Stressed Britons Flee Gloom for Laid-Back Life
December 14th, 2007When I ask British people if they’re happy in New Zealand, they almost chortle with glee. When I ask Americans the same thing, their faces take on serious looks, as if recalling a narrow escape from a bad traffic accident. I exchange an I-know kind of look and say, “You don’t even want to get me started.” We don’t spontaneously drop down and kiss the dirt, but it’s close.
Via: Stuff:
While stories about immigrants pouring into Britain feature daily across the pages of British newspapers, less attention is paid to the number who quit.
The latest official migration figures showed that while 591,000 people arrived in Britain last year, a record high of 207,000 Britons left for sunnier climes.
High levels of crime, dreary weather, bad transport and expensive accommodation helped drive Christopher Khalil to Sydney, Australia, said the 33-year old from Rhyl, a seaside town in north Wales.
Australia, where the former superpower used to send its criminals, is the No 1 destination of choice.
“It’s a new world out here – the sun shines every day, the beaches are beautiful, it’s cheaper to live, salaries are approaching UK ones and you can live an amazing outdoor lifestyle,” Khalil, who now works for an Australian digital media company, said by email.
“There seem to be new people arriving every week in search of a better life and better opportunities,” he said.
One-third of last year’s emigrants headed to Australia and New Zealand, a quarter went to Spain and France and just under one in 10 to the United States.
A lot of the problem is just how neurotic and self-deluding and pathologically narcissistic the culture has become. I’ll bet the biggest difference you noticed after you had been there for a while was that each and every last little goddamn thing wasn’t necessarily about extracting the largest amount of cash possible from people and situations.
NZ certainly has its own problems but I was struck, when last there for one week for work, by the preponderance of a strange quality: a degree of humility.