Fewer brits opt for oz

Whilst the number of Brits emigrating to Australia has declined, Kiwis are more than filling in the gaps, flooding into Australia faster than you can say ‘Gidday mate'...

This story comes as a real surprise to me. What with the credit crunch battering Britain, unemployment on the up and summer still months away, I would have thought emigration levels would have been sky rocketing.

Federal Immigration Minister Chris Evans had revealed an increase in inquiries from potential British emigrants worried about a UK recession just last month.

But the figures don't lie and the number of British migrants moving Down Under has fallen by around 10,000 from last year, according to the UK's Office of National Statistics (ONS), which revealed that just under 40,000 Britons moved to Australia in 2007.

2007 was a bumper year- the years either side - 2006 and 2008 both saw 30,000 Brits emigrating to Oz. In 2006, there was a general decline in the number of Brits escaping Blighty, perhaps because they could see the housing boom and economic buzz that was awaiting them in 2007.

Despite Oz migration numbers falling this year, it still remained the top choice for British migrants, swiftly followed by Spain, New Zealand, the USA and France.

Kiwimania

Forget the Brits; New Zealanders are flocking into Australia like never before. Despite a frosty relationship between the land of the long white cloud and Oz, there is something of a Kiwi exodus afoot.

Recent figures from Statistics New Zealand put the Kiwi migration at a record high - 47,800 Kiwis started a new life in Australia this year.

The new New Zealand Prime Minister John Key has been busy campaigning to try and stop his countrymen leaving their home and to try and entice Kiwis that have moved abroad to return home. Concerned that the exodus will leave a gap in the skilled worker sector in New Zealand, Mr Key has introduced a new range of visas to make it easier for foreigners to start a new life in New Zealand.

Great Britain?

On the flipside, recent ONS figures showed an overall leap in the number of people moving to Britain last year, sparking a political row over the nation's immigration controls.

Net migration - the difference between people moving from and to Britain - rose by 25 per cent to 237,000 people last year.

The result was due to emigration levels falling faster than immigration.

Out of the 577,000 people who arrived to live in Britain last year, the biggest group came from Poland (96,000).

Picture by clafouti