GENERATION EMIGRATION: While many Irish emigrants are moving to Britain, their new home is facing a brain drain of its own, writes MARK HENNESSY
FOR MILLIONS of people, Lord’s Cricket Ground, in St John’s Wood in London, is a picture of England, ordered and traditional. Others hope it is the route to a new life far from English shores: they have come to the ground in their hundreds, despite bad weather, for the Emigrate Show.
Warming up from the snow outside with coffees, a couple in their 40s who prefer not to be named offer dispiriting views of the UK. “We don’t feel there is any future here,” says the woman.
Her partner, a plumber, who hopes they will head for Australia, says, “I have a place with hardly any mortgage, and I am struggling. Here I have to work subcontracting, earning a pittance, while in Australia I could be earning three times the money.”
With his 45th birthday approaching, he is in a hurry, as he will lose points under Australian immigration rules if he applies later. “What sort of a future do we have here? How am I supposed to pay £9,000-a-year tuition fees to put my kids through college? We want a better life.”
A quarter of British workers would be willing to emigrate to find a better job, according to a study last year, and the desire to leave is stronger among the better educated, with one in three graduates and nearly two in five postgraduates contemplating doing so.
“Even if only a fraction of these people make the move abroad, UK businesses will face a significant loss of talent just at the time they most need it,” said Sukhi Ghataore of GfK NOP Engage, which carried out the survey.
In 2010, 43,000 more British left the country than returned. Although that is the lowest number since 1999, the fall is down in part to sterling’s weakness and to poor EU job prospects rather than to greater contentment.
In particular, the numbers quitting for the good life in Spain and France have fallen sharply, according to a report from the lobby group Migration Watch.
Since 1991, Australia has been the favoured destination for British emigrants; 500,000 have gone there, and 200,000 more have gone to the US, with 400,000 going to Spain and France and 125,000 going to Germany and the Netherlands.
Emigration is harder than it was in the past. “It used to be a lot easier to do five years ago and more. A lot of people can’t sell their homes and free up capital,” says Mike Schwartz of the Emigrate Show. “Governments in countries such as Australia have become much smarter, looking only for people who will benefit them. Vacancies are there, but people have to be a lot savvier about how they go about their preparations.”
He also warns against false expectations. “People are generally dissatisfied with their lot, believing that the grass is always greener elsewhere: bills to pay, health worries. Those things don’t change wherever you go.”
Canada, he says, will increase its numbers next year for properly qualified immigrants, including “a million for British Columbia – vast numbers”.
Barry Sweeney of SW Global Resourcing, who is looking for highly-qualified engineers with experience in petrochemicals and other major construction projects, says trade at Lord’s has been slow. “People are ambling about, to be honest.”
He has found a very different atmosphere at similar shows in Ireland. “There is desperation in Dublin: the last time I was there I had 360 CVs by the time I left.”
He is not the only person to complain about qualification inflation.“In Ireland everybody claims to be a project manager when all they did was build houses. I feel sorry for those who went into civil engineering. Now they have no opportunity to get experience when Australia is crying out for people with experience.”
For more on this subject, see
The Irish Times
emigration blog:
