[Menydh]

It is also Bye-Bye Britain

Not funny, but it struck home

The Spectator
November 11, 2006

Apparently almost a million British citizens have left the country since 2000, to live somewhere else. Last year, according to the Office for National Statistics, 380,000 people left Britain, of whom about 200,000 were British citizens. At the same time, though, 565,000 immigrants arrived in Britain, the overwhelming majority from the Indian subcontinent (largely Pakistan and Bangladesh).

These facts were reported as if they were entirely unrelated. Nobody dared to venture that there was perhaps a very direct and even causal relationship between the record numbers of British people leaving the country and the record numbers of non-British people coming in...

[source]

More Britons consider move abroad

BBC News
August 2, 2006

More British people than ever before want to turn dreams of a foreign life into reality, a poll for the BBC suggests.

About 1,000 people were questioned for the survey and a majority said they had considered emigrating, little change from a similar 2003 poll.

However, the number hoping to move in the near future has almost doubled.

[...]

Young people were the most likely to want to leave, with a quarter saying they were hoping to live abroad.

[...]

Some 12% said they did not like what the UK had become while one in 10 said they already had friends or family overseas.

The most popular choices for emigration were Australia, Spain, Canada, New Zealand and the US.

The opinion poll results reflect trends in the limited national statistics on emigration. According to official figures, record numbers of people have been emigrating with 350,000 having left in 2004 - up a third on ten years.

[...]

"Britain has developed a particularly global outlook thanks to centuries of flows in and out.

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Trends in age of British migrants have changed too. This article dates back to 2005:

Young Brits leaving UK
spark �brain drain� fears

Daily Express
May 9, 2005

Reasons given for leaving included soaring crime, house and petrol prices, and long working hours.

A survey showed that around 12 per cent of those aged 21-35 are considering moving abroad permanently in the next five years -- more than 1.2 million young adults.

In contrast, recent figures from the Office for National Statistics show that Labour�s �open door� immigration policy saw an increase in the number of people coming to Britain for the sixth year running.

In 2003, 151,000 people came to the UK to live.

More than 260,000 people left London to live in other parts of the UK, while 152,500 moved to London from the provinces.

However, immigration meant the number of people living in the capital still increased.

Most people leaving Britain permanently opt to live in Australia, followed by Spain, the USA, Germany, France, The Netherlands, Canada, South Africa and Japan.

London was also found to be the world's second most expensive city to live in.

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