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?

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.

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.

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

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!

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

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

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!

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

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.

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

Thats probably because you live in Vancouver

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.

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.

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.