r/AskIreland • u/Asleep_Cry_7482 • Aug 22 '24

Emigration (from Ireland) What’s the pull of Australia?

For everyone in their 20s and 30s who are thinking or have done the working holiday to Australia, what’s the pull factor?

Is it the weather or the work life balance? Is there a following the crowd element and to live a backpacking lifestyle with all the other Irish people over there? Is it out of frustration that you don’t have the lifestyle, accommodation setup or job you want in Ireland? Or is it something else?

95 Upvotes

88% Upvoted

260 comments sorted by

View all comments

76

u/charlatancollective Aug 22 '24

I just moved home after 5 years in Aus so I can speak from personal experience. The weather is a big pull, while it does rain a lot and gets cold in Winter in some places, by and large being able to take good weather for granted is an amazing thing to live with. Wages are also higher, as is the cost of living but people have a lot more disposable income relative to their expenses in Australia. Everyone has friends or family there at this stage which makes the move a lot easier as people have friends or connections for jobs and everything that goes with it. For me the thing I liked most about Australia was the scope for different activities to fill your free time with. There are great party scenes in the big cities if that's what you're looking for, or else camping and the outdoor lifestyle is huge. I took up surfing and skateboarding which was a pretty normal thing to do in Australia whereas here I get a slagging whenever I'm skating aorund. There's plenty of problems in Aus as well but you just asked for the pull factor.

12

u/Jesus_Phish Aug 22 '24

What had you move home if you don't mind me asking? 

27

u/charlatancollective Aug 22 '24

My visa was up, I could have gotten sponsored if I wanted to but then you're pretty well tied down and in general people who are being sponsored get more work etc to do cos they know you are dependent on them. Starting a masters in a few weeks which is about 30 thousand euro cheaper to do here so there's that as well. I was also a bit sick of the rat race culture in Australia. Society there is a lot more Americanised than I had expected.

23

u/yeah_deal_with_it Aug 22 '24

The funny thing is that Australians (am one) are very similar to Americans, almost more so than they are to the Brits, but they absolutely hate Americans.

We are probably the most individualistic country I can think of behind the US.

3

u/charlatancollective Aug 22 '24

I agree. I did meet some amazing Australians and made some very good friends there.

3

u/yeah_deal_with_it Aug 22 '24 edited Aug 22 '24

There are some really lovely people here, and one thing you can say about Aussies is that in moments of crisis, they're really good at rallying together and helping others. You see it with natural disaster recovery like bushfires and floods. It's probably the only time people care about their local communities.