I am Danish expat who lived in the UK for 11 years now. I am curious how other people’s experience of living in here has been.

What are the pros and cons? What do you love and hate about it?

Pro for me was that my home country did not really have the career option I wanted, but I have that opportunity here.
The casual meet up in pubs. In Denmark you had to plan an evening out well in advance, but here you just ask people and most of the time they are ‘ why not, let’s go!’

My biggest con is how hard it is to make genuine British friends. And the annoying greeting ‘how are you?’. I am expected to answer fine no matter how I feel!

So expats, what is your experience?

16 comments

  1. I like it here, London can be oppressive to live in sometimes but also nothing short of amazing to live in

    Coming from a way, WAY worse third world country spiraling badly of course different from moving over from Denmark (or any other first world country).

    I wish British people would just tell me the relevant parts of certain things instead of starting from the primordial chaos. JUST TELL ME WHAT HAPPENED MAN!

    I like the overall mild weather when it’s not depressing as hell.

    The UK is a beautiful country to travel, lots of stuff to do if you look around. It has this calmness and stability to it which I don’t think locals appreciate much.

    It’s aight, I’m happy here

  2. Immigrant, not expat. “Expat” is a term invented by the British press to allow them to slag off immigrants while simultaneously telling Brits how great it is to move abroad.

    Immigrants in this country have enough problems, don’t add to them by encouraging the use of that term. All you’re doing is adding to the xenophobia that’s ruining this country.

  3. 15 years in the summer. I moved after I finished school. Love the sense of humour, it’s easy being vegetarian here. I feel at home here.

    Not keen on the weather. I miss having proper 4 seasons. It’s harder to make genuine friends. Sometimes the politeness drives me nuts, just tell me what you actually think. It can be a breath of fresh air talking with another foreigner who goes straight to the point rather than dancing around the issue.

  4. American who’s lived here for 18 yrs

    Pros – I Love NHS and the ability to travel to Europe easily, also love a Sunday lunch and prefer the UK for Christmas.

    Cons – I’ve also struggled to make proper friends, casual racism, and having to wait a day later for shows I like to watch.

  5. If you’ve been living and working here for 11 years, how come you still refer to yourself as an expat?

    I’ve been living here as an immigrant for 3 years and I keep seeing the term pop-up. Generally with people who are only here for a quite limited time with intent to leave, though. Is that still the case for you with 11 years? Genuinely curious.

  8. > I am expected to answer fine no matter how I feel!

    Oh boy how wrong you are, you have so many options!

    – Good thanks, you?

    – Yeah not bad

    – Living the dream

    – Alright I guess

    – Surviving

    And thats just off the top of my head!

  9. It’s interesting that there’s so many comments about not being able to make proper friends.

    All I can think of is that friendships in the UK are typically built either over *long* periods of time, or *intense* periods of drinking. The problem with the latter though is that we Brits tend to get embarrassed when we get drunk with people we don’t know that well, and might avoid you when sober. So, you have to get in contact with them the next day to let them know the everything is cool and that you want to go out again soon.

  10. I would describe myself as an immigrant – I don’t consider myself an expat because I don’t plan on returning to my home country.

    Honestly I really love it here, especially where I am in Scotland. Life is more relaxed; I feel I have a better work-life balance.

    I know it’s struggling currently, but the NHS is still leaps and bounds better than the health care system where I’m from.

    On the note of public services as well, I think the government website is great. I like how you can apply for so many things online. In my country, renewing your passport means having to take a day off work to queue – I’m not exaggerating.

    I unironically like the weather (I live in the East so it doesn’t rain that much, although it is very windy). The nature is beautiful, and as someone coming from the “New World”, old buildings and ruins are still magical to me six years on.

    People here are very friendly too, although we’re friendly in my home country as well so that wasn’t a big change 🙂

    As for things I dislike:

    The amount of litter, how (relatively) car-centric it is compared to other European countries, the culture of binge-drinking, and lack of café culture.

    I think what annoys me the most are the first two because I have no interest in driving and therefore walk a lot so I end up seeing (and picking up) a lot of litter lol

    I’m sure there are more, but those are just off the top of my head. For me, the pros vastly outweigh the cons and I wouldn’t really want to live anywhere else TBH.

    Edit: By the way OP, on the subject of making friends: it’s hard to do that anywhere when you move as an adult. I have friends from all over who’ve also moved to different countries (or even regions within countries) and every single one of them has complained about that. It’s because most locals already have their established friend groups from school and/or uni.

    There are a lot of folk here who want to keep their work acquaintances separate from their friends, and I can sympathise with that because I’m the same. The way I’ve gotten around it is by joining hobby meet ups and groups

  11. Immigrant from Estonia.

    ​

    Pros:

    – Everything’s not great and also not terrible. A very balanced place overall.

    – Good, varied job market.

    – Easy to fit in, might be more London specific though.

    ​

    Cons:

    – If you want to get things done you have to call all the damn time.

    – Poor building standards/quality. Insulating buildings seems to be just an afterthought.

    – Litter, litter anywhere you look.

    – Bins everywhere you look, make things look very messy and chaotic, an eyesore that could be avoided.

  12. Indian immigrant. Been in London 10 months.

    Pros: Work life balance, a more open-minded, tolerant society, great public infrastructure, lack of pollution, walkability, diversity of people and cuisines, global city that caters to all interests

    Cons: Slower wage increase and career growth, cost of living, smaller houses, the weather in winter.

    Too early to tell if I’ll settle here permanently or go back, but overall I love London so far.

  13. Living in the UK for 6 years (originally from Slovenia)

    PROS:
    – access to a variety of different restaurants/food from all over the world
    – career opportunities
    – British humour
    – Amazon.co.uk (prime)
    – lots of different indoor activities

    CONS:
    – very little sunshine hours throughout the year, which is very depressing
    – lack of a different landscape
    – no real seaside developments
    – bad quality meat, vegetables and fruit
    – being considered a social outcasts as a man not being into football
    – drinking culture
    – long winters
    – very expensive to eat/drink out
    – overall dirty streets, never seen such littering anywhere else in Europe

    And the last one as the OP stated which I can confirm the ability to create meaningful connections with people seems impossible long term.

  16. I have lived in quite a few countries and making friends with locals is often difficult no matter where you are, as the locals already have friends and aren’t looking for new ones.

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