A census of the medical workforce in Australia in 1998 recorded 4,000 British doctors. Fourteen years on, this number has tripled. Today, there are more British doctors in Australia than there are people living in Manchester city centre. Add to that tens of thousands of British dentists, pharmacists, lawyers, accountants and academics. And that’s just on one continent. More than 4.7 million Britons now live overseas, half of them middle-class professionals who have left in search of higher salaries, lower income tax and better weather.

This week, as reported in The Daily Telegraph, the Home Office warned that Britain will experience a “brain drain” if the trend continues. Nearly half (48 per cent) of British emigrants in 2010 were in professional or managerial roles, compared to 37 per cent in 1991. Britain has developed a “nomadic” working population, the report warns, and, as experts take with them years of valuable knowledge and experience, this will soon have grave “implications for the availability of skills in the UK”.

Most Britons who move abroad head for Australia (22 per cent between 2000 and 2010), with others settling in the USA, Canada, New Zealand and France. Nearly 200,000 work in white-collar jobs in Dubai, while there are 28,000 British-born executives in Hong Kong and 40,000 in Singapore. As the UK emerges from a period of economic stagnation that has stunted growth since 2008, the very people who could provide an impetus to our ailing economy are leaving at a rate of 150,000 a year.

So why do so many professionals emigrate? Businesses blame the UK’s high income tax rates: a graduate on £20,000 will lose 21 per cent of their salary to taxes. The higher salaries that other countries offer are another reason. A recent report by NatWest found that professionals can earn 43 per cent more abroad than at home, while research from Warwick University shows that the earning power of a British degree has fallen by a fifth since 1999. Career-specific reasons include a lack of funding in academia, an NHS with a reputation for being overly bureaucratic, and poor public-sector pensions.

We asked six British professionals living abroad what drove them overseas.

Brain drain: why young entrepreneurs leave home

"WE'VE created crack for women," says 20-year-old entrepreneur Nikki Durkin of her online fashion startup 99dresses. The trouble is, Australian financiers don't want to get the habit.

Australia won't let her, so she's joining thousands of other Australians pursuing their dreams in the US.

There are more than 65 technology startups in Silicon Valley that were created by Australians, and this number is growing rapidly. Many who feature in a major video series launching on smh.com.au on Monday are highly critical of both the government and the venture capital industry in Australia. They say Australia is asleep at the wheel and risks being left behind.

"They're moving to the US, they're getting a green card, and they're not coming back," says Matt Barrie, the Sydney-based CEO of global online outsourcing site Freelancer.com.

According to the Aussie expat network Advance, about 15,000 Australians work in the San Francisco Bay Area alone – a large portion working for tech companies.
Mr Barrie has been an external lecturer at the University of Sydney for 10 years. "Pretty much all of the top guys from every year of my class . . . are actually in Silicon Valley right now doing companies."

Only $120 million – out of $1.8 trillion funds under management in Australia – was invested by Australian venture capital firms last year. US investors are picking up the slack.


"There's a whole range of things that has to be done and part of them is incumbent on the private sector, part of it is incumbent on the government. Right now both parties are absolutely asleep at the wheel

Read more: www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-new...o.html#ixzz2C0ZWJb4g

It isn't just tech. The number of Australians in HK and Singapore running successful fund management operations is notable. Try starting a business in the finance sector in Australia... 2 years of red tape and bureaucracy, pay roll tax , inane questions from ASIC, ATO all over you monopolising your time..... Meanwhile we let the massive incumbents dominate the superannuation industry and fritter away people's money in fees and poor returns. The taxes and employment that the government is missing out on here by making the climate so anti-business is a significant.

Sydney house prices worse than London and New York

THE average house in Sydney is more expensive than the average home in London and New York, according to a comparison of real estate prices in the biggest cities around the world.

Residex figures show the median cost of a Sydney house is $651,500 - almost $190,000 ahead of London, where the median price for a two- to three-bedroom house is $462,000.

A two-bedroom, free-standing house in the New York City metropolitan area (not including Manhattan) is about $180,000 less.

In Los Angeles, it costs almost $250,000 less than in Sydney to buy a house. The peak US industry body, the National Association of Realtors, puts the median house cost at $401,000.

Las Vegas is even more affordable, with a median house price of $166,000.

www.news.com.au/money/property/sydney-ho...frfmd0-1225872983823

2000s - statistics show the beginning of a trend of reverse migration of Greeks from Australia. (back to greece)

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greeks

Tech exodus: what you say about the brain drain crippling Australia's tech industry

Australia is producing more world-class innovators than ever before, and the startup scene is booming - but many of our most successful startups are leaving our shores to pursue funding and support in the US.

Read more: www.theage.com.au/technology/technology-...7.html#ixzz2C0eappS2

Australian multinationals battle brain drain

www.vu.edu.au/media/media-releases/austr...s-battle-brain-drain

Australia’s brain drain biggest on record

Tuesday 7 October 2008

The Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Senator Chris Evans, released a new report today that shows Australia experienced its biggest annual exodus on record with 76 923 people leaving the country permanently in 2007-08.

The Emigration 2007-2008 report reveals that almost half the Australian residents that left permanently were in skilled jobs and nearly two thirds were aged between 25 and 54.

A further 102 066 Australian residents left the country for a year or more with more than 55 per cent in professional occupations or trades.

Senator Evans said the data showed that emigration played a significant role in Australia’s current skills shortage.

‘Historically high numbers of our young, highly skilled people are moving overseas to live and work,’ Senator Evans said.

‘The 76 923 people that departed Australia permanently in 2007-08 represents a 6.7 per cent increase on the previous year and a 325 per cent increase on the low of 18 100 people who left permanently in 1985-86.

‘These latest figures also reflect the current global demand for skills and the internationalisation of the labour market as part of the broader process of globalisation.’

Other key findings in the report include:

The main countries of intended residence for all permanent departures were New Zealand (18.4 per cent), the United Kingdom (17.8 per cent), the United States of America (9.3 per cent), Hong Kong (7.2 per cent) and Singapore (6.4 per cent).

Those leaving are almost equally divided between Australian born and overseas born. This has been the case in every year since 1998-99.

The top five countries of birth for those leaving were: Australia 39 144, New Zealand 7820, United Kingdom 6 047, China 4480 and Hong Kong 2211.

Residents of New South Wales led the exodus with 31 390 people, followed by Victoria (16 408), Queensland (15 289), Western Australia (8388) and South Australia (3140).

39 467 or 51 per cent of the permanent departures were men compared to 37 456 women (49 per cent).

www.minister.immi.gov.au/media/media-releases/2008/ce08098.htm

This sort of thing is happening everywhere now Kiwi's emigrating to Oz, and all other nations coming here..