Brits Abroad project blog

While there has been a lot of recent attention to immigration to the UK, there has been relatively little attention to emigration from the UK, particularly from a global perspective. This project aims to fill the gap by mapping where Brits Abroad live across the globe and understanding who they are: their reasons for leaving the UK, their experiences of moving and settling in another country, the contacts that they maintain with the UK and any desires to return. More details can be found in the project outline.

We are currently around a third of the way through the research and we would now like to open up the debate on policies concerning Brits Abroad to interested parties. Over the next four months, we would welcome your thoughts on the changing nature of emigration from the UK and reactions to policy ideas that might aim to support and/or harness the potential of the British diaspora.

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[Phil Allsopp]

I've lived in the USA for 30 years. My wife is from Michigan. She and I met when we were both studying at Columbia University in New York (different fields).

I know for a fact that I could never have achieved what I have in my career had I remained in the UK. I was born on the wrong side of the tracks and there were no silver spoons to be jammed in my mouth or doors of influence to be swung open by family members.

One of the many reasons we voted for Obama is because he, like us, made his life and career from his own efforts and talent.

The UK, sadly, has millions of talented and energetic people but for some reason their opportunities are forever being crushed by government bureaucracies. Based on having to deal with these in recent months surrounding the death of both my parents, the UK bureaucracies seem more interested in rewarding terrorist sympathizers and immigrants from unstable parts of the globe than creating opportunities for UK citizens to achieve a better life.

One curiosity remains. The Brits call a bathroom off a bedroom an "Ensuite" as if somehow its something upper crust and rare. Saya a lot about general living conditions that are still in many parts of the country way below where they should be. That's not to say I'm advocating the growth of bloated McMansions of the sort that pollute our cities and suburbs over here.

[Phil Allsopp]

I've lived in the USA for 30 years. My wife is from Michigan. She and I met when we were both studying at Columbia University in New York (different fields).

I know for a fact that I could never have achieved what I have in my career had I remained in the UK. I was born on the wrong side of the tracks and there were no silver spoons to be jammed in my mouth or doors of influence to be swung open by family members.

One of the many reasons we voted for Obama is because he, like us, made his life and career from his own efforts and talent.

The UK, sadly, has millions of talented and energetic people but for some reason their opportunities are forever being crushed by government bureaucracies. Based on having to deal with these in recent months surrounding the death of both my parents, the UK bureaucracies seem more interested in rewarding terrorist sympathizers and immigrants from unstable parts of the globe than creating opportunities for UK citizens to achieve a better life.

One curiosity remains. The Brits call a bathroom off a bedroom an "Ensuite" as if somehow its something upper crust and rare. Saya a lot about general living conditions that are still in many parts of the country way below where they should be. That's not to say I'm advocating the growth of bloated McMansions of the sort that pollute our cities and suburbs over here.

[Michelle Creevey]

A director with specialist migration financial consultants, Simon Barwick at Vantage Financial, was recognised in the Australian Financial Review (AFR) for paving the way for UK Pension Transfers in Australia to Self Managed Super Funds (SMSF’s) under the new ‘A Day’ rules. Vantage Financial has had one of, if not the first SMSF, in Australia to be approved by HM Inland Revenue and Customs which was made possible through our UK based Pension Transfer Specialist and in conjunction with an Australian based administrator.

Under the post April 6 or ‘A Day’ rules, Australian super funds need to be Qualifying Recognised Overseas Pension Schemes (QROPS) for a pension transfer not to be taxed on transfer at a minimum of 40%. Our joint efforts have meant that even clients who want to establish SMSF’s can now transfer their pensions and not incur penalty tax.

“Having a UK-based specialist advisor definitely streamlined the process as did having an Australian administrator. Our subsequent applications seem to be taking less time, so it looks like the UK regulators are gearing up for this,” Barwick says.

Currently the Australian Federal Government has created a window of opportunity for anyone wanting to contribute to Australian superannuation. Limits for ‘Un-deducted Contributions’ to super (in which pension transfers are included) have been increased to $1,000,000 till June 30, 2007. Anyone wanting to contribute to super, especially those who have UK pensions and want to establish a SMSF, should take advantage of this immediately.

This article has been loaded onto our website to easy viewing. Just follow the link www.vantagefinancial.com.au

For Vantage Financial, this has been a significant milestone achieved for our clients.

[Jim Tilley]

I brought my family to Australia in 1971 to escape the devastation I could see ahead with the policies being promoted by one Harold Wilson. Having witnessed what the UK went through in the next 25 years I am more than glad I made that decision. My 2 sons thrived here, both have experienced excellent international careers and prospered as I did.

I visit the UK regularly and although I love the countryside and its greenery, I despair at the general atmosphere there, in particular the deteriorating cities, the congestion, the cost and frantic manner of travelling on the motorways.

Many friends in the UK I love to visit but to me the very best part of the many visits is the sight of Cronulla and the bushland on the port side as the 747 glides back into Sydney airport.

The one thing now about Britain which really annoys me is that the State pension I paid for by making my contributions when I worked there is now frozen, although had I migrated to many other countries abroad, like the USA, the Philippines, even Italy or Germany, the UK pension would be indexed for inflation. There are many expats living in Australia saving the UK a "motza" on medical costs but the "Poms" as we call you, will not budge on their claim that to pay us an indexed pension will impose a unacceptable burden of £400 million pr year on the taxpayers there.

But will it? Did you know that the National Insurance account from which pensions are paid today has a balance of £33 billion which is £22billion above the Actuary's prudential balance and that by 2010 this balance is forecast to reach £60Billion? Who is lying?

I believe the Whithall Wallies, as ever, are pulling the wool over the eyes of the politicians, and not being up front with the true facts. Britain is the only OECD nation which does not index its expats' pensions in all countries abroad.

Consequently and being still "bulldog" British and being incenced at the miserly attitude still being perpetrated by your Labour politicans, together with British expats from Canada and South Afica, who also suffer this pension indignity, we are taking the UK government to the ECHR Strasbourg to embarass the British once again in that august institution.We are paying for this from our own resources.

Blair sprouts on about the Western values he intends to take to the Middle East; about being "even-handed, fair and just", but why does he not start praticing these virtues with his own folk who are denied a just pension just because they have decided to migrate and reduce the UK's National Health costs in the bargain? Why not treat us expats equally with those expats who are living in Spain and the USA?

Blair, practice what you preach and give us fair go. We do not get the winter fuel allowance, we do not impact on your crumbling NHS, we do not get the Christmas bonus, but we would like our pensions to be treated equally with those given to British expats living under the thumb of George Bush.

Needless to say I have made my home in Australia. I barrack for the Aussies at cricket, but I am still known here as "pommy bastard" and I treat it as a mark of respect and endearment.

One son is just back home from 8 years working in Belgium. I visited him and stayed there often finding the quality of life there superior to that I experienced when I "flew across the ditch" to the UK.

Jim Tilley
Woronora Heights NSW 2233

[Jeremy Millard]

Like others I have had swings and roundabouts experiences since I left UK in early 80s to live with my Danish wife in her country. Mostly very good experiences I hasten to add!

However, what worries me most in the 21st Century is that, as Secretary of Labour International (which represents Labour Party Members living abroad), I am now much more conscious of the democratic implications of international migration. Labour International is highly envious of the rights of Italian ex-patriots to vote for their own representatives, as they did in the 2006 Italian general election. British, Irish and Danish citizens are alone in Europe in being denied their basic democratic right to vote for a national parliament after spending more than a limited number of years living outside their country of nationality. In today’s Europe, where politicians and commentators alike decry the increasing democratic deficit, this is an unacceptable further erosion of democracy and human rights.

In a globalising world, which the UK Labour government is right to embrace, people are working, living and retiring in different countries more than ever before. Political and democratic rights must keep pace with such developments. Labour International is seeking to work with equivalent groups of overseas Conservatives and LibDems in order to fight such a denial of democracy which directly impacts Britons abroad who otherwise contribute a great deal economically and in other ways to the UK. This is an issue above party politics which should not be determined by any narrow assumptions about electoral advantage.

In many countries, such as on the Costa del Sol in Spain, many politically active Brits are already working, at a local level at least, with sister parties to develop a new form of multi-national politics designed to reflect the realities of a mobile workforce and mobile retirement. I welcome the IPPR’s focus on the British émigré community, and hope that democratic and political representation aspects will also be examined as part of this.

This is an area in which I also have some professional expertise and would welcome the chance to work with IPPR on this issue.

Jeremy Millard

[Bradley Herrmann]

Since the 60’s young people have had incomparably more exposure to life abroad when young than our parents. By the time I finished university 25 years ago I had probably already spent the best part of 2 years out of the UK between holidays, school exchanges, gap year, and university courses abroad. Add to all these experiences, not untypical for many, the advent of cheap air travel, which has made foreign ways of life more easily discoverable to people of all ages.

We start early learning to enjoy better climates, different interpretations of the work-life balance, a sense of liberation being away from “home”, perfect croissants, cheaper drink, being a novelty rather than just another face in the crowd, more outdoor activities, easier relationships, more satisfying sex - all the myriad differences that appeal to us in different ways.

In recent years we’ve found that much of what we might otherwise miss can live abroad with us. E-mail, instant messaging, Skype, video chat take care of communication with friends and family. It’s been nearly 10 years since I discovered I could hear “The Archers” more clearly through the Internet than I could on FM in Islington, and now there’s 500 hundred channels of digital TV too. Newspapers online, books from Amazon, “The Economist” and “Private Eye” by post, virtually anything from anywhere a few clicks away. And those cheap flights again for when we absolutely have to breathe the air of home, or more often when friends and family want to share my good fortune.

My holiday home in Cadiz became my only home in 1998 when returning to London one weekend in early July I found it was so cold I had to put the central heating on. I wake up to the “Today” programme (some habits die very hard) but I eat, drink, and sleep (even now dream in) Spanish. I couldn’t be happier.