Exodus: the real reasons Brits and Irish are leaving Australia

For decades now, the Brits and the Irish have flocked to Aussie shores in search of a better life.But recent data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics shows that might be changing.In fact, the UK was among the top five countries of birth of migrants leaving Australia in 2024 -25.

So, why are so many leaving?

Jacob and Emma, you lived in Australia for more than five years and recently moved back to the UK.What were your reasons for returning home?

It was a massive confluence of things, to be honest with you.There's the obvious stuff like family, right, so getting to spend time with the family, enabling the kids, we have one kid and another one on the way, to actually spend time with the grandparents, enjoy.that family -centered life that we otherwise wouldn't have been able to have.There's also a big opportunity with my work that brought us home, so that was extremely exciting.But then there were economic factors, like, for example, having to buy a house a couple of hours outside of Sydney.

I think Sydney house prices being three or four million for a family home is just not worth um the investment of time to get to to that point i think also being able to like actually put down roots like we've had an offer accepted on a house we've bought a car all the things that we weren't in a position to do in australia because we didn't have our permanent residency And so it stopped us being able to buy the house to do the little things that we wanted.And it's like, we've already been here less than two weeks and we've already kind of got things moving.That felt really nice.

As a English person, um, one of the things that I lacked in Oz, and it's funny because I love Aussie culture, but I lacked that cultural rooting.There's something, something about it.Like, um, we drove past Stonehenge the other day and it's such a culturalrouting when you go past Stonehenge or you go past like a beautiful Georgian terrace or something like that or you see a Tudor house that's all wonky and there's big chunky chimney out the top and stuff like i don't know something just being amongst that when you're brought up with it all your life it's it's really grounding angela you moved to australia 19 years ago to be with your husband russell Why are you now moving back to the UK?

I think it got to the point, we were actually went back in November, October, November last year for my eldest granddaughter's 16th birthday.And while I was there, I realized that was the only birthday I'd ever seen.She's 16 and I'd never been there for any of the birthdays.And I'm thinking, every time she sees me, she bursts out crying.It's like, they've missed out and we've all missed out on so much.Every time I go over, basically, I never ever want to leave.

I hate coming back.I think the food is better in UK for some reason, I don't know.I enjoy food more than I do here.I know National Health Service has got a lot of bad points but Really, it's when you try and visit.I mean, I went to see a doctor two weeks ago just for a five minute visit, $200.

Sue, after living in Australia at some 26 years, what's driving you to want to spend more time back in Ireland?

I'm feeling this sort of almost soul calling back to Ireland.For me, the longer I'm away from my homeland, the more I feel the need to kind of put my feet on Irish soil and just spend a little bit more time there reconnecting to the land, to my ancestors, to everything that's cultural.really about Ireland.So I wouldn't say that Australia is culturally lacking, I just think that it's when you're from a culture that's so rich in literature, in you know, playwriting in music.It's kind of in our soul and it's just different, right?It's just different.

Professor Burrows, what did your research on British migration to Australia find?

Yeah, when we did the research, we think on average around about 20, 20 % return, but things have changed dramatically since then.And the data has changed as well.I mean, obviously the impact of COVID has been colossal because it led to huge, huge disruption.But you know, post -Covid, Brits, who used to be a majority of the people who were the new arrivals, have fallen well down the league table.It's now a diaspora from India and China and Nepal that are far more significant to an Australian context.Yeah, well, the UK is a shithole.

I mean, we're on the cusp of fascism and nothing works.And I do think a lot of the outward migration does appear to be people who have been encouraged to move to Australia to work in the health service.So we've seen a big outflow of medics, of doctors, of nurses, of midwives.With some of the strikes out here, we had people from Western Australia actually giving out leaflets, you know, for people to come and work in WA.So I think the underlying kind of emotional tensions are still there, but the opportunities in Australia are far greater than they are in the UK at the moment.