Well one thing you can do is educate those around you. There are so many misconceptions. For instance, many believe that people just move here and "sign on to benefits". We know that this is not reality for FLR folk.
Many think of us all....asylum seekers....EU migrants....all of us, as being here under the same conditions. It's understandable.....I've never seen the media make an effort to break it down. And this is also understandable....it's a dry topic.
But if you are at a party or family gathering and it comes up, you can mention that there are different kinds of immigrants. You don't have to wave the red flag like me.
Oh i couldn't agree more with that! There have been many occasions that I've had to break it down for people about what I do/don't have to do to be in this country etc. Was talking about it with my colleagues just today as I was working from home yesterday to sort out some of my visa stuff [had to run some errands for it during my lunch break] and they honestly thought it was as simple as just being married to a brit. I was asked what happen next with my visa and what I do if it doesn't get approved and one of my colleagues who is a Spanish immigrant said "Surely they can't separate you! You're married!" I was like they absolutely can! They then asked me questions about the process and I think you are right that there isn't a lot of understanding around the different ways you can immigrate as well as the processes that go along with it, but you are right about it being a dry topic and it's easier to just assume the process is the same for everybody I guess when in actuality it isn't. I felt like there were
soooo many times at gatherings I've had to re-hash this information to people. Or I get the "immigrants coming to this country are all blahblahblah....oh! but...like..not you or anything!..." It just gets tiring sometimes lol.
I HATE HATE HATE the "but it's cheaper than medical insurance in the US" argument. We don't live in the US. They two systems should not be compared. It is 100% unfair that I pay a HUGE chunk of taxes, carry private insurance, still have to pay out of pocket for my skin exams (I've had two melanomas), AND pay the NHS levy.
And we won't even get started on having to pay in THIRTY YEARS to get a basic state pension in the UK.
I guess for me that argument is "yeah, I get that....but I don't live in the US" as you said. If
everybdy (citizens, other immigrants, etc.) were all paying this "medical insurance" or whatever, then sure, I guess it's fair. But to me that's basically saying I don't have free healthcare (unless I'm misunderstanding some of the arguments?). I have a fair amount of gripes about the US and I'm definitely not trying to say that all the problems are here and none are in the US, I just personally think it's unfair to say "x-group of immigrants will pay an additional healthcare surcharge but y-group won't and the consolation is that you'd probably pay more in the US" (not that I feel like this is what people in this thread are trying to say - I mean more of the argument in general). I know I'm being picky about just how it's named, but it just feels like another way to get money that I don't think is necessarily justified [because of the fact that we already are taxed a fair amount and nobody else is expected to pay additional!). UGH with the taxes, I full on never expect to actually get a pension and I've made my peace with that (in neither the US nor the UK hahaha). Like I said, it's just me venting like a baby but the more I speak with others about it (several of which are immigrants from within the EU and don't understand the massive process I have to go through) it just gets me fired back up - which I guess is just allowing me to stress when I shouldn't because I can't do anything any ways.
I assumed that everyone who works in the US has to pay social security - and there are many non-US citizens working in the US on visas - I've always assumed it was the same as in the UK... Everyone who works here pays income tax and NI contributions, regardless of citizenship.
Thanks for confirming! As I mentioned, that's really interesting as I didn't realise that! I guess it's comparable to like an NIN here?
