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One in ten Brits now live overseas - 12 December 2006

A new survey has revealed an exceptionally high proportion of British-born people now choose to live overseas, and over 2,000 people a week left the country permanently in 2005.

Research conducted by the Institute for Public Policy Research suggests that at least 5.5million Brits now live abroad, and while Australia and Spain are the most popular destinations, more and more people of working age are heading to the growing Asian economies to pursue careers.

The co-author of the report, Dhananjayan Sriskandarajah, said that the figures are expected to grow further in the next few years. “If current trends continue, we could expect as many as a million more British nationals to emigrate over the next five years”, he says on the BBC website.

While it is easy to speculate over the possible economic and social motives behind people’s decision to move overseas, Dr Sriskandarajah sees it as more of a lifestyle choice taken by people who people who can now afford to choose where to live after benefiting from the strong UK economy. “Two-thirds of Britons who leave do so to seek employment abroad – and are replaced by skilled professionals from elsewhere in the world.”

The age of those moving permanently abroad is certainly coming down. Statistics from the International Passenger Survey in 2004 show that only 17.5% of those who departed these shores for good were retired. On top of this, a recent BBC survey on attitudes to emigration showed a quarter of young people saying they were hoping to live abroad. The survey also showed that the overall number of people hoping to leave the UK in the near future had doubled since 2003.

There is now a real diversity in the destinations chosen by the emigrating British nationals. Some 41 countries now have a significant British expat population, with over 10,000 permanent residents. Australia, the US, Canada and Spain are the top destinations, while there was significant growth in numbers of residents moving to other areas. The UAE, Pakistan, Singapore, Thailand and China all saw their British communities expanding quickly.

Brits abroad also proved to be a hardy lot: Three retired couples have moved to Libya, two to Afghanistan and one couple have even gone to settle in Kazakhstan. Borat would be proud…

 

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