How Much Money Do Expats Take From The Uk

[right_freds_dead]

im no professor of economics. if i was id be in some fancy college by now and in the masters cricket team.

but im not. i am a plain simpleton.

what i am thinking is that everytime an expat takes off to new zeland, they take at least £300k with them.

if 10 of them do this that quite a lot of money leaving the uk economy. if 1000 do its even worse.

im not sure how many leave the uk. id guess its 10,000 - thats a lot of money leaving.

sure we do replace them with no immigrants, but they are generally poor. to make that money up they have to lend more to buy the homes the expats have left.

is it me, or are we hemorrhaging cash from the uk ?

[OnlyMe]

Good question.

I think the sums may be huge, where are the stats for expats?.

Even at £100K, it is a £1Bn for every 10,000.

[MarkG]

is it me, or are we hemorrhaging cash from the uk ?

Yes, though I'd be surprised if the average was as high as 300k. The people I know of who are looking to emigrate to Canada run from those with a few hundred thousand (if they can sell their house) down to those still trying to save the minlmum 5k or so per person that the government require to prove you can support yourself for a few months before you get a job.

im not sure how many leave the uk. id guess its 10,000 - thats a lot of money leaving.

Canada alone has an annual quota of over 10,000 from the UK.

[88Crash]

Yes, though I'd be surprised if the average was as high as 300k. The people I know of who are looking to emigrate to Canada run from those with a few hundred thousand (if they can sell their house) down to those still trying to save the minlmum 5k or so per person that the government require to prove you can support yourself for a few months before you get a job.

Canada alone has an annual quota of over 10,000 from the UK.

I think last year approx 250,000 Brits emigrated

[AteMoose]

You could do a poll here :

http://britishexpats.com/forum/

[right_freds_dead]

so 250,000 leave taking an average of say £100k with them.

we replace them with only 150,000 new immigrants (and we complain about that) who are quite poor and lend the money which the expats have taken out of the uk with them ?

thats quite bad policy.

why do they leave ? its not always the weather. nz and canada are not balmy. must be the uk lifestyle. the violence and lack of space. perhaps its the lack of space that causes the violence.?

maybe we should open up the greenbelt to more than just a handful of farmers and land owners. lets build on it more ? lets build more smaller new villages or expand the ones we have.

pretending to be a lush greensleeves country is crap. were crammed into towns. why do we waste 80% of the land.?

[MarkG]

To be fair I think that 250k figure is UK residents leaving, which includes a lot of people who've come from abroad to work or study for a few years: so they're unlikely to have brought large amounts of money here in the first place.

[Prude]

why do they leave ? its not always the weather. nz and canada are not balmy. must be the uk lifestyle. the violence and lack of space. perhaps its the lack of space that causes the violence.?

maybe we should open up the greenbelt to more than just a handful of farmers and land owners. lets build on it more ? lets build more smaller new villages or expand the ones we have.

pretending to be a lush greensleeves country is crap. were crammed into towns. why do we waste 80% of the land.?

I am sure that about a year ago the stats given for adults in Britain suffering from somw form of medicated or non medicated depression were about 12million adults in th UK. If I'm remebering this correctly this says a great deal about the environment, work patterns, breakdown of community, relationships, law and order, poor schooling etc in Britian today. The stresses for people trying to make a decent living and care for their family are enormous.

Why would you want to stay when you could leave may be a more pertinent question here?

[MarkG]

Why would you want to stay when you could leave may be a more pertinent question here?

I think that most people still find the stress of leaving (and particularly the fear of leaving and then having to come back after a year or two to the jibes from their friends and relatives who never risked doing so) greater than the stress of living in the UK.

Also, as bad as the UK may be, in many respects the job market here is much better than a lot of English-speaking nations.

[Mushroom]

There are ongoing monies leaving as some will be drawing pensions from the UK.

[Trevor Werewolf]

RFD

I'm an expat living in Western Australia. I left the UK in August 2004 and took around 100K with me. A large chunk of this has now gone as I haven't been able to find a job and I'm not allowed to claim any benefits.

Why did I leave the UK? You're right nothing to do with the weather, quite simply I wanted a better life for me and my family. There's def. something to be said about cramped living conditions and violence. I used to commute to Oxford from Northampton on a daily basis sometimes by car, sometimes on motobike. I would encounter some sort of road rage every day of the week. Have yet to experience it on this side of Oz.

I found life in the UK becoming unbearable. I was sick of feeling stressed out, feeling caged and trapped in a tiny terraced house. I was working just to pay overpriced bills, rip-off mortgage and gormless community charge. I needed a change. You only live once and I'd had enough of living like this. However emigrating doesn't solve your problems, it just gives you different ones to face! I'm now in the reverse situation, where I rent a fantastic five bedroomed house on an acre of bush, a minutes walk from the beach for around 110 quid a week, but am seeing my savings rapidly diminish as I don't have a job, and am pretty unlikely to find one.

Other reasons for leaving UK: STUPID HOUSE PRICES, UNIVERSITY TUITION FEES AND STUDENT LOANS, TONY EFFING BLAIR, NOT BEING ABLE TO PARK OUTSIDE HOUSE, TOO MUCH TRAFFIC EVERYWHERE, MISERABLE, RUDE PEOPLE, CRAP TELEVISION, THICKO/CHAV CULTURE..... ad nauseum!

[AteMoose]

RFD

I'm an expat living in Western Australia. I left the UK in August 2004 and took around 100K with me. A large chunk of this has now gone as I haven't been able to find a job and I'm not allowed to claim any benefits.

Why did I leave the UK? You're right nothing to do with the weather, quite simply I wanted a better life for me and my family. There's def. something to be said about cramped living conditions and violence. I used to commute to Oxford from Northampton on a daily basis sometimes by car, sometimes on motobike. I would encounter some sort of road rage every day of the week. Have yet to experience it on this side of Oz.

I found life in the UK becoming unbearable. I was sick of feeling stressed out, feeling caged and trapped in a tiny terraced house. I was working just to pay overpriced bills, rip-off mortgage and gormless community charge. I needed a change. You only live once and I'd had enough of living like this. However emigrating doesn't solve your problems, it just gives you different ones to face! I'm now in the reverse situation, where I rent a fantastic five bedroomed house on an acre of bush, a minutes walk from the beach for around 110 quid a week, but am seeing my savings rapidly diminish as I don't have a job, and am pretty unlikely to find one.

Other reasons for leaving UK: STUPID HOUSE PRICES, UNIVERSITY TUITION FEES AND STUDENT LOANS, TONY EFFING BLAIR, NOT BEING ABLE TO PARK OUTSIDE HOUSE, TOO MUCH TRAFFIC EVERYWHERE, MISERABLE, RUDE PEOPLE, CRAP TELEVISION, THICKO/CHAV CULTURE..... ad nauseum!

why are you finding it difficult to find a job? does australia have unemployment problems?

Edited October 17, 2005 by moosetea

[right_freds_dead]

I used to commute to Oxford from Northampton on a daily basis sometimes by car, sometimes on motobike. I would encounter some sort of road rage every day of the week. Have yet to experience it on this side of Oz.

well you will be pleased when i tell you it hasnt changed....

hopefully you will find work soon, but evn if its less than you'd hoped at least your living, and as you say - you only live once. your missing even less here in the uk at the moment. its still in silly mode. though sobering up fast.

were still being offered massive house prices, poll tax rises and casinos.?

[Lord Lucan]

I left the UK for NZ in 1996 with 150k.... Am currently back in Blighty for family (children seeing grandparents) reasons and WHAT a shock. We were planning to try and make the UK our home again but can only stomach two years max.

With regard to TW's post....totally concur....It's generally the greed and the mindless chaviness that gets to me. Sure you get it everywhere but in Britain it is particularly bad. And of course there's the poor quality overpriced housing with the inevitable selfish chav neighbours. This is a VERY TIRED COUNTRY in need of real change. This is not a place I want my kids growing up in.

And by the way we are saving like crazy, so will be taking even more cash out when we go.

If you have a brain and the willingness and an open mind to adopt new cultures then you will not regret living abroad. Knowing I can get out of here is the only thing keeping me sane.

Edited October 17, 2005 by Lord Lucan

[GCS15]

RFD

I'm an expat living in Western Australia. I I would encounter some sort of road rage every day of the week. Have yet to experience it on this side of Oz.

STUPID HOUSE PRICES, UNIVERSITY TUITION FEES AND STUDENT LOANS,

1 - You haven't encountered Road Rage because there are only about a dozen people in WA

2 - Those reasons are the same ones that I'll be using to go to the UK. If I can't afford a house here then why stay. I'll take my education overseas leaving behind my debt (suckers - the guys who charge me for my education got theirs for free)

[bobdabuilder]

You would be surprised by how many people leave the UK with proceeds from their UK house sale and then buy mortgage free in the sun or simply rent while they enjoy months of "holiday".

Problem is getting work for many people, and the number who return home within 2-5 years without a penny is equally surprising.

So not only does the money leave, but when the people return they need state help.

[right_freds_dead]

to make this country back to what is the best place to be would only take a couple of changes (fairly large changes)

free up the false greenbelt (may as well be in a glass jar)

build 5 more large prisons for drunk and disporderly crimes.

min sentence 6 months for binge drink fighting. vandalism.

and i mean 6 months no tv. no smoking. no phone cards. a full and proper sentence.

when my sister was in hospital she had to pay £3.50p for the tv. prisoners got if for free ?????

i strongly believe alcohol is the cause of our troubles.

[Michael]

Money the expats take away and the remittances the poor Eastern Europeans send home to their families would appear as ''invisible imports''.............in the same way our trade deficit on tourism does. We spend more money overseas as tourists than foreigners (aggregate figure NOT per person) do here ......

But overall on ''invisible'' trade we always run a surplus because of the City of London's dealings with other countries..........This surplus on invisible trade is however far outweighed by the deficit on visible trade.

I left the UK for NZ in 1996 with 150k.... Am currently back in Blighty for family (children seeing grandparents) reasons and WHAT a shock. We were planning to try and make the UK our home again but can only stomach two years max.

With regard to TW's post....totally concur....It's generally the greed and the mindless chaviness that gets to me. Sure you get it everywhere but in Britain it is particularly bad. And of course there's the poor quality overpriced housing with the inevitable selfish chav neighbours. This is a VERY TIRED COUNTRY in need of real change. This is not a place I want my kids growing up in.

And by the way we are saving like crazy, so will be taking even more cash out when we go.

If you have a brain and the willingness and an open mind to adopt new cultures then you will not regret living abroad. Knowing I can get out of here is the only thing keeping me sane.

but don't the people we call ''chavs'' over here exist everywhere?..........except in traditional societies. ...

.......In the US i believe they call them ''white trash'' .....

a beastly phrase IMO with ghastly racial overtones....as it sneakily implies all black people are trash.....

[right_freds_dead]

but don't the people we call ''chavs'' over here exist everywhere?..........except in traditional societies. ...

.......In the US i believe they call them ''white trash'' .....

a beastly phrase IMO with ghastly racial overtones....as it sneakily implies all black people are trash.....

no. i worked in rough and tough oil towns in texas for 8 years and never saw half the trouble i could see in the uk in 5 days. maybe because you would simply shoot them - i dont know. when they did fight it was pretty tough out in the small towns and pansy in the citys. like girls fighting. i think only on one occassion did some car full of stiffs shout something at me then drive off.....in the uk that sort of thing happens all the time.

id say abroad is much less petty violent.

when some american friends came over we did goout at night and were sipping something in an outdoors pub, when round the corner came some 'toughs' as they passed they were all muttering 'f-ing coppers'. when i collected them i met them at mcdonalds. they were throwing backpacks into the van when behindme someone was beeping all impatient. my friend ernie who almost 7ft x 7ft turned back and shouted them to shuttup. 'whats the deal' and i was left thinking how different it really was in the uk. everybodys got an attitude.

Edited October 17, 2005 by right_freds_dead

[Michael]

i know drink is a problem here......most 16 to 25 yo's just want to go out and get wasted every Saturday night......but weren't we like that too?......only difference now is it seems more acceptable for girls to get plastered than in the past.....In places like Spain you don't see this......nor anywhere like as many women with tatoos........

Generally however i feel safe in England........and always have even when i did my 18 to 25 year old stint in Moss Side, Manchester and Brixton, London as a student and young trendy......in the 80s....

Now I'm snuggled up cosily in the suburbs of a spa town......and i dont see it as a sell-out.......

Suburbs great for childhood and for when you're 30 plus especially if you have children......inner city great fun for 18 to 30s............

Edited October 17, 2005 by Michael

[right_freds_dead]

i know drink is a problem here......most 16 to 25 yo's just want to go out and get wasted every Saturday night......but weren't we like that too?......only difference now is it seems more acceptable for girls to get plastered than in the past

its gin alley.

when i was that age 1990 we got plastered but were not as loud and leery. theres too much Oi' about now. at closing time everybody would be very drunk, but not loud, challenging or rampaging. maybe its the drug cociane having an influence ?

[Freelance Mycophagist]

Money leaving the UK is simply the repatriation of wealth acquired from years of colonialism.

[brainclamp]

Under the balance of payments capital transfer account there is a estimate of this effect - currently about 0.6billion I think from under 100m in 1997.

[van hoogstraten]

I took around 150K GBP with me when I left (with wife & kids) aged 35 which was a combination of equity & redundancy - I didn’t have any savings. I reckon I'm fairly typical in terms of financial circumstance although I don't feel the need to join the Karma Comedians and share anecdotes about how different Oz is to the UK/how I miss Tescos (it does give me a laugh reading it though - especially the greedy homeseller threads) . I used my cash on buying a property on as good a street as possible but also to be mortgage free although I've heard of plenty of Poms who have chosen the more expensive Melbourne bayside suburbs with big home loans, 4x4s & expensive lifestyles. It took me around 4 weeks to get a job once I started looking for one.

[messychopper]

Good question.

I think the sums may be huge, where are the stats for expats?.

Even at £100K, it is a £1Bn for every 10,000.

Oh good count me in.

I think that most people still find the stress of leaving (and particularly the fear of leaving and then having to come back after a year or two to the jibes from their friends and relatives who never risked doing so) greater than the stress of living in the UK.

Also, as bad as the UK may be, in many respects the job market here is much better than a lot of English-speaking nations.

I'm not coming back, don't feel home sick either.

I couldn't find a nice job in the UK.