People & Places
To Australia via Spain
Many Brits who choose to emigrate to Australia do so after becoming disillusioned with life in the UK - but not usually via Spain
However, for Jenny Carpenter and family the choice to make Australia their home has come after an unsuccessful stint in Spain as well. Here Jenny tells her story to David Fuller
When Jenny Carpenter along with husband Derek and children George, now seven, and Lilly, four, swapped the UK for Spanish shores in October 2004 they thought they were about to embark on a dream life away from the everyday hassle they had become used to in Britain.
Fed up, like so many, with the UK's rising crime rate and fearing for the safety of their young children, the Carpenters decided to start a new life in Spain, where they had previously been on a few holidays. Although they had originally planned to buy a property to holiday in a few times a year first, get to know the area then one day move there permanently, the lure of having somewhere to go combined with increasing dissatisfaction with life in the UK, prompted them to make the full-time move earlier than planned. However, their dream move to the Costa Almeria didn't go exactly as planned. "It's been a disaster from day one," rues Jenny. "The Spanish way of life just hasn't been right for us. They do things very differently out here, and we've just found it to be so slow and disorganised. "We've even found that some of the Spanish have tried to take advantage of our naivety while some have even attempted to con us. On the whole, though, this is a generalisation because the majority of them have been very friendly," she adds.
The fact the family have not been able to pursue the business they had originally intended to run has been another obstruction the Carpenters have had to endure during their time in Iberia. "In the UK we had developed and successfully run a children's nursery which we sold when we moved to Spain," explains Jenny. "In Spain we had brought a farmhouse from where we were going to operate horse-riding holidays. The estate agent ensured us that the farmhouse was only a 20-minute drive away from our property, but in reality it has proved to be closer to 35–40-minutes away, too far for us to have run the business as we would have liked. "As we don't speak fluent Spanish and aren't living in an area like Benidorm, which is full of English speakers, we have found there to be very few other opportunities for us here," she adds.
Seven months into their new life in Spain and the Carpenters had reached the end of their tether. While it had not yet got to the stage where they were considering a move back to Britain, so too had they become adamant that they didn't want to be in Spain either. But it wasn't until a holiday in the UK in May 2005 that thoughts of living in Australia first entered their head. Jenny takes up the story. "One of my sisters used to live in New South Wales but came back a few years ago due to family ties, while another of my sisters had just come back from a holiday there," she says. "While we were chatting one of them just happened to mention that it's now easier to move to Australia than it has been for a while. "We had not really ever thought about emigrating to Australia before, we had just always felt it was too far away, but we started to think 'why not?' "We contacted a few of the migration agents that we saw advertised in Australian News (as Emigrate Australia was then known) and then chose the one we considered to be the most professional and best liked the sound of." The Carpenter's agent advised them that their best hope of being awarded their visas would be to go through the business category, using the childcare business they had successfully developed in the UK as their past experience.
In August they began to put together plans for a similar nursery business which they would need to submit to the New South Wales government to achieve the state sponsorship that would enable them to continue with the emigration process. They had chosen New South Wales as their intended state of residence due to the fact it was where Jenny's sister had once lived – and where she one day plans to move back to, she is an Oz citizen therefore negating the need to go through the visa hassles herself – and where one of Jenny's nephews still does live. It is also the one place in Australia that Jenny and Derek had previously visited – albeit nearly 20 years ago, and in spite the fact they weren't overly keen on it. "When we visited Australia in 1989 we didn't actually like it that much," Jenny admits. "It was really quiet and there was no real social life to speak of. At that time we were still into going out a lot but now things have changed. We are happy with the quieter life and looking to give our children a good, safe lifestyle. "It wouldn't have been right for us then but now it's different," she assures me.
In November the family sent off their business proposal to the NSW government and were delighted when, within a matter of days, they received a reply from the state offering them sponsorship. The migration application itself also went fairly smoothly and in May the Carpenters were awarded the visas needed to leave behind their Spanish nightmare for a brand new start Down Under. However, if there is one downside to the visas having already arrived it is that the terms of their sponsorship state that they have to be in NSW by 21st November, giving them little time to tie up all their loose ends in Spain and the UK and scrape together the money needed to get their new business off to a flying start. "What happens with our business plans once we arrive in Australia is dependent on the sale of our properties," explains Jenny. "We currently have two properties in Spain and one in the UK that need to be sold. Depending on how many, if any, we sell by November will determine whether we start a business like we did in the UK or buy one that's already running. "If none get sold then we'll work for someone else if we have to until we get the finances we need."
So which situation would be preferable for the family?
"Well," replies Jenny, "from a financial point of view it would be to start one from scratch like we did in the UK, but from a comfort perspective it would be to buy one that's already running. That way we'll know that we are getting something that's already established and we'll be able to ease our way into the business. "So, while we are really excited, we are also panicing a bit as ideally we would like everything sold before we go so that we can get stuck into a childcare centre." Worries regarding the starting of their business aside, though, Jenny says that the family are mostly looking forward to their imminent new life in Australia. "George told me we're not very kind as he's just made friends here in Spain, but overall I think both kids are really looking forward to it," says Jenny. "I'm looking forward to it due to the fact that everything we've heard and read about Australia, from research and talking to my sister, suggests that Australians know how to make the most of their lifestyle. "In Spain the potential is there for a great lifestyle but they don't really make the most of it. Everything is centred around the beach, which is nice to begin with but gets a bit boring after a while. There aren't really any parks or green play areas where you can take the children like there are in Australia," she adds.
To finish off our conversation I ask Jenny if she now regrets being so hasty to leave Britian in the first place, given that the family's experiences in Spain have been far from what they had hoped for. "That's a tough one," she answers. "On the one hand I would say that it's a shame we sold our business in the UK to move to Spain as it was doing quite well and we would have been better off financially now. ""But in saying this, if we hadn't of moved to Spain we probably wouldn't have applied for Australia. Living here has proven to us that we can cope with living away from our friends and family in the UK and given us the confidence to make such a big move. "And we've also learnt some lessons from our time in Spain. Mostly not to jump into life like we did here and to plan ahead and do plenty of research into the area we are moving to using any means necessary."
Derek and Jenny used 1st Contact as their migration agents government to achieve the state sponsorship that would enable them to continue with the emigration process.
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