Brits leaving in record numbers
 

As you read through this forum you get the impression literally huge numbers of people are leaving or planning to leave the UK. Every day there are dozens of new members enquiring about moving to Canada (and presumably its the same situations in the other country forums). Given that only a small minority of emigrants are probably forum members it kind of leaves you with the impression everyone is literally fleeing! In fact when I spoke to a friend in the UK she said she had heard there were now more people emigrating than there were immigrants coming in. Does anyone have any real data on this? Are Brits actually leaving in record numbers?

Re: Brits leaving in record numbers
 

Reams of stuff here :

http://www.statistics.gov.uk/downloa...nTrends128.pdf

I doubt that anyone knows though. Lots of people come and go between the UK and the rest of Europe and there's no record kept.

Re: Brits leaving in record numbers
 

The BBC did something on this not so long ago. The figures were something like 400,000 - 500,000 a year coming into UK, and 350,000 leaving, annually. They vary a great deal depending on where you get your figures of course.

Most popular destinations are: Australia, Spain, Canada, New Zealand, USA, in that order ( I think).

It is something of an exodus, but what these figures don't allow for is all the people moving back after a year or two in their new home.

Re: Brits leaving in record numbers
 

I read an article a few months ago saying that due to the amount of people leaving the UK to live in foreign countries that we were going to have a huge deficit in our Skilled Workers

Re: Brits leaving in record numbers
 

Hi Paul, this goes no way to answer your question but Britain has always been such a transient nation. How many British are indeed truly British anymore? There are probably only a handful who can trace their Anglo Saxon roots.

With such an historical influx of immigrants from places such as Scandanavia, Rome, the Caribbean, Pakistan, India and now eastern Europe it is a very diverse little island.

Families are drowning themselves in the straits between Tangier and Gibraltar to get here. Men are strapping themselves to the undercarriages of lorries and people are risking their lives to work illegally in places like Morecambe Bay in order to pay the passages of their families to come here.

There are no elysian fields.

Many are choosing to emigrate from here because they feel they are becoming marginalised in what they view as their own country. In some places road signs are in Urdu, Punjabi, Hebrew, Polish and finally in English. This makes people angry and to escape the immigrants they become one themselves. It's very ironic.

I live near Blackpool and last year the majority (75%) of seasonal workers were Polish. This year the locals have 'fought back' and taken the jobs for themselves bringing this total down to 25%.

A comparisan can be made to the British moving to Canada. Yes, I'm finding it hard to get a job and so is my OH but we are aware that we are immigrants and that there is a hierarchy to employment. Many complain but if this country did the same they wouldn't be moaning then because it would be happening to others rather than themselves.

I don't think that we are moving out in such vast numbers but I think that the housing market has played such a great part in it though.

Oh, I've digressed so far from your original question but coming from a country where political correctness had gone too far its nice to be heading to a country where they can advertise a job and ask exactly for the type of person they want. re an ad I saw where only black women aged between 18 and 35 need apply!

Sorry!:o

Re: Brits leaving in record numbers
 

It all makes it sounds as though there will be some room on our green and pleasant land doesn't it ? Regretably its not the case. The recent addition to the EU of Bulgaria, Romania and especially Poland has seen a huge increase in migrants into the UK from these countries. Poland must be empty at the moment ! However, alot of the people coming in are plugging vital skills gaps, such as in nursing, so its not all bad

Re: Brits leaving in record numbers
 

Hardly. A population increase of, at most, 1% in the UK would be barely noticeable, likewise the 2% drop in Poland is no big deal. There are plenty of places more crowded than the UK:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...lation_density

Re: Brits leaving in record numbers
 

Hey, lets' all move to Greenland.

There's no-one there aparently. Or should we just send all of those wingebags from BE who don't seem to be happy anywhere. They can all live together and not bother anyone else but the sea lions!

Re: Brits leaving in record numbers
 

Granted, but the population moving our seems to be spread throughout the country. There does seem to be a large influx of immigrants to the South east. This is a generalization, but certain areas to seem to be somewhat swamped at the moment. There are also a large number of refugees and illegal immigrants that aren't disclosed in official statistics

Re: Brits leaving in record numbers
 

Define "a large number" of illegal immigrants, preferably with some sources. People get really excited about this kind of stuff, but I've not seen any evidence that it's a real problem.

Re: Brits leaving in record numbers
 

However go to the ‘returning to the UK’ forum and the impression would be rather different

I believe the truth is a significant number of those that emigrate, do not do so on a permanent basis

The search function on here will dig up mountains on this old topic
It would appear that those “leaving” desire to be seen as doing the right thing and that support in numbers help shore up their decision to emigrate; otherwise I see no logical reason why this biased statistic/topic should reoccur so often on this forum
Might as well lump it in with UK in moral slump, UK full of immigrants (ironic), UK violence on rise, UK government corrupt, UK schooling failing, UK hospitals failing, etc

Re: Brits leaving in record numbers
 

Thats probably because you live in Vancouver

Re: Brits leaving in record numbers
 

Since January. Before then I lived in London and Manchester, amongst other places.

While I'm here, has anyone got any pictures of these "road signs in Polish" that I keep hearing about? The nearest I've found so far are things like this:

http://www.cheshire.gov.uk/PR/2007/february07/68-07.htm

which just sounds like common sense.

Re: Brits leaving in record numbers
 

my OH was working in london last year and one building site actually had a sign up saying ;no english need apply; as for evidence im afraid he doesnt carry a camera around with him while at work.

Re: Brits leaving in record numbers
 

What I notices is that living in the SE (I live in Oxfordshire) is that the immigrants now are those that can afford to buy the housing in the half a miilion quid brackets. 10 years ago when I lived in Kent they were immigrants with no skills or funding that were trying to get into the UK.

I assume its like Brits and others moving to Canada with $500K+ worth of real estate assests and buying up housing. The immigrants I recently come across seem not to be short of money i.e driving BMW/Merc etc and well qualified and educated. So being an ex immigrant(8 years in Canada) I have no problems with skilled persons wanting to work and live in the UK.

Re: Brits leaving in record numbers
 

45 in 2004, 66 in 2005 and 78 in 2006 ... who knows where it will lead?

Re: Brits leaving in record numbers
 

hey!

Re: Brits leaving in record numbers
 

Read a book called "Bloody Foreigners" to know how the UK has always had immigrants going back to the very beginning - it's what makes this country so interesting, and frustrating at the same time.

Rob.

Re: Brits leaving in record numbers
 

Where do they get the figures from?

No-one asked us where we going, for what purpose, and if we'd be coming back. We had the accountant do the necessary leaving the country tax paperwork but the child benefit continued to be paid (despite repeated requests to stop) for a year and a half after we'd left, so I don't believe they can draw any kind of reliable data from other government depts.


Edit: ahh, p33-p40 of dbd's link. a 0.3% sample of travellers is interviewed at entry/exit ports - "The resulting estimates of migration are not sufficiently robust for all the uses to which they are put."

Re: Brits leaving in record numbers
 

Something else not considered so far is the number of emigrants from the UK who were recent immigrants. Someone who came from Poland worked for a few years and went home would count as an immigrant and, five years later, as an emigrant.

Re: Brits leaving in record numbers
 

I think you'll find that the true "British" were there long before the Anglo-Saxons and still are.

Imagine if there was a forum like this in days gone by?

Re: Brits leaving in record numbers
 

there is another documentary ongoing, though not sure when it will air, if it will air at all, the bbc panaroma are following the stories of uk cops leaving to join forces around the world, this may have some interesting general data. i may even be on it, they are following some officers over to edmonton.

Re: Brits leaving in record numbers
 

The NHS are cutting back on staff, closing hospital beds and moving inpatient staff into vacant posts which have been frozen for the last 18 months so the NHS can cook their books and claw back some of their overspends.

Student nurses who have spent 3 years training (on a pittance) can't get jobs.

Sharon

Re: Brits leaving in record numbers
 

True Brits? Do you mean the Celts? Are those blood lines any "purer" than any others. As my elderly father (part Scots, part "English" in whatever combination of Angle, Saxon, Norman, Dane etc.) maintains: even the white Brits are all "mongrels". Anyhow it's not only white-skinned Brits who leave (and frequently return). I guess people will always seek "greener pastures"... only to realise that living anywhere brings its own share of problems vs loveliness.

And while I'm on the subject of race... hasn't genetic analysis "proved" we're all descended from the same African Eve anyhow? I guess those ancient nomads (early emigrants/immigrants) have a lot to answer for.

PPS: I also note that Canadians treasure their immigrants and seem to despise the aboriginal population, while in Britain it's the reverse. Go figure.

Re: Brits leaving in record numbers
 

I agree with your final point. Many of Britain's skilled workers are now paying tax to Canberra and Ottawa, so the more skilled workers entering Britain, the better. The trouble is, many of those entering are not skilled, as the UK has only just woken up to the existence of the points-based immigration system.

Can't say I have any experience of your first paragraph. I live in the SE and most Polish can usually be found stuffed into rapidly-converted-to-rental semis.

Perhaps what is disconcerting many people is the scale of the migration today. I'm certain that up to 1997, Britain took 50,000 immigrants a year (at least through the 1980s and 1990s), but after 1997 this jumped to what many have claimed is now 500,000 a year. Quickly people have linked this to the increase in house prices, and so on, and a new anti-immigrant culture is born. Rightly or wrongly, this leads to a displacement where many British shift over to Canada or Australia, and take their skills with them, many of which were gained at considerable expense to the British tax payer.

Where does it all end? Can the economies sustain permanent shifting of people, or will this be seen as a golden age of immigration, soon to come to an end because of increased "international security" concerns and economic problems?

Re: Brits leaving in record numbers
 

I think the amount of traffic on that forum is more of an indicator.

Whilst very vocal, the amount of threads and active users on a daily basis is far lower than the outbound forums(fora?); especially when you consider that's a single forum catering for everybody heading back, whereas the outbound are divided amongst scores of others by region.

Re: Brits leaving in record numbers
 

But people emigrating need their dreams bolstered and their fears calmed by strangers. People going home can phone their mothers for that reassurance.

Also, people going home already know the routine stuff; how to work the banks, how to get a driving license, yadda yadda.

Re: Brits leaving in record numbers
 

I think most Britains are leaving because the UK doesn't have a Dental Plan.:D

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Ho ho, yes, true enough.

And I guess there's also a lot more speculative posting on the outbound ones.

Re: Brits leaving in record numbers
 

we have had that problem too. did you have to repay it? Just curious;)

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I will when they ask for it, I assume that'll be in another few years, the incompetents! Until then it's sitting earning me interest in the UK account it was paid into :)

Re: Brits leaving in record numbers
 

Yeah, right. I bet you spent it really