Australians Immigrating To The UK!

Why do Aussies move to the UK?

Ever increasing numbers of Brits are leaving these cold and wintry shores for the sun-drenched beaches and cities of Australia. Australia has been the number one top spot for Brits moving abroad for many years now. Back in August we reported on one family whose dreams of settling in Sydney were realised. Emigration to warmer climes is no longer considered a dream just for the wealthy – ordinary people with the right skills and qualifications have just as much chance as anyone of emigrating to far flung countries like Australia and Canada.

But one thing has always niggled me. What about the Australians who are moving here, to the UK? I’ve always been puzzled as to why someone would choose to leave the golden sandy beaches and deep blue skies behind to set up life in the grey and slightly damp UK.

Therefore we’ve managed to track down three Australians who did just that. We spoke to them about their reasons for doing so and whether they have any regrets about leaving their home country far behind them. Two of them have chosen to return to their native countries whilst one is still happily living here in the UK.

Rachael was born in the town of Moree in New South Wales and spent her childhood in the nearby town of Gunnedah. When she was 18 she went to college in Sydney and landed her first job there for Sony Music. She describes her life at that time as; “work, work, work.” A far cry from the laid back attitude we are led to believe exists in Australia. Rachael decided to change her life whilst she was on her way to meet a friend one day: “I had a moment of clarity walking through Hyde Park in Sydney. I was so unhappy, my work was super stressful and I couldn’t see a way out. I looked at all these people (tourists) just enjoying themselves in the sunshine and thought ‘what am I doing?’ I didn’t even really like myself.”

One of her friends was planning to spend a month in America and Rachael decided to save up enough money to join her. It took her a year to save up the cash to fly out there, but she has never looked back since. From America she ended up in London and is now happily married to a British man, has one little girl aged three and another baby due in April.

She says living in the UK, with family back home is Australia, is very hard. Her parents miss watching their grand-daughter grow up although they keep in touch via Skype every weekend and once a year Rachael returns with her daughter for four weeks to spend some quality time with her family. She does say that they have talked about bringing the children up in Australia, but for the moment she and her husband are happy here and have “a fortunate life” so they are in no hurry to move Down Under.

So what keeps her in the UK? Well she says that she loves the access to culture that the UK has, the ease of travelling to Europe and the multi-cultural melting pot of London life. However she does miss the sun of Australia, the landscape and the people: “I love the ease of life in Australia. People popping in for dinner, no worries I’ll just put something extra on the Barbie. The very informality of it is lovely.”

Of their future, Rachael admits that in the long term she would like to be back in Australia, but for the rest she says that it has all worked out much better than she could have anticipated.

Louise knows all too well the desire to take a career break and do a little travelling, she grew up in Southport, Queensland and caught the travelling bug at an early age. Unlike Rachael, Louise has no plans to settle in the UK indefinitely, seeing her life here as a stopgap only.

Louise in Richmond.

She says that her childhood in Australia was idyllic; “Playing outside all year round, holidays at the beach, swimming and sport at school outdoors every day, bbq on the weekends, playing games with other kids in the street.” Such are her memories of her ‘perfect childhood’ in Australia that she is adamant she’d want to bring up her own children in Australia, although she is realistic about the downsides of growing up there, such as the dangers of skin cancer and the exclusion that can be felt as a child who doesn’t like sport.

When Louise came to Britain four years ago she had no intention of staying more than a year. Coming to the UK took a lot of courage as she knew no-one, she had no job to go to and nowhere to stay. Luckily she didn’t need to apply for a visa to stay in the UK because she has dual citizenship (her father was born in Northern Ireland).

For her first month she stayed in a London hostel and just relaxed, taking in the sights and generally being a tourist. She then found work as a housemistress and moved to Hertfordshire for a year. She is now living in Richmond and working as a nanny. Plans to return to Australia have been put on hold for now as she has embarked on a new relationship that she is understandably reluctant to speak about, but he is an Englishman who is aware of her desire to return to her native Australia.

However when the time comes to leave the UK, Louise knows she will find it hard to do as she will also be saying goodbye to her close circle of friends. She says the advantages of living in the UK are many; “Better access to other countries, cheaper travel, access to galleries and exhibits that would never make it to Australia, white Christmases and better shopping, PG Tips, fish and chips, teacakes and hobnobs.” Who says that we British have no food culture!

Kirsty was born and brought up in South Australia and says she had an idyllic childhood with the big outdoors literally just on her doorstep – tree houses, bike riding, cricket in the backyard, it’s the kind of childhood that is now considered sentimental. She moved to Adelaide once she had finished school and trained to be a nanny. Once she had notched up three years experience of nannying she was offered a job in the US and so re-located there for a year. She says that was about the time she got the travelling bug. She returned to Adelaide where she met an English family who were living in Australia for a year. They asked her to return to London with them to be their nanny – an offer Kirsty found irresistible.

She was meant to only settle in England for a year or two, that was in 1998 and in 2007 she finally returned to Australia: “Having gone there with a backpack I came home with a husband and a daughter and a son.”

She and her husband settled in East London at first and she says life there was great, she loved everything about London, particularly the shopping, theatre and restaurants. However once she had her daughter in 2004 she realised that she wanted her daughter to enjoy the kind of outdoor childhood that she had experienced as a child. Also they both knew that the financial pressures of living in London would be eased if they moved to Australia.

Once their daughter was 3 years old the decision was made, Kirsty’s husband obtained a spousal visa for Australia, the London flat was put up for sale and the one-way tickets to Melbourne were procured. They arrived in Australia on the 29^th of May 2007 when Kirsty was three months pregnant. So far she has no regrets about leaving the UK for Australia. They have built their own home on the outskirts of Melbourne, something she says cannot easily be done in the UK. Their daughter has just started school and Kirsty is pregnant with baby number three! She says: “I don’t regret leaving London at all but there are plenty of things that I still miss like Sainsbury’s, Oxford Street shopping, friends, family, nice sausages and pub food!”

London - not the place to bring up children?

So it seems that whilst London is the place to head for if you are in search of adventure, when it comes to settling down with children, Australia is seen as the ideal place in which to have that perfect childhood.

If you are thinking of immigrating to Australia then read our guide to living in Australia and take a look at your Australian visa options. Join our online community too and find out what everyone is talking about today, get some advice on moving to Australia, upload some photos and make new friends! Bookmark us today to keep on top of all the latest news and views from Australia.

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