Grr! Comparative costs of immigration.

Your husband isn't infected is he? That Tory stuff can be passed down.

He was apolitical before I came along.  But by the time we got to May's infamous snap election of 2017, he had picked a side.  He is most definitely NOT Tory.  We were at his parent's house having tea with them and his grandparents just before the election when the conversation turned to politics (I am a TERRIBLE guest... so rude!  ), and later my husband overheard his grandad tell his grandmother "our grandson is sounding very pro-Labour" in that tone granparents use when they're disappointed or worried.  We laughed about that all the way home.

Your husband isn't infected is he? That Tory stuff can be passed down.

You jest, but there is evidence that political leaning is genetic.

ETA:  Not wholly genetic of course, but there is a genetic component. 

You jest, but there is evidence that political leaning is genetic.

ETA:  Not wholly genetic of course, but there is a genetic component. 

Would be curious to see the research you've seen? Sounds interesting! I was under the assumption that it's more of a "nurture" thing than a nature thing (monkey see, monkey do and all that).

Just for some fun reading (links to studies within the article text as well):

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/d-brief/2015/08/05/political-beliefs-genetic/#.Wa1KyMiGOUk

Just for some fun reading (links to studies within the article text as well):

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/d-brief/2015/08/05/political-beliefs-genetic/#.Wa1KyMiGOUk

Thanks! Will check this out when I get home from work (and my brain slows down a bit! Way to jumbled with work stuff to try at the mo hah)

I just love telling people what my experience has been... especially the EU I.mihtants who seem to think it was just as easy for me to come over as it was for them.

Not by a long shot.

That and explaining how utterly shitty the US healthcare systems to Brits who seem to think it might be better.

$100 appointments just to see your GP.
expensive prescriptions. My one round of antibiotics was $50. A morning after pill about the same.

$30k for the birth of a baby. My nephew Josh was more expensive as he was in the NICU being born a month early.

Going to the ER will cost thousands.

Such fun.

Seriously. My daughter fainted at a mall one day in the States. She ended up in the ER, and was on a gurney in the hallway for most of the time at the hospital with an overnight stay for observation.  The bill was over $14,000. That was 15 years ago. (We were on, thankfully, a HMO, which picked up the tab.) We had to wait three to six months for visits to specialists - one was booking 9 months out.  Had we had to pay the GP out-of-pocket, it was $145 a visit the last time I checked. A basic asthma inhaler, in around 2007 or 2008 when I had one prescribed to me for dealing with a lung infection, cost about the same out-of-pocket - $145. I went to Mexico to buy it for $30.

Have had to explain to people that when I was working there I didn't dare lose my job, or I'd have lost access to healthcare. So the job could stink bigtime, but one had to hold onto it for dear life unless they had no dependents and were healthy.   And yes, that being without health insurance there can be lethal. They have to stabilize you at the hospital in an emergency situation, but once you are stable they don't have to treat you further. So if you have a condition that requires ongoing maintenance or medicines, you better have a job so you have insurance or have a really fat bank account.  Nobody I've discussed it with here believes me when I recount stories of hospitals dumping patients up on Skid Row in their hospital gowns. But it does happen.   

This post is fantastic. I can relate to so much of it. Tory in-laws eating up every word of the Daily Mail. The free 12-bedroom London houses! And I'm sure everyone else here is like me instantly bringing over all our elderly relatives to have all their surgeries on the NHS for free.

Once we wrapped our heads around how much the process has changed since 2008, and the gravity of the time apart and how it'd affect our 5yo being away from daddy, etc., DH banned them from using the "I" word in our presence. But I'm not above throwing it into conversation occasionally, "well, you know, I'm an immigrant".

And I swear every English person I've met assumed I was handed a red passport with our marriage vows. They all do that exact same thing mentioned above thread "are you sure that's right? No, I thought spouses got citizenship?"

Yes. I'm. Sure.

Seriously. My daughter fainted at a mall one day in the States. She ended up in the ER, and was on a gurney in the hallway for most of the time at the hospital with an overnight stay for observation.  The bill was over $14,000. That was 15 years ago. (We were on, thankfully, a HMO, which picked up the tab.) We had to wait three to six months for visits to specialists - one was booking 9 months out.  Had we had to pay the GP out-of-pocket, it was $145 a visit the last time I checked. A basic asthma inhaler, in around 2007 or 2008 when I had one prescribed to me for dealing with a lung infection, cost about the same out-of-pocket - $145. I went to Mexico to buy it for $30.

Have had to explain to people that when I was working there I didn't dare lose my job, or I'd have lost access to healthcare. So the job could stink bigtime, but one had to hold onto it for dear life unless they had no dependents and were healthy.   And yes, that being without health insurance there can be lethal. They have to stabilize you at the hospital in an emergency situation, but once you are stable they don't have to treat you further. So if you have a condition that requires ongoing maintenance or medicines, you better have a job so you have insurance or have a really fat bank account.  Nobody I've discussed it with here believes me when I recount stories of hospitals dumping patients up on Skid Row in their hospital gowns. But it does happen.   

I used to live near a very good regular hospital in the states that also had facilities for people under some kind of mental watch, I assume if they were a danger to themselves or something.  The hospital used to just release patients, including people who clearly needed assistance because of mental illness, at the end of the stay with a voucher for a $2 bus ticket, which would only get you inside the county.  I know this because more than once these patients ended up waiting at the same bus stop that I used to go to work in another county, and they would have to negotiate with the bus driver to let them on with a $2 ticket for a $3 ride.  Some of them would have to go on to another bus or train as they had been picked up in an ambulance very far away in the county across the river (and not been taken to the nearest hospital), and I have no idea how they managed.  I never used to carry cash so couldn't help them at all.  Some of them would ask me where they were as they weren't even told what town they were in or how to get back home.  It was such a mess, and so many of us from the town filed complaints with the hospital about their treatment of vulnerable patients, and nothing ever came of it. 

And how many people say "surely your child can have the 30 hours childcare"

? From what I have read, the only things that excludes you from that is that your joint salaries come to over 100K.

? From what I have read, the only things that excludes you from that is that your joint salaries come to over 100K.

Maybe KF meant child benefit? I don't have a child in that age group so I don't know the rules specifically.

But we are disqualified from child benefit because my husband makes a bit too much and I don't have UK citizenship. But if our incomes or nationalities were reversed our family would qualify. I'm not complaining: I've just had to explain it to people before. And it's the same old thing of that person complaining about immigrants getting too many benefits but then saying "that's not fair" to our situation because they know us.

Maybe KF meant child benefit? I don't have a child in that age group so I don't know the rules specifically.

But we are disqualified from child benefit because my husband makes a bit too much and I don't have UK citizenship. But if our incomes or nationalities were reversed our family would qualify. I'm not complaining: I've just had to explain it to people before. And it's the same old thing of that person complaining about immigrants getting too many benefits but then saying "that's not fair" to our situation because they know us.

I don't have a child but I can say I've had explain to people MANY times that I don't qualify for public recourse as part of my visa so I'm absolutely not, as an immigrant, getting "too many benefits". You're right, they are quick to say how unfair it is that *I* don't qualify, but still think it's other immigrants draining the system.

? From what I have read, the only things that excludes you from that is that your joint salaries come to over 100K.

Us dirty immigrants cannot get the 30 hours of childcare.  We CAN get the 15 hours. 

https://childcare-support.tax.service.gov.uk/moreinfopar/2/?returnURL=%2Fpar%2Fapp%2Fextendedentitlement

You're not eligible if:

you're in receipt of a childcare grant
you're a full-time student/an intern
you're not entitled to receive public funds

I don't have a child but I can say I've had explain to people MANY times that I don't qualify for public recourse as part of my visa so I'm absolutely not, as an immigrant, getting "too many benefits". You're right, they are quick to say how unfair it is that *I* don't qualify, but still think it's other immigrants draining the system.

Exactly! And they try to cover their tracks by saying. "well, you're married to an English person." I would suspect the majority of immigrants are and I really wish I had some numbers to back it up every time I hear that.

Exactly! And they try to cover their tracks by saying. "well, you're married to an English person." I would suspect the majority of immigrants are and I really wish I had some numbers to back it up every time I hear that.

 I get the "well you're American, so that doesn't really count..." more than the "You're married to an English person" line but I have had people just assume I could and couldn't get things because I'm married to a Brit and shocked to find out that it wasn't the case lol

I get the "well you're American, so that doesn't really count..." more than the "You're married to an English person" line but I have had people just assume I could and couldn't get things because I'm married to a Brit and shocked to find out that it wasn't the case lol

Definitely. People think Americans get exceptions (not that I think we should) and I have no idea why other than shared language.