Emigrate at your own peril

If there is one thing that gets my blood boiling, it is a person who will not take responsibility for their own actions!

One of the biggest diseases of modern living, in my opinion, is the type of person who goes on about their rights, but will take no responsibility. I bore people to tears ranting about the latest example of someone who just wants to take from society but not give anything back. In any society you have certain rights, but you also have certain responsibilities. At the very least you are responsible for your own actions.

What rights?

I was watching a short clip from BBC News 24’s latest series: “Growing Old in the Sun” yesterday, that had me shouting at the TV like a deranged person. The week-long series is about Brits who have emigrated to another country, and now in their retirement find that they are not entitled to the same financial help from the British state, as when they lived in Britain.

We’re not talking about pensions, but entitlements like medical care. We’re not even talking about having fewer rights than the locals, but about not having the same rights they would have had, had they stayed in their own country.

I fail to understand how this can shock anybody? When you emigrate to another country at best you have the same rights as the locals in this country, not the rights you had in your own country.

You didn’t ask your country if you could move to this new country. Of course not, you have the right to move to where ever you want, provided the new country will have you.

But then you also have the responsibility to find out what it means to live in this country, what rights you will have and dare I say it, what responsibilities.

You made the decision to live somewhere else, and enjoy whatever plus sides this new country may have, so deal with the negative aspects as well. Otherwise are you doing much more than freeloading in a foreign country?

Taxes are not a piggy bank

And don’t give me “I’ve paid my taxes” argument. You pay taxes as a contribution towards the cost of the benefits that you enjoy while you live in a particular country. When you choose to leave that country, you are no longer entitled to those benefits, unless you choose to move back to that country. Taxes are not a piggy bank, you can take with you, when you emigrate. What’s next, those who are never ill want their taxes back?

If anyone should be complaining, it should be the country you emigrated to, who haven’t seen a penny of your taxes, but still have to pay for your hospital bill.

Deal with it

So while you may have the right to emigrate, you also have the responsibility to deal with whatever consequences the move may have, good or bad.

Rant over, enjoy your margarita!

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