Shocked so many young people seem to be moving abroad

[lonielou]

First off, I know this anecdotal and perhaps someone here will have stats on this but I have one DD, been chatting to her tonight. She is 23, her school year are 23/24 now and we were chatting about what everyone from her small school are doing now. She was in a class of 14 at a prep school in south west London, we have discovered of her class

2x Live in Australia
1x USA
1x Hong Kong
1x Dubai
1x Kuwait
1x Germany
1x France

That leaves 5, DD is one of those and looking to move in the future but is still studying.

DD has no contact with 1 of these people so in theory could be living abroad.

Now I know this is anecdotal and she may just be in a particularly adventurous group but I also know several friends with kids living abroad, Australia and the Middle East seeming to be the big ones.

AIBU to be shocked by this? It feels like a lot of young people (all with the degrees or doing degrees) who could contribute so much to society just leaving!

That's not true. You still have to pay your loans if you work. The threshold changes but you still have to submit your salary details to student finance.

I mean you’d have to get some proper stats to make any meaningful conclusions, but rich/well-off British kids having the means and desire to go off exploring the world in their early 20s is hardly a new phenomenon.

But emigrating, or working abroad for a while, isn’t a denigration of the UK. I’m not British, and I adore my home country, but I left immediately after university because of a recession and high unemployment, and then, after spending some time elsewhere, had the chance to do postgrad degrees in the UK. But also, regardless, I’d have wanted to see the world.

What are they going to do to you if you don’t? One of my friends is quite open, even boastful, that her son who’s a doctor in New Zealand has never repaid a penny of his student loans and never will.

This pretty much. It makes me sad but it doesn’t surprise me. I spent 6 months working in a European country in my early 20s. These days I’m not sure I’d have come back to the uk.

I don't know why you are so shocked.

Many young qualified people from all the EU did the same when they went travelling and finding jobs in the UK.
The Tories sent them home and with a really shit show in the UK it's now their own young graduates who are leaving the UK now.
I wonder what the Brexiteers think of this.
Young people wanted jobs and a real economy, not to work in a country with English people only.

a country with English people only
Have you even been to the UK? Over 11m in the UK are first generation immigrants.

Think the young have always travelled. I and many of my friends arrived in London in the early 90’s, most went home after a few years, I stayed. Both my DC’s now working abroad; one in Aus another in the EU.

I feel now though the young are moving for a better standard of living and career prospects whereas in my day it was for adventure and to experience different things.

The UK seemed vibrant and exciting 35 years ago when I arrived, now it just seems tired and bleak. I hope it finds its mojo again but I fear that won’t be for a while.

Technically, I also never repaid a penny of my student loan. My high band clinical salary deductions don't even cover 20% of annual interest. The core of my loan is still unpaid and growing every year until it is wiped off just before I retire. Just because I work for the NHS England, doesn't mean I merrily pay back my student loans. Which tells you something, doesn't it?

Yes I did. I lived in the UK as a young graduate two decades ago and stayed for a while building my career.

I know there is a big amount of British people living there, as a result of the movement of people from the ex- colonies. And I also know the sentiment of the Brexiteers who thought there were too many of them already and loved to go back to an old Imperial England and didn't have the vision of a multicultural country. This and also blaming the EU for everything. The CEO in the place I worked at the time used to talk about it I'm front of all us- foreigners.

I am doing my best to encourage mine to obtain the skills needed to move abroad if they want/need to.

Conservatives started destroying the U.K. Labour are continuing at a far faster pace. I dare not think how bad it will be in 15 years time unless something significant changes.

Looking at the migrant data from Denmark and Holland, British and USA immigrants bring those countries the most economic benefit. Many immigrants cost countries money.

If other countries look at the data our young people will be very attractive. Shame our government doesn’t see it. Our governments are happy to encourage other countries young people and nurses etc to leave - well I think the UK may now end up losing its young people.

This week I have had several people say to me they are looking at moving out of the U.K. all British all very skilled / professional / middle class. Once you have an honest conversation with people and express a little dissatisfaction with the U.K. others open up. This month has been eye opening.

Ex London private school pupils is not a typical cohort to prove a trend. This has always been typical of privileged 20 somethings, often they have grown up with family properties or parents working abroad.

Graph from the study I referred to
I am sure countries will be very interested in our young graduates.

A young guy here met 40 people from this Cork village and two neighbouring towns at a party in Sydney around 2012. After the Crash everyone just left. Many are back again of course. But it does seem to be hardwired into the Irish : if there's no work there's no point hanging around.

Well my DC’s must be doing something wrong as they are both paying back their student loans whilst living abroad! Don’t know the details but they were contacted, need to declare their earnings and pay back monthly.

I guess if they were happy to completely sever all ties with the UK and never come back to live they could not pay. One definitely has no intention of returning to the UK but works in finance and knows unpaid debt make it impossible to work in that industry if he was ever to take a job in the UK.

While I have my own views on the whole student loans whilst living system your boastful friend sounds unpleasant and perhaps is part of the reason the UK is not doing so well.

Typo! Whole student loan system that should read!

I think that things are pretty bleak everywhere, but being in the UK one tends not to hear so much detail of other countries,

France has a massive debt problem,
Germany also has significant debt problems,
Spain has housing shortage/affordability,
Australia has debt issues and difficult housing affordability,
USA has Trump,
Hong Kong has China,
Dubai has issues with human rights.

And then there's the climate change, apparently the fires in Los Angeles,
'A nearly two-decade effort by Californians to cut their emissions of planet-warming carbon dioxide may have been erased by a single, devastating year of wildfires, according to UCLA and University of Chicago researchers.'

Perhaps we should pack it all in and let the ants have a go.

your boastful friend sounds unpleasant and perhaps is part of the reason the UK is not doing so well.

Moral judgement aside (I was horrified because of the ££££ spent on his training, the student loan is the least of it) it appears to be quite common to lose touch with student loan providers when people emigrate. Losing those people’s skills is contributing more to the state of the UK than their failure to repay their loans which are held by commercial lenders.

I wonder if student debt will just end up like a country's national debt? Never going to be paid off , just serviced with interest payments. Stupid idea loading kids up with massive debt in the first place. The whole rigmarole is probably more expensive than just giving them a means tested grant?

Presumably if your prep school class on the whole went on to public school and then minimal loan university they have already been a net gain for the uk. If they remove themselves from play here for a few years then return with their earnings either for holidays or later permanently they will also be a net gain in the future. What is the problem with that from a financial point of view?

Most doctors especially the newly qualified ones will not leave the country if the working conditions are not this bad.
Their training opportunities are limited by the introduction of PAs. I work in a senior role in NHS and am not surprised at all in seeing the young doctors leave.
They spend 5/6 years studying and when they qualify, a computer software ware decides where they will end up doing their job - not their university scores, not their preference. I cannot think of any profession which gets treated like this. You may have family in south of England, may have family in Wales but the computer may send you to Lancashire - where you may not know anyone, no family or friends support system, work in horrible conditions, pay is not great, have huge debt!
Now, if you in are in this situation- Australia, NZ, USA appears to offer better opportunities.

As a 24 year old who is moving abroad in 2 years, there is absolutely nothing that could convince me to stay in this shambles of a country. There is nothing here for me.

I’m in my fifties.
My 2 brothers moved to America to study and remained.
2 friends moved to Australia
1 friend went to Canada
1 friend went to America
DH sister moved to Spain

This is all 30 years ago
The two friends who went to Canada and America returned post covid.

They all moved for work, we considered moving about 20 years ago as DH was offered a job in NZ but it was just a bit too far, it’s nothing new to me.

I wish to christ that I had emigrated abroad. I really hate living in England.

Yh this is my thoughts. Seems to be a lot of this sentiment currently but it's mostly concentrated within professional, high earning circles (which fair enough, this group is being squeezed for tax here currently)
It's not a common experience or sentiment round here, which is a fairly working class area.