Just do it.
IMO Your overriding concern needs to be what is good for the kids. If the 17 year old is in LC year, I would postpone this until they are finished and know what they are doing. I spent some time in SA and would not recommend it. South Africans are trying to leave the place in droves because of the endemic violence. There is a reason why you are being offered double your salary!
I would consider cape town for sure as I used to visit for work quite often. Stunning place, great outdoors lifestyle and nice people in general. I’d bring the family too but still be concerned somewhat.
Johannesburg is a lot tougher question, I probably wouldnt bring family there. Even for myself I’d be worried about crime, I never visited it but I heard enough about it.
Lived in Johannesburg for four years and it’s an amazing spot where you and your kids would have a great time. Life with young kids is very easy relative to a lot of spots (qualified, medically trained night nurse for €20 per night etc).
Ignoring the materialistic elements; weather, big house, cheap help, of the charts food etc…My wife and I often talk about how we think it’s an amazing place to raise kids away from the commercial BS we see in Ireland, UK and USA. There is far more focus on family, nature and sport in our opinion.
The key thing you need to manage is FX as the currency is volatile and capital controls are over played. Safety is overplayed and manageable.
Great GAA team there to get involved in and a very fun vibe.
Have PM’d you.
Good luck with the decision.
The former emigrants thread?
“Boston’s Irish community is on high alert after ICE agents detained a local leader for deportation, sparking fears that thousands of other illegal immigrants living and working here for years could be next.” - Boston Herald.
bostonherald.com/news/local_coverage/2017/06/ice_bust_puts_boston_s_illegal_irish_on_edge
RTÉ regularly report that there are 50,000 Irish living illegally in the US.
The embassy in Washington confirmed that they have provided consular assistance to a mere seven of these for immigration offences since January of this year.
So either:
-There are much fewer illegal Irish in the US than the media suggests
-Their chances of running into trouble for their immigration status is very low
Or quite probably both.
Perhaps the wrong question was asked? RTE (I presume) asked the Washington office how many undocumented Irish they helped. The “office” helped seven since Washington is not a big destination for the undocumented Irish. RTE should then have asked incredulously, “You just helped seven in America?!”
But you are right, their chances of running into trouble due to their status is probably low.
I have been told Boston routinely deals with detained Irish, and my guess is New York would also be busy.
Saw a headline that the GAA guy in Boston had an outstanding arrest warrant. Don’t know the deets.
Without a doubt in parts of South Africa and Johannesburg there are significantly higher risks, but if you take into account the area where you will be operating (e.g. where you live, work and socialize), demographics and not upsetting my wife (this accounted for 60% of the murders in my subset) my personal risk factor was 5x what it is Dublin and 2x what it is in average US city if same criteria is applied. Its definitely higher, but I hardly walk out the door in Dublin and fear for my life. Even if you multiplied that risk by 5x.
Being in a car crash is still something you should be far more concerned with.
As I say, its a fantastic place and would make a fantastic chapter in your family’s life. The challenges arise with the school and university system for late teens. If you carry a Euro or US passport that doesn’t matter; you just work on the basis that your kids will attend college abroad.
The story suggested it was for the US as a whole.
"As I say, its a fantastic place and would make a fantastic chapter in your family’s life. The challenges arise with the school and university system for late teens. If you carry a Euro or US passport that doesn’t matter; you just work on the basis that your kids will attend college abroad. Billy Bob
Just by the way of an FYI - and this is directly from the TCD website and is typical of all European universities, in order to qualify for free or EU fees at uni, and avoid the eye watering international student rates, which I understand are three times the usual rate:
“The student must have been ordinarily resident in an EU Member State and must have received full-time post primary education in the EU for three of the five years prior to entry,” to qualify for EU fees. An EU passport on its own won’t allow anyone to avoid international student fees.
Billy Bob
Just by the way of an FYI - and this is directly from the TCD website and is typical of all European universities, in order to qualify for free or EU fees at uni, and avoid the eye watering international student rates, which I understand are three times the usual rate:
“The student must have been ordinarily resident in an EU Member State and must have received full-time post primary education in the EU for three of the five years prior to entry,” to qualify for EU fees. An EU passport on its own won’t allow anyone to avoid international student fees.
tcd.ie/study/eu/undergraduat … d-payments
Agreed. But OP has a 2 year old and one on the way. He’s also only talking of heading out there for two years so I don’t think that becomes a big issue.
What I was saying is that BEE policies and quota systems mean that you probably need to look internationally for higher education and that will be your expectation from day one.
Most South African’s expect to have to pay international rates for their kids to attend a top college in UK or US.
This is obviously not your average Joe (or Bandile) on the street but I’d suggest it is reflective of the socio-economic cohort most expats would mix with.
Yep Billy Bob, I understood that OP has young kids, but my point was an FYI that people don’t realise often when they leave Europe with children, a European passport alone will not guarantee EU fees if parents want them to return to Ireland for higher education. Two years can easily run into 10. I went to London for 6 months myself and stayed for 28 years.
UK uni fees were around 9k per annum for European citizens the last time I looked, but for international students or those with EU or U.K. Passports who have been abroad for the last three years before application (including diplomats kids and kids of those in the armed forces who have been based outside Europe) it can jump to about 40k per year for a course such as medicine at a Russell Group University. That is an enormous expense for anyone, especially for a course that may be 6 years long.
Anyone living in the U.K. now with young teens, and thinking about Ireland or Europe as a university location for them in the future would probably do well to get them an EU passport and move them by GCSE stage because no-one knows what will happen after Brexit.
In my experience, people too often assume an EU passport alone will entitle their children to go to a European university at European rates, and they have no concept of how high international student fees can be. I just think it is worth noting.
Thanks for your the clarification and I agree that is something that does surprise people.
As an aside, I think it’s prudent to assume that in general where ever you at in the world you’re going to have to pay US style college fees for kid higher education; essentially employing the adage plan for the worst and hope for the best.
Bringing that back to the SA example that’s certainly what everyone does there.
It’s largely because graduates need to have reasonably high salaries to pay anything at all. A graduate with a degree that leads to a low paying job that probably never needed a degree in the first place will, under the UK student loan rules, quite legitimately never need to pay a penny and will show up in the statistics as a defaulter.
The Irish system combines reasonably high upfront fees with no loans. The first is a feature of Anglo-Saxon systems and the second of continental ones.
I think it’s the best model for a few reasons.
The upfront fees are good as it makes students and their parents think clearly about whether the course is really needed. Drop-out rates are higher than they should be in Ireland but they are a lot lower than in France.
Loan schemes are trying to solve a problem that doesn’t exist. First, given that there is already a means-tested grant system in place, there is no evidence that lack of funds is impeding access by disadvantaged groups. Second, it gives young people more money than they need at a young age and it’s not always spent wisely. I saw this with some friends from the UK years ago. Paying back loans at 23 for their drinking at age 19. Third, Ireland already has a highly progressive tax system. If your degree doesn’t lead to high earnings then you won’t pay much income tax. If it does you will.
Loan schemes are pushed by a few people:
-academics who reckon it’ll be more acceptable to raise fees (more lolly on campus and higher salaries)
-financial intermediaries who will be able to charge nice fees on administering the schemes
-fiscal authorities who see it as a way of keeping public debt off the balance sheet
The motives of all of those in favour should be questioned.
The Historical 2006 thread is now closed.
The blight of emigration on the Irish discussion continues here Emigration