Lessons to be learnt from the expats in 'Trouble Abroad'

Terry and Jeni's dream life in Spain turned sour, but theirs is not a typical tale

It’s the New Year and the skies are grey. People are going back to work in their depressed droves. The Christmas cheer is gone, replaced by the January sneer.

And nowhere is this tangible shift in mood more evident than in the UK New Year TV schedules.

The listings preach penance, abstinence and new beginnings. Out with the old, lazy, ill-educated you, they suggest. The only smidgen of self-indulgence allowed comes in the form of the always-risky schadenfreude.

So much so that – on the same evening that Celebrity Big Brother’s 2013 vintage were wheeled into the house for their soon-to-be very public meltdowns – ITV1 screened Trouble Abroad.

The clue is in the title. Part one of this two-part docu-series followed the woes of three relatively likeable couples who had committed that ultimate British sin – trying to improve their lives and live out their dreams in foreign climes.

The show followed Sally and her ‘millionaire’ (but absconded in gambling-addiction-shame) husband in the south of France; Rob and Sandy in the Florida sunshine; and former miner and minor rock star Terry and his wife Jeni ambling around their sprawling villa in Valencia, Spain.

You know the drill by now. The show’s hook was to track each couple’s descent into despair as their dreams unravelled and their finances shrivelled. Incredibly one-sided (we knew little of why the French and American couples were unable or unwilling to sell their homes, for example) and unseemingly fatalistic, the audience was given free rein to scoff, deride and shake their heads at the protagonists’ folly. “Brits – don’t even think about trying to better your situation like these fools, stay as wage slaves in rainy old England!” the leader might as well have read.

Yet despite the skewed artistic agenda, there were some fascinating scenes that can prove valuable lessons for anybody who is seriously considering leaving the UK for sunnier shores.

So here’s what  Trouble Abroad can teach you about life as an expat…

Do your research and don’t sever all ties

Rob and Sandy cashed in their life savings, quit their jobs and sold their house in the UK to purchase a mobility scooter franchise business in Florida. Their eggs were well and truly in one basket, and when that basket came apart at the seams (in their case an unbuilt mall), so did their dream of a life in the Florida sun.

Not permitted to work in anything other than the business he had intended to set up, Rob could only sit and twiddle his tanned thumbs waiting for litigation proceedings to pass through the US court system. Sandy was permitted to work, but struggled to find a job.

Having transferred all their monies to an American bank, and sold all their UK assets, they were stuck in a country thousands of miles from home, unable to work, or find work. Flights back to visit family were prohibitively expensive, and legal proceedings against the company they were suing were dawdling at best.

The show ended with the unedifying sight of Sandy back in the UK at her daughter’s cramped Kent flat. Sat on the edge of the bed with just a suitcase full of possessions to her name, she looked lost and despondent. Rob was 200 miles away, at his mum’s house in Norfolk.

The couple are in their 50s, hardworking and previously successful. Terrible luck befell them, but  they were part architects in their own downfall. They gave up everything. They gambled on a business venture that quickly went south. And they moved to a country where they were not legally permitted to find alternative employment.

You should always conduct due diligence before buying abroad. Can you afford it? What are your legal rights? Can you access healthcare? Are you permitted to work? What is your exit strategy if things don’t go quite to plan?

Understand and accept the country’s culture

“$2.83 an hour!” Sandy exclaimed. “That’s not even £2 an hour!” Rob added, exasperated. Sandy had just been for a waitressing interview at a local Florida diner. The manager told her that the pay was minimum wage – $2.83 an hour – topped up with tips. That’s not unusual in America, where service is rewarded financially only when it reaches the customer’s satisfaction.

That this shocked Sandy and Rob says more about their attitudes and lack of research than it does about American values. Waitressing wages are notoriously low in the USA, but tips are readily given and largely generous. Rob’s mental calculation into pound sterling merely confirmed that they were still seeing things through a British-coloured filter.

Such an outlook can be detrimental. It pays to embrace the culture of your adopted country fully and openly. Just because Americans speak English and their movie and TV presence is ubiquitous doesn’t mean they are like us. European countries are actually culturally much closer, despite the linguistic differences.

In France, Sally and her equally bedevilled English friend displayed similar signs of cultural blinkers when trying to scout clients for their fledgling cleaning business. A poor grasp of the language, and understanding of how the French like to communicate over the phone, characterised one particularly painful scene.

A little bit of research and understanding is all that is required in order to avoid these faux pas.

Try to learn the language

Speaking of France, Sally’s admission that her French isn’t up to scratch is endearingly honest, but it does her no favours. Having moved to the southwest of France as wife to a high-flying, millionaire husband, she probably thought that she wouldn’t ever have to really grasp the language.

Sure, her bad luck was unforeseeable (her husband felt increasingly isolated in France and began playing online poker for something to do – and promptly lost everything they had), but it should act as a warning for others.

It pays to seek and attain at least some grasp of the language of the country you are moving to before you leave the UK; for many reasons, not just financial. But seeing Sally and her friend struggle to get by in a country that actually permits them to work was difficult viewing.

In the south of Spain, the situation is a little different. The vast expat network means that jobs for English-speakers are more commonplace, but you shouldn’t rely on that. If you can learn the basics of Spanish before you move, and then try to ingratiate yourself with the locals once you arrive, your Spanish will improve in no time.

Because who knows when you might need it?

Don’t isolate yourself

None of the couples featured appeared to have made good friends with any of their local neighbours. The couple in America hadn’t been there that long to be fair to them, but Sally in France only seemed to socialise with fellow English people, and while Terry’s circumstances in Spain were not divulged in too much detail (and his poor health obviously didn’t help), it was telling that when his wife flew back to England for a few days he felt trapped in what he called ‘a beautiful prison’.

The only friend Terry could call upon – quite literally, as it happened – was the enigmatic ‘Cushty’. Now, Cushty could be Spanish, but I doubt it. With his wife absent, Terry paced the grounds of his villa, isolated, alone. “If I fall, I’ll just lie here and rot until Jeni gets back,” he muttered.

Why could that be? Had he made no effort to learn the Spanish language? To make Spanish friends? To frequent Spanish bars and restaurants? To understand the Spanish culture? The programme didn’t really tell us, but that was how Terry’s situation was inevitably perceived.

This peculiarly insular expat mentality is both baffling and understandable. One obviously feels more comfortable in their own culture, but why move to another country if not to experience all it can offer? For the weather and potential profit? Those days, for all but the wealthiest of us, are long gone.

While  Trouble Abroad followed the usual UK media mantra of being one-sided and skewed by an agenda to belittle those who seek to make a life for themselves in the sun, it did highlight some valid points: don’t go in blind, do your research, learn the culture, grasp the language and try to fit in.

Thousands do this every year in Spain, but there’s no TV shows following them around precisely because there’s no drama, no pathos, no despair. So don’t let the scaremongering of the media put you off your own dream of a life in Spain.

* Part 2 of Trouble Abroad airs at 9pm on Thursday January 10, on ITV1.