The Brits are jumping ship ( Archived) (28)

People migrate for many reasons, apart from financial and political.

Many just simply want to experience life in a different country, culture or just to have an adventure.

Migration has happened since pre-historic times, and will always happen.

Why are so many of us leaving Britain?
Is it the crap weather? The lack of affordable housing? The far-reaching ramifications of colonialism smoothing our way as we migrate around the world?
A combination of the above? Whatever the reason, according to a new report from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, Britain has a greater proportion of its citizens living overseas than any other European country.

As a recent British economic immigrant to the Netherlands, it doesn’t surprise me that the issue of British-born immigrants is widely ignored by anti-immigration factions in the UK.

It’s a highly inconvenient truth that 3.97 million British citizens were living abroad in 2010 - and since then their numbers have grown to the point that the House of Lords are currently debating whether overseas Brits should be able to vote in the EU referendum.

We are many and mighty, with enough voting clout to swing a decision. No wonder Ukip are reluctant to draw attention to us.

Madeleine Sumption, the director of the University of Oxford Migration Observatory, has been quoted in The Times saying: “We normally think of the UK mainly as a destination for migrants, but it also has a long history of emigration... The OECD data suggest that Brits are more mobile than many other countries with similar levels of development, like Germany, France or the United States.”

English-speaking people (apart from Americans) tend to travel more than others, because English is spoken more in every country, and thus is easier to get employment and fit in socially.

BY ALEX HAMMOND · MARCH 6, 2014

Five hundred years ago, between five and seven million people spoke English, almost all of them living in the British Isles. Now, anywhere up to 1.8 billion people around the world speak English.

How did this happen?

The growth of English has nothing to do with the structure of the language, or any inherent qualities, and everything to do with politics.

The British Empire
After developing for almost a millennium on the British Isles, English was taken around the world by the sailors, soldiers, pilgrims, traders and missionaries of the British Empire. By the time anything resembling a language policy was introduced, English had already reached all corners of the globe.

For example, English-speaking puritans were not the only Europeans to arrive in North America: Spanish, French, Dutch and German were also widely spoken. All of the languages were reinforced by waves of immigration from Europe in the following centuries.

But in the process of designing a “United” States, the USA’s founders knew the importance of language for national identity. English was the majority language and had to be encouraged. As recently as the start of the 20th Century, several states banned the teaching of foreign languages in private schools and homes. The U.S. Supreme Court only struck down restrictions on private language education in 1923.

Even today, English is not the official language of the USA, but there is no question that it is the dominant language in practice.

And it wasn’t just America that said “hello” to English. At one point in the early twentieth century, the British Empire expanded across almost a quarter of the world’s surface, not including the USA. According to a popular saying, “the sun never set on the British Empire”.

Thanks for letting me know that. I'd never have known otherwise ..

Always glad to help a Cork Lass

Is there one simple explanation why so many Brits have jumped ship?