Sorry forgot to send in plain text.
-Original Message-
From: O'Leary,RJ,Rebecca,MNU3 R
Sent: 13 July 2005 10:55
To: 'goanet@goanet.org'
Subject: Migration for pleasure
Dear All
I don't really understand why recent postings seem to find some kind of stigma
attached to migration for economic reasons.
I originally migrated from Ireland to Canada for the purposes of doing a
Masters degree. Some would say this was for higher education but actually my
motivation for choosing Canada (apart from it being a beautiful country with
lovely people) was that I was offered a big scholarship. My reason for pursuing
further education was to enhance my potential earnings in the future so it
could be said that I was an economic migrant.
>From Canada I moved to Malawi to work as a missionary teacher. As a missionary
>I was paid the same wage as the local teachers, which is a lot less than
>teachers sent by development agencies and volunteer organisations. One could
>say that this migration was purely for life experience since economically I
>would have been better off staying in Canada or returning to Ireland. However,
>in Malawi I met my future husband who was visiting his remaining family there.
>The bulk of his family having moved to the UK in the 70's during the Banda
>years when hostilities towards Asian businessmen was at its pinnacle.
One could say he moved to the UK for political and economic reasons since the
political climate had a detrimental affect on his business.
Six months after he returned to the UK I migrated to the UK for love. I never
had any desire to live in the UK and at that time it was one of the last places
in the world I wanted to move to but I couldn't live without the love of my
life. Incidentally I have grown to love the UK for its tolerance and diversity
and the opportunities it provides for anyone prepared to work hard.
My husband and I have done very well here together and I personally have done a
lot better than if I had followed my original plan which was to work in India.
However having visited Goa several times in the last couple of years we have
decided that we want to spend as much time there in the future as possible and
to this end have built a house there.
When we are able to unravel the many ties we have in the UK we might possibly
try to migrate to Goa. This and hopefully final migration would not be as
retirees as we are both relatively young but as migrants for pleasure. Part of
the pleasure though relates to the incredibly low cost of living in Goa so
perhaps we are ultimately economic migrants once again.
Rebecca O'Leary
London
PS To David Futers I totally agree with your thread AFRAID. I am fairly nervous
posting this innocuous rambling as I am sure to have inadvertently offended
someone
