A heated debate has been ongoing all week amongst staff and contributors at ShelterOffshore about whether or not British expatriates who are living abroad actually become racist as a result of their experiences overseas! You may be surprised to hear of such a debate going on, but it goes something like this – all expats know that it’s par for the course that you get ripped off when you move abroad. You don’t know the lay of the land, things are done differently to how they were done in Blighty, and unexpected situations arise in which you usually end up paying your way to get out of trouble.
This has happened to us and people we know in countries as diverse yet supposedly civilised as Germany, Australia, Cyprus, Turkey, America and France – so goodness only knows what it’s like in nations where corruption is well known about!
Therefore, the debate arose about whether such experiences go on to make an expatriate racist…because there’s no denying it, expats generally have a (usually well masked) lack of respect for certain aspects of their new nation. But does this constitute racism? And why are expatriates targeted in the first place?
I know that this article is going to offend some people – however sorry I am about that I feel it has to be written. The debate at ShelterOffshore came out of the blue after yet another example of having to pay one’s way to get out of a situation that had been manufactured in the first place, and a few expletive fuelled outpourings about how the person in question hated the country they were now living in.
Naturally enough, the usual response to this would be – ‘well if you hate it that much, go home!’ But it’s never, ever that simple is it? Many, many expatriates have moved abroad because they dislike certain aspects of their old home nation. For us Britons it could be as simple as loathing the weather, or as deeply complex as feeling that the economic situation the nation is in is creating a rising wave of crime whilst supporting a perpetually unemployed underclass and that it’s the working population who are suffering the most through heavier taxation and greater job insecurity.
Therefore, let’s just say Brits move abroad because they are dissatisfied with life in the UK – fact. And having chosen another nation to move to in order to get away from the issues they have with the UK, Britons often then stumble quite quickly over all that is wrong with their new nation. Because the bottom line here is that there is no such thing as a perfect country to live in. There is no paradise on earth – there are places that outwardly present a stunning face to the rest of the world through naturally fabulous geography or incredibly wonderful weather. But then such countries are always populated – and there’s nowt so queer as folk! It’s us humans that make or break a place, and whilst all races have their own national traits and intrinsic quirks, these can be embraced – but you will always have rogues and vagabonds wherever you go. Yes - wherever you go…
We Brits may be quite used to our own kind, we can probably spot a British grifter a mile off, suss out a scheister and naturally avoid any situation where we may come in to contact with a ripoff merchant out to scam you. However, these people are everywhere, and they prey on weak, vulnerable people. And newly arrived expatriates are certainly weak and vulnerable. They are unsure of themselves, they are not confident or certain about many aspects of their new life – from the language to the lay of the land in bureaucratic terms – and they stand out to these evil people just as they would to the rest of us if they had a beacon on top of their heads.
Expatriates get scammed, they get ripped off, they get cheated – and this all happens relatively early on and leaves one with a very unpleasant taste in one’s mouth. But expatriates from other nations who move to the UK will experience the same. You see it’s not the nation, it’s not a specific race, it’s just certain types of people that set out to ruin your day, to rip you off and leave you feeling ashamed and sorry for yourself in equal measures.
So, do expatriates living abroad become racist – hopefully not? Hopefully they quickly come to understand that there are unpleasant people in every nation in the world, and that through their own natural temporary vulnerability, they were prey for that particular rogue. However, if you meet a fellow expat who has nothing good to say about the nation in which they are living, and who, under closer scrutiny does appear to be totally racist, we would suggest that they were that way before they moved abroad, and that they are the sort of person who will never be happy anywhere. They probably moved abroad just to escape the gloomy weather, but have found that despite the fact the sun shines every day, they are still who they always were and they have managed to drag their sad lives with them overseas and they will never be happy because they can never escape themselves!
Whilst I’m sure many expats reading this article will have had a moment or two where they’ve felt that their new life is getting to them and that the whole nation is ganging up on them - I bet ALL readers know someone like the person I just described above! Don’t let anything bring you down to their level – rise above any unpleasant situations you have in your new life abroad and embrace the challenges that life presents you!
