Good morning, would-be emigrant. your mission, should you choose to accept it, involoves waving goodbye to the shores of Blighty once and for all and saying hello to a new life abroad. To do this you will need to overcome many barriers over the coming months, including increasingly stringent immigration laws, tighter job markets and one of the worst global financial climates for more than a century. Should you fail, your punishment will be to stay in the UK… possibly forever. This magazine will self destruct in five seconds.
Okay, so that last sentence may be taking things a bit far – you have my word that no explosive devices are really contained within the pages of this magazine – but the fact is that in trying to emigrate some of you will feel as though you are facing your very own mission impossible right now.
Official government statistics released in November 2010 revealed that an estimated 140,000 British citizens emigrated in 2009 – the lowest number since 1999 and down from 173,000 in 2008. However, these figures should not be taken as a sign that emigrating is becoming a less popular dream for Brits.
In fact, nothing could be further from the truth. A 2010 poll conducted by Gallup stated that one in three British people would like to leave the UK permanently if they had the opportunity, giving Britain the highest percentage of want-away citizens of any country in the European Union.
So why, then, are emigration numbers in the UK falling at a time when the desire to leave these shores appears to be reaching its peak?
The simple answer is that, for one reason or another, the whole process of emigrating has become increasingly difficult over the past couple of years – hence the mission impossible analogy. Indeed, the same Gallup poll showed that while Brits were the most committed EU members to leaving their country, they were also among the least likely to be doing so anytime soon. Just 2% of those surveyed said that they expected to be leaving the UK over the next 12 months.
If you would like to find out more about emigration to Australia, Canada or New Zealand, or to read this article in full, visit the Emigrate Shows this Autumn, or register online at www.emigrateshow.co.uk for a copy of the Emigrate magazine.
