“… WILL THE LAST PERSON TO LEAVE BRITAIN PLEASE TURN OUT THE LIGHTS.”
(The Sun)

The Sun’s famous 1992 headline is still valid today in voicing the disillusionment that drives so many Britons to seek new lives abroad. Why do they go and where do they go? And what especially are the attractions of La Belle France?

Hard figures are difficult to obtain: the Office of National Statistics does not record destinations of emigrants, and the International Passenger Survey (the UK government’s attempt to measure immigration and emigration) has been discredited. However, a count of British passport holders abroad issued by the Foreign Office in 2006 indicated that the most popular destinations in Europe were France and Spain, and that half a million Britons live in the US while more than 600,000 live in Australia. (Daily Mail 03/11/06)

There is another side to this story. Although there is a large net outflow, estimates indicate that around half of all British emigrants eventually return home. Many younger families fail to make a success of new business enterprises, whilst older emigrants miss their children and grandchildren. They also fail to integrate into their new environments in mainland Europe because of language difficulties. In our tiny village in the Languedoc-Roussillon, for instance, any newcomer without reasonable French would feel isolated.

Figures available are mostly guestimates and it is hard to make sense of them. There are also significant discrepancies, especially concerning second home owners in France.

The Daily Mail (03/11/06) reported that the number of British citizens who emigrate each year has risen by more than a third since the mid-1990s.

Furthermore:
In the years 2000 to 2005 1.1 million Britons left the country while fewer than 600,000 returned from abroad - an overall loss of around half a million British citizens. Around 198,000 UK citizens emigrated in each of the years 2004 and 2005. This compares with just under 150,000 in 1997.

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