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Career Abroad or Life at Home?

August 5, 2010 in Working Abroad by Paul Allen | No comments

At a wedding last week I got talking to a doctor within the UK’s National Health Service who is about to relocate to New Zealand.

She will be joining the thousands of doctors and nurses who have left the UK in the last decade to practice in the Antipodes. Many have gone willingly. Disenchanted by the NHS, they are eager to take up positions on the other side of the world that will be relatively better paid, and offer the lifestyle benefits that come from living in Australia or New Zealand.

The doctor I spoke to is moving for similar reasons: she can’t find a job pursuing her specialism in England, but has the chance to do so if she goes abroad. And as she has family in New Zealand already it makes the relocation that much easier.

Nevertheless, she hopes it will only be temporary, and that within five years she’ll be back in the UK, which is where she said she really wants to be.

It makes for a tricky choice – stay at home and compromise your chosen career path, or leave the country and the life you know for a better job and its future prospects.

And it is not just medics in the UK grappling with this quandary. Many people in many professions in many countries around the world face similar dilemmas.

Which would you prioritise?

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Mass British Exodus Waiting to Happen?

May 27, 2010 in Dream Lifestyle, Leaving Britain by Paul Allen | No comments

The majority of Britons want out of the country. Or at least, that’s what a recent survey from foreign exchange broker Currency UK reports.

According to the research, this year an incredible 75% of Britons have considered moving abroad. The main reason for wanting to go was the economy (cited by 31% of respondents), followed by 23% who pointed to poor job prospects at home.

Most popular target destinations were found to be Australia, then Canada, the United States, New Zealand, Spain, France and Thailand.

The last such survey conducted by Currency UK was in 2005. That one reported a much more moderate 25% of respondents were considering leaving Britain.

Sounds terrible doesn’t it, as if the country has really gone to the dogs in the last five years, and a mass exodus is imminent. Maybe. But I have a couple of cautionary observations:

1)      Survey results are fallible. The outcome depends on the question asked, and so it is easy to skew the response according to how the query is phrased. So 75% is probably an over-inflation of the number of people seriously considering emigration.

2)      What the survey does highlight is a link between expatriation and current fears about the UK’s economy. In other words, things seem bad at home, so let’s move abroad. But this is to overlook the fact that similar – if not worse – problems are happening elsewhere.

Moving abroad is too-often seen as a panacea – offering an escape from all the woes of life at home, and the prospect of sun-filled, carefree days ahead. But it’s essential to be realistic. Recognize there are both pros and cons to living overseas, and make an informed decision on that basis.

The chances of finding happiness – whether at home or abroad – then become a lot higher.

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