Why don't a lot of English people live abroad?

[Booneymil]

Hi! I was just thinking about something. I am Irish originally. I have lived and worked in around seven different countries at my age. I am 40. I love moving around and living in different places. I have been working in england now for two years.

At my large workplace, there are a lot of English people and a lot foreign people working there. So we have people from Spain, Poland, Italy, Australia, and Lithuania working there. Every one of the foreign people there have lived all over the world. I was chatting to the lithuanian woman, she has lived in Indonesia, in Sweden, Switzerland and in Italy.

I was chatting to the Spanish woman - she has lived in Italy, Spain, Germany and Norway. She told me she was from a wealthy family in spain so she had no need to move, she just had a desire to see the rest of the world. I was the same, I always wanted to see more of the world.

The English people in my workplace, there are about thirty of them.

Not one of them has ever lived abroad. A lot of them are old enough that they could have moved around the EU before Brexit happened. But they didnt.

I was thinking about it. Why? Why is it so different in England.

Can't be bothered trtft but surely it's occurred to you that foreign people living in England are far more likely to have lived in different countries? If you went to work in Sweden, and you had an English colleague then the same would apply to them.

I'm not feeling very patient today, so I'd better not say anything else....

“it’s really common in Europe”

I’m Scandinavian and vast majority of my friends and family back home have had zero interest to leave their home country other than a holiday. Most of them aren’t even interested to that as they really enjoy holidaying in their home country.

I can, from top of my head to name one friend who lived in Dubai for about six years and one who lived in UK for two uears. Thats it. I’m the only person in my whole wider family and friendship group who left and moved to another country (and has not returned).

Both choices are valid. Here in the UK I have friends who have lived in this area for their whole lives. And they are great people and friends. I envy their lives as they have family close by. To me OP your post is just a thinly veiled way to beat the English.

I already answered that point

Well, you just said the point didn’t hold up, because when you were in Spain the Spanish people you knew had lived abroad too.

But, if you look it up, about 2% of people born in Spain actually live abroad. So I think you’re extrapolating wildly from a few limited encounters tbh.

Ooh "extrapolating"!

I haven't seen that one used in a while

@Booneymil actually within Europe the UK is about average for living/ working abroad. Eastern Europeans is more likely to move abroad as are Spainiards and Italians but French German Belgians and Scandinavians are less likey than the British to move abroad
it depends a lot on avaialbility of jobs and wages, Southern mediterranean and Eastern Europeam countries generally have higher youth unemployment and lower wages so the attraction of moving is obvious, For most of Western and northern Europe there is relatively little underemployment and wages relative to cost of living are fairly similar so less incentive to move

My family are here, I don’t speak any other languages and I don’t like hot weather so England is the best place for me!

You don't need to speak any other languages to live abroad!

But its nice that you are happy here

Ireland's history of oppression and deprivation meant that for many Irish people, they had little or no say in the matter. Emigration meant survival, especially during the famine years (although I'm mindful of those who didn't survive and died on the coffin ships). Those who settled and established Irish communities abroad made it easier for those who followed in their wake. I'm a child of the '70s and I've seen a few waves of emigration in my lifetime - in particular, during the recession of the '80s and those who emigrated in the wake of the disastrous bailout of the banks in 2008.

A lot of the emigrants worked hard and thrived, but their success came at a terrible cost. Those who emigrated in earlier centuries did so knowing that they would never see their families and friends again and would never return to their homeland. For every Irish person who settled and made a good living, I wonder about those who experienced poverty, alcoholism and loneliness - those whose dreams of a better life failed to materialise. And someone earlier made a good point about the brain drain. I think about the success stories and I wonder what those people might have achieved if they (and in turn their children and grandchildren) could have stayed here in Ireland. But I think for many people, Ireland is just too small - it could never offer them the opportunities they could avail of abroad.

England has a very different history (the conqueror rather than the conquered) and the people there didn't experience the same degree of oppression and deprivation. So it's not surprising that English people don't emigrate to the same extent as they don't have that tradition of emigration.

A quick Google says .65% emigrated from Ireland and .59% emigrated from UK.
2023, 2024 figures.

I think you need more than 1 workplace to get the data.

I moved from England to Scotland after uni for my first graduate job does that count?

'Proper" abroad yeah the language barrier

Known a few mates from back in the day go to Australia on young persons visa.

I was thinking the same about people thinking England = GB/UK.

It's pretty basic logic that if you're living in the UK the Brits you're going to meet are not the Brits who live abroad whilst the foreigners are going to be foreigners who do live abroad. It tells you absolutely nothing about the percentages of the different populations who do live abroad.

I disagree.

When I lived in Ireland a couple of years ago the Irish people that I worked with in Ireland had all lived abroad for a time.

Brexit is obviously affecting England.

Who thinks that? I don't know anyonw that thinks that.

If its that uncommon in the UK why does the UK have the most citizens living abroad of any nation in the EU?

I have never met a British person who hasn’t been abroad, nevermind never left a city. There are loads of British people at my work place and my husbands workplace. I’m currently living in my third country.

Erasmus has gone for the UK too so you wouldn't be able to do that now.

But surely it's a skewed sample? Your foreign colleagues are foreigners already living abroad, so they are all by definition people who have chosen to live abroad in at least one place. You're not getting to speak to all the people from their countries who stayed at home and have no desire to ever live abroad! Whereas your English colleagues are living in the British Isles. If you go to Spain or France and talk to English ex-pats, they will be more likely to have lived in other countries too! I'm a teacher and know quite a lot of other teachers from England who have worked abroad.

I do agree that lots of Brits are probably put off by the language barrier though.

Lots of courses do offer a year abroad in Europe, but unfortunately you need a visa to do it now. Fucking Brexit . Dd is about to go on her year abroad (when her visa actually comes through - it's been a nightmare!).

Already been said, and I already answered it

For me the prospect of living somewhere I don't speak the language would be daunting. I wouldn't feel confident that I could advocate for myself or seek healthcare for example. That's fine for holidays but I wouldn't like to be in that position longer term.

Plenty of other countries speak English though? Australia, new zealand, canada, USA ireland

For most of those the long distance would put me off. I don't live close to my family but we are at least in the same time zone for communication and don't have to long haul travel to each other.

With Ireland I'd worry about whether I'd be accepted as an English person and in the past the abortion restrictions would have concerned me as I have a family history of a pregnancy related illness.

If I could click my fingers and speak something like Swedish or Danish I'd be up for moving somewhere in Scandinavia.

@Booneymil you sound a bit judgey tbh

I suppose that's your view and you're entitled to it though

Anyway, for me, I was lucky enough to work in America for a bit. Just the odd project here and there. I thought about trying to get longer term work, but I didn't want to leave my parents an ocean away. Fine if that's what people want to do. It just wasn't for me.

I mostly worked in London but came back to my home place in Essex a couple of years ago. And many days, I actually wish I'd never worked in London. I think it would've been easier to form lifelong bonds if I'd just stayed here.

anywhere other than America, I was never particularly interested. I have relatives in another country. Still not interested. It's not a country that's great for women.

I think in English culture it's typically presented as something to do when you're retired e.g. the classic "middle-aged English couple with a house in Spain".

I would like to move abroad myself but then I consider the difficulty of (a) finding and keeping a job in a country where I will likely be disadvantaged for not knowing the local language and (b) moving away from all family/friends to a place where I may struggle to make meaningful social connections. But maybe I shouldn't let fear hold me back.