Originally, when a few great minds (i.e. us) came together to set up this blog, my original idea was to write stories about the journey after migration. I had always been of the view that when your visa, whichever visa, gets approved, this is only the start of the journey.
You have, out of all the many things, to get a job, find a sustainable income, settle in and find a place you like (Australia is big remember, so you can move around cities if you don't like where you are and it might be completely different - Sydney is completely different from Darwin for example) to name a few.
Its like Manchester United celebrating qualifying for the Champions League. Hello, don't get so excited, there's a whole tournament to play!
I'm not saying settling into Australia for the long term is as hard as the Champions League, and I'm not saying I'm the most settled / integrated or anything, I just think it would be interesting to share experiences on these.
I'd like to do this methodically, so for now, this post will broadly cover what I think are the main aspects and themes post-getting of visa:
Everyone will know that cockanathan who migrates and announces proudly that he wants to integrate with Austraaaalians and won't mix with Singaporeans! I've never seen a good ending to people like these, and usually they try too hard to blend into some random angmoh group, lansee other ethnic groups that they looked down on in Singapore (you know what I'm talking about) and just end up with no friends (not even Singaporeans to congregate with in Singaporean-full suburbs).
Unfortunately and embarassingly, their colonial hangover always comes back to bite them in the ass. Australia, in 2017, is quite a multicultural country even though you still have bogans running around in their utes with their Australian flags and their "fuck off we're full" stickers, and Pauline Hanson.
We have Anh Do, Lee Lin Chin, Poh Ling Yeow, Adam Liaw, to name a few Asian faces, and many other people of other ethnicity that would need an entire fucking post to list.
In other words, CB lah, you duwan to mix with Singaporeans, u think angmoh or Singaporeans want to mix with you meh?
Look, think about it this way. Mixing with Austraaaalians is not just mixing with the white, anglo bogan drinking at the pub. Its mixing with the fellow Filipino migrant, the Singaporeans (as long as they are not from Overseas Singaporean Unit), the genius Ah Tiong at uni with HDs in every subject, as much as it is mixing with the white anglo bogan in his singlet (called a beater) and a mullet down the street and sharing your weed with them (just kidding don't arrest me plz).
Just be yourself, and don't try too hard to be someone else you're not just to fit in. These are basic rules that we applied in the social setting of a school, and will continue to apply for life regardless of which country you live in.
The Australian Lifestyle
Naturally, this leads to a discussion about lifestyle, and what is the "Australian lifestyle".
Well, there isn't one. Some Australians work until 9pm every night in high flying jobs and go for yoga and kickboxing classes, some leave work at 3pm to go home for a beer and to play with the kids, some work night shifts and study for their next careers by distance learning, some live rural and rear cows, chickens, strawberries, and shit, and some operate science labs at home. The country has 24 million people at last count (ever-reliable Wikipedia), not everybody has the same lifestyle.
Again, be yourself, do whatever makes you happy and don't feel the need to change your lifestyle to "fit in". Unless owning a farm and rearing chickens and shit is really your thing and the one goal you've had in life, you will be perfectly happy doing whatever makes you happy. Its that simple, trust me, I stay home all the time in a small apartment playing on my computer, reading my books, playing football, gossing with friends, drinking beer, which is pretty close to what I would have done living in Singapore, and I'm perfectly happy and could never live on a farm (a visit would be nice). I love eating out, I hate to DIY and would rather pay someone to do things for me unless the cost was prohibitive, so none of this home-fix-it shit for me. Nix, on the other hand, would love a big farm, loves to DIY projects, getting a good bargain, etc. And we all get along!
Next time.... Car ownership. Now i need to finish my beers
You have, out of all the many things, to get a job, find a sustainable income, settle in and find a place you like (Australia is big remember, so you can move around cities if you don't like where you are and it might be completely different - Sydney is completely different from Darwin for example) to name a few.
Its like Manchester United celebrating qualifying for the Champions League. Hello, don't get so excited, there's a whole tournament to play!
I'm not saying settling into Australia for the long term is as hard as the Champions League, and I'm not saying I'm the most settled / integrated or anything, I just think it would be interesting to share experiences on these.
I'd like to do this methodically, so for now, this post will broadly cover what I think are the main aspects and themes post-getting of visa:
- Employment
- Friends and social circle
- Determining what lifestyle you like, and what city suits you best
- Moving between cities
- Car ownership
- Home ownership
- The daily grind
- Children matters
- Personal finances
- Any others... please suggest in comments.
Obviously, being the latte sipping, avocado chomping millennial I am, I don't have any clue about children matters (8) so I'll let the others do the work in this space. Home ownership (6) eludes my generation and it generally turns into a dick-waving fest, and to be honest, is fucking boring and is discussed to death every Chinese New Year, so I'll skip this one too and let someone else do the talking.
Employment is the same shit as (6), but I know a bit more about that, so I'll save it for when I'm not chugging beers and have the energy to write a long post. Personal finance is fucking boring (but is important) so that is all I probably need to say about it at this point. Money is important. Its the same rules as in Singapore.
That leaves basically the interesting topics for my next few posts: Friends and social circle, lifestyles, and car ownership.
Friends and social circle
Everyone will know that cockanathan who migrates and announces proudly that he wants to integrate with Austraaaalians and won't mix with Singaporeans! I've never seen a good ending to people like these, and usually they try too hard to blend into some random angmoh group, lansee other ethnic groups that they looked down on in Singapore (you know what I'm talking about) and just end up with no friends (not even Singaporeans to congregate with in Singaporean-full suburbs).
Unfortunately and embarassingly, their colonial hangover always comes back to bite them in the ass. Australia, in 2017, is quite a multicultural country even though you still have bogans running around in their utes with their Australian flags and their "fuck off we're full" stickers, and Pauline Hanson.
We have Anh Do, Lee Lin Chin, Poh Ling Yeow, Adam Liaw, to name a few Asian faces, and many other people of other ethnicity that would need an entire fucking post to list.
In other words, CB lah, you duwan to mix with Singaporeans, u think angmoh or Singaporeans want to mix with you meh?
Look, think about it this way. Mixing with Austraaaalians is not just mixing with the white, anglo bogan drinking at the pub. Its mixing with the fellow Filipino migrant, the Singaporeans (as long as they are not from Overseas Singaporean Unit), the genius Ah Tiong at uni with HDs in every subject, as much as it is mixing with the white anglo bogan in his singlet (called a beater) and a mullet down the street and sharing your weed with them (just kidding don't arrest me plz).
Just be yourself, and don't try too hard to be someone else you're not just to fit in. These are basic rules that we applied in the social setting of a school, and will continue to apply for life regardless of which country you live in.
The Australian Lifestyle
Naturally, this leads to a discussion about lifestyle, and what is the "Australian lifestyle".
Well, there isn't one. Some Australians work until 9pm every night in high flying jobs and go for yoga and kickboxing classes, some leave work at 3pm to go home for a beer and to play with the kids, some work night shifts and study for their next careers by distance learning, some live rural and rear cows, chickens, strawberries, and shit, and some operate science labs at home. The country has 24 million people at last count (ever-reliable Wikipedia), not everybody has the same lifestyle.
Again, be yourself, do whatever makes you happy and don't feel the need to change your lifestyle to "fit in". Unless owning a farm and rearing chickens and shit is really your thing and the one goal you've had in life, you will be perfectly happy doing whatever makes you happy. Its that simple, trust me, I stay home all the time in a small apartment playing on my computer, reading my books, playing football, gossing with friends, drinking beer, which is pretty close to what I would have done living in Singapore, and I'm perfectly happy and could never live on a farm (a visit would be nice). I love eating out, I hate to DIY and would rather pay someone to do things for me unless the cost was prohibitive, so none of this home-fix-it shit for me. Nix, on the other hand, would love a big farm, loves to DIY projects, getting a good bargain, etc. And we all get along!
Next time.... Car ownership. Now i need to finish my beers
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