. Which would make me a Canadian Bum or something.

So...is there any advice you might offer for escaping my own country, preferably before any perceived apocalypse happens?

What skills/qualifications do you have mate?
I'm working on visa stuff right now and the minimum requirements for a lot of places are a degree in something.
If you are a tradesman I would be looking at Australia or Canada. I know a few people that went to work in Australia and they are loving it.

 

[Sir Shockwave]

Where are you thinking of going? Different countries have different immigration regulations, so that's pretty central. And what skills are you bringing to your new country? How are you planning to market yourself once you land wherever it is you're planning to migrate to?

What skills/qualifications do you have mate?
I'm working on visa stuff right now and the minimum requirements for a lot of places are a degree in something.
If you are a tradesman I would be looking at Australia or Canada. I know a few people that went to work in Australia and they are loving it.

There's kind of the problem. I've been looking at somewhere cold, like Canada. And here's where the qualifications fail a bit.

You'd never belive me if I told you, but I spent my College Term studying Art. And then lost most of the qualifications. The highest ones I have left in a form are my Level 2 in English Literature and a Level 1 in Mathematics.

And despite spending time studying Art, I actually can't draw to save my own life. Literally now.

 

[Raikas]

There's kind of the problem. I've been looking at somewhere cold, like Canada. And here's where the qualifications fail a bit.

Heh, be careful what you wish for: the easiest place to find work for non-skilled/non-professional immigrants in Canada is Alberta. Last week Calgary hit -39°C and had a 20 metre (65ft) snowdrift out by the airport (I lived in Calgary for 4 years - it was awesome in a lot of ways, but the winters are rough).

To be a little more helpful, here's the Citizenship and Immigration Canada eligibility list [http://www.cic.gc.ca/ctc-vac/getting-started.asp]. You won't get the points for bringing over cash or work/education, but you speak English so that's worth something (if you have any French you'll get points for that too). It's relatively easy for Brits to get in versus some other countries, so that's in your favour as well.

 

[Sir Shockwave]

There's kind of the problem. I've been looking at somewhere cold, like Canada. And here's where the qualifications fail a bit.

Heh, be careful what you wish for: the easiest place to find work for non-skilled/non-professional immigrants in Canada is Alberta. Last week Calgary hit -39°C and had a 20 metre (65ft) snowdrift out by the airport (I lived in Calgary for 4 years - it was awesome in a lot of ways, but the winters are rough).

To be a little more helpful, here's the Citizenship and Immigration Canada eligibility list [http://www.cic.gc.ca/ctc-vac/getting-started.asp]. You won't get the points for bringing over cash or work/education, but you speak English so that's worth something (if you have any French you'll get points for that too). It's relatively easy for Brits to get in versus some other countries, so that's in your favour as well.

Pfft, 20 Meter Snowdrift? I'd be fiiiiiine... X3

You say that you've lost the qualifications - do you mean the certificates? If so then you should be able to order replacements. What skills do you have?

We've tried. However, there's a lot of red tape given that I would need to contact the bodies than ran the courses in the first place (BTECH for example). Even then, about a year ago the Job Center tried to pull up a list of all the Qualifications I had earned there. The list was incomplete - several certificates that I did get were missing from the list.

1) If you can't find work in the UK, why are your chances higher in a different country?
2) Would you be okay leaving everybody and everything behind by moving a long way away (e.g. Canada)? It's easy to say "yes" to that, but you'll feel very isolated, and homesickness and culture shock will take their toll.
3) Why is it that you *really* want to move abroad? If it's just "to get out of England", then I'd caution you to think a little longer about it, as emigrating can just mean that you end up in the same situation but with friends or family.

1) As far as I am aware, England is the one nation that is still in recession. The joblessness over here is more common than Herpes.
2) BIG YES.
3) Not as big a deal as you may think.

If you're in sheltered accomodation at the moment, even if you don't like it, you'd need to check your eligibility for support etc. in your new host country - migrating from one country's sheltered accomodation to another's seems unlikely to happen (being cold: what's in it for the new host country?).

That's what I want to know. Unfortunately, there does not appear to be any information about that out here.

Do you speak any foreign languages? Some companies in the EU have English as their working language. Some will even teach you the local language.

Nope, I only speak English and have a hard enough time with it. Taking a second language would be the equivilant of trying to read and understand something like the Necronomicon X3

 

[Albino Boo]

I'm going to be a little bit blunt here. The reason why you can't get a job here is the same reason why you won't be able to get visa to go anywhere else. You have no qualifications to make worth it while employing you, even with a BTEC in Maths and English. You are also factually wrong of the state of the UK economy, the unemployment rate is 7.6% and hasn't topped 9% since 2008. Compare this to France's 10.8% or Spain, Italy and Greece's rates of over 25%. The UK is the EU's 2nd fastest growing economy and is in recovery as opposed to France which is likely to enter in to recession for the 3rd time since 2008. If you want a job,regardless of where, you are going to have get more qualifications. I would recommend doing a city and guilds in plumbing or something similar. You should be able to get help with paying for it. That qualification will get you into Australia and Canada.

 

[Sir Shockwave]

Even if it involves red tape to recover, what qualifications do you have? In what subjects? As far as I recall, the Job Centre only knows about certificates and qualifications that they get told about - I don't believe their records are updated by examining bodies. In some countries it's expected that you can send a copy of your educational certificates.

That's the thing - I don't have, nor can claim the certificates because my College no longer has them. Standard procedure for a College is to remove records after approximately 2 years - I was lucky to recover the ones I had.

England isn't in a recession at the moment (it's not doing great, but it's not in a recession), and whilst there are a number of people without jobs there are still jobs around. Anything you can do to increase your employability in England will help your chances abroad.

Why are you so willing to leave friends and family behind? Do you have no ties to them?

This is neither the time nor the place to recount my life story.

It's not a standard situation, so I'd be surprised if there was information available. Bear in mind that without learning a foreign language you'll need to emigrate to English speaking countries, and apart from Ireland, those are all outside the EU, so you'll need to look at Visas, which often require you to have a job waiting for you in the host country.

So basically, "Yes you are boned, the Apocalypse is coming and you cannot do anything about it, now go die in a horribly confusing position, you worthless sack of meat."

 

[Albino Boo]

It's not a standard situation, so I'd be surprised if there was information available. Bear in mind that without learning a foreign language you'll need to emigrate to English speaking countries, and apart from Ireland, those are all outside the EU, so you'll need to look at Visas, which often require you to have a job waiting for you in the host country.

So basically, "Yes you are boned, the Apocalypse is coming and you cannot do anything about it, now go die in a horribly confusing position, you worthless sack of meat."

No what he is saying is that you can't do anything at the moment

Anything you can do to increase your employability in England will help your chances abroad.

There are plenty of options but you are going to have to be proactive nobody is going to do it for you. I'm guessing that you are in your mid 20s and that means the academic route is out, its going to be 5 years before you get qualification that will take you aboard. That leaves the construction industry, any city and guilds in plumbing, plastering, carpentry or electrical will get into Canada or Australia. You could try for oil rig apprenticeship and that gives you a well paid job in many countries. If just sit there and do nothing, nothing will happen.

 

[CloudAtlas]

Which, as you know is approaching Bankruptcy as we speak. You could just say I'm being propagandised by a bunch of scaremongerers - that's fine. But it does pay to have a contingency plan I feel. One minute your nation is in a hopeless financial situation. The next, it's Roman Empire-esque collapse, warlordism and more leather jackets than you can shake a Mad Max movie at.

As fun as that sounds, I don't fancy my chances in any potential armageddon Great Britain might be facing - if it comes to the absolute worst case scenario, I would not survive. There is a reason that I was stamped "Not eligible for Service" the time I tried joining the British Army after all. Or as Yahtzee would put it - "Unlike you, I know full well my odds of surviving in an apocalypse. My only hope is that I can leave behind a skeleton in a weird pose that confuses any future archeologists that might happen to stumble upon it."

If that's the only reason you want to leave Britain, then I got just one advice for you: stay. First of all, it doesn't look that bad in the UK, and, perhaps more importantly, it doesn't look much better elsewhere. It's not like you have Southern-Europe-levels of youth unemployment (~50%) or anything. Second of all, even if it happened, bankruptcy is not the end of the world, and nothing you describe is even remotely likely to happen. And, if it makes you feel any better, if you go bankrupt, many other countries will suffer greatly as result as well. But, honestly, you are totally paranoid.

Besides, a "roman empire-esque collapse" would require to have an empire in the first place, and if I recall correctly, Britain's empire is already long gone - and you're still here.

 

[Albino Boo]

Besides, a "roman empire-esque collapse" would require to have an empire in the first place, and if I recall correctly, Britain's empire is already long gone - and you're still here.

I know I'm drifting off topic but Britain still has the largest empire in the world. These days its made of colonies that are too small to be self sufficient, are in the middle of nowhere or have much larger unfriendly neighbours. The key fact here is that its still larger then the French.