One in five Britons head for Australia
The Herald Sun
From correspondents in London
April 20, 2007 07:58pm
Article from: AAP
ONE in five Britons who move overseas head to Australia, according to figures released in the UK this week.
The Office for National Statistics figures showed 500 British people were leaving the UK every day to live abroad, with Australia the most popular destination.
Spain, France, New Zealand, Canada and South Africa were also popular with Britons leaving their homeland.
In 2004-05, 71,000 British citizens moved to Australia.
During the same period, 78,000 Australians moved to Britain.
Only India provided more immigrants to the UK with 92,000.
A record 380,000 people left the UK in 2005.
Of those, 198,000 were British citizens leaving for more than a year, up on 159,000 in 2001.
In 2005, an estimated 565,000 migrants arrived in the UK to stay for at least a year, which was down on the 2004 estimate.
Many migrants arriving in Britain intended to stay for one or two years, while a large proportion of those leaving intended to stay away for more than four years.
An estimated 1,500 people arrive to live in Britain each day.
Next year, Britain will adopt an Australian-style model for restricting immigration to those with skills in need.
British Immigration Minister Liam Byrne unveiled the timetable for introducing the points-based system during a fact-finding visit to Sydney this week.
Australia uses a similar system to attract migrants with in-demand skills and reject those who would compete with local workers for unskilled jobs.