Post by lurker4now on Jun 17, 2005 4:32:51 GMT -5
Exodus: the great British migration; They go to France, Spain, Canada, New Zealand and, increasingly, eastern Europe. Britons, particularly the middle classes, are leaving in greater numbers than ever before. David Nicholson-Lord reports
Take second homes, for example. People own them in some remarkably far-flung places--ski resorts in Canada, villas in the West Indies. These are not always very wealthy people; owning a second home is turning into a middle-class norm. Officially, there are 151,000 second homes in England and Wales--but they come a poor second to property owned abroad. The industry estimates that there are 750,000 homes in Spain owned by British nationals, roughly 500,000 in France, and many more in places such as Florida, Portugal, Mediterranean countries other than Spain, and, increasingly, eastern Europe. So at least 1.5 million British households--roughly 6 per cent of the total--have given up sufficiently on their "normal" lives to want to half-live somewhere else. And that is just those who can afford it.
But half-living somewhere may be only a stepping stone to moving there: some observers call it "pre-emigrating". Surveys recently have uncovered huge numbers of Britons who, given a free choice, would get out of the country. Separate polls by ICM and YouGov found that more than half would like to leave--the YouGov poll found that 55 per cent had "seriously considered settling in another country". A recent survey by the offshore bank Alliance & Leicester International and the Centre for Future Studies put the proportion of Britons "considering moving abroad to work or live" at a third. Based on these figures, the bank projects that by 2020 an extra six million British citizens--more than one-tenth of our current population--will be living or working abroad. Roughly four million of these will be people aged 50 and above--representing one in five of that age group.
www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0FQP/is_4699_133/ai_n6156974
Take second homes, for example. People own them in some remarkably far-flung places--ski resorts in Canada, villas in the West Indies. These are not always very wealthy people; owning a second home is turning into a middle-class norm. Officially, there are 151,000 second homes in England and Wales--but they come a poor second to property owned abroad. The industry estimates that there are 750,000 homes in Spain owned by British nationals, roughly 500,000 in France, and many more in places such as Florida, Portugal, Mediterranean countries other than Spain, and, increasingly, eastern Europe. So at least 1.5 million British households--roughly 6 per cent of the total--have given up sufficiently on their "normal" lives to want to half-live somewhere else. And that is just those who can afford it.
But half-living somewhere may be only a stepping stone to moving there: some observers call it "pre-emigrating". Surveys recently have uncovered huge numbers of Britons who, given a free choice, would get out of the country. Separate polls by ICM and YouGov found that more than half would like to leave--the YouGov poll found that 55 per cent had "seriously considered settling in another country". A recent survey by the offshore bank Alliance & Leicester International and the Centre for Future Studies put the proportion of Britons "considering moving abroad to work or live" at a third. Based on these figures, the bank projects that by 2020 an extra six million British citizens--more than one-tenth of our current population--will be living or working abroad. Roughly four million of these will be people aged 50 and above--representing one in five of that age group.
www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0FQP/is_4699_133/ai_n6156974
