Colleagues moving abroad

[ChatChapeau]

I've seen a few colleagues/ex-colleagues move abroad recently - and I also have friends who are trying to move abroad, with job offers - and it's left me feeling a bit down.

First, I'm not sure of their motives. They mostly say they have seen a great opportunity in a particular place. Others migrated to the UK many years ago and are now returning "home". But I worry whether it's because the UK is on a downward trajectory and they're getting out.

Next, I'm a bit envious. I would love to move abroad, but I can't due to family commitments.

Has anyone noticed or felt similar? Is this a trend where lots of professionals are leaving the UK? Is it a sign of the UK just becoming crapper? Should I seriously thinking about moving in the next 5-10 years?

Professions I've noticed are highly qualified/high experience, like academic head of departments, doctors, software engineering leads, heads of HR.

I would just love others thoughts and perspectives on this, as I find it difficult to discuss in real life.

I mean, the UK is not a fun place to live right now by any imagination. I've seriously considered job offers abroad with my company and in all but 1 of the roles I would have had a better quality of life with far more pros to moving than cons.

I've stayed for family, as several members need quite significant support ATM. I also (probably naively) hope that things will turn around and get better in the long term. I cheesily really do love this island I call home ❤️

These must be English speaking countries?

Countries like UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, USA, Canada, Denmark, Switzerland, Australia, New Zealand @PinkishWafflePattern

@LittleRedRidingHoody this is super interesting. I feel the same about loving the UK and the people here - there would be so much I would miss.

A few months back I interviewed with an international company for a job in the UK, I (sadly) didn't get that job, but they offered me an equivalent role in the USA, which I had to turn down due family commitments (I also don't feel very excited about moving to the USA).

There are definitely lots of opportunities abroad. I just can't figure out if the UK feels like an unattractive place to live and work, comparatively. I guess every country has its good and bad points

I also see articles pop up occasionally about a "UK brain drain". I'm not sure how much substance these articles have though

I think the challenge is that for high earning professionals (not talking about the super wealthy), you're already paying high taxes which are set to rise further, and the public services you get in return have been and continue to decline. Crumbling health service, struggling schools, high streets covered in litter with sad vacant storefronts...

There are plenty of countries where you can pay less tax and have more disposable income to purchase health, education services privately, or other countries with equally high taxes but better services.

The elephant in the room is, as always, property. With no capital gains tax paid on property, and no land value/property tax (just nominal council tax), more and more of the country's wealth has been sucked into property and thus shielded from taxation, leaving the exchequer more and more reliant on taxing income. Eventually there's a breaking point where people just leave.

The data suggests you are experiencing an anomaly.

The number of Brits leaving the UK is fairly low vs the trend of the last 30 years (on the graph).
In 2023 only 93,000 British citizens emigrated which is 0.13% of the population.

Articles about brain drain run several times a year, every year.

There is some indication that academics are leaving as Brexit has reduced their access to funding making it harder to get work in the UK. And the Tory changes to student visas mean many now just go straight back instead of staying for work which looks to be causing a bit of a spike too.

Why? Lots of senior professionals speak multiple languages, or are at least confident they can learn. Lots of non-English speaking countries also have business sectors which operate at least partly in English.

In finance people are definitely leaving. Dubai, New York, Miami, US West Coast and Milan are popular options. Tax and public services are reasons, and also a perception that the UK is generous becoming less welcoming to high skilled immigrants. Wages in other countries are also generally higher, even before tax. But as OP says, there’s also a generalised perception that the UK is declining and anyone who’s ambitious and young-ish will be better off building their career somewhere with better prospects.