They flew in from around the world, chasing the Australian dream, but now they can't wait to fly right back out. So what's causing this mass exodus?
The latest figures show that migrants are leaving Australia in record numbers.
There are those who want to stay, and those who can't wait to leave. The grass is supposed to be greener, but it seems ‘the sunburnt country’ is losing its appeal.
Last year alone the number of people coming here to live dropped by nine per cent to 127,000. As well as that 88,000 left, planning to never return. That's double the number of a decade ago.
Travel agent Lisa left the United States ten years ago, and now she's among the tens of thousands of migrants who wants to move back home.
“I find Australians in general not as accepting of foreigners. TVs, fridges, cars - they're double or triple the price here. Movies take like three months to get here and there's nothing to do at night. All I think about is going home,” Lisa said.
Joining the queue are ping pong poms, Kevin and Lynne Ward. The couple moved back home to England after a month long visit to Perth.
When they first applied to come to Australia, Kevin - a qualified plumber - was told he'd be in demand. It was good enough to get a Skilled Migrants Visa, but not good enough to get a job when he finally arrived with his family.
“If you're an English plumber, with all the qualifications under the sun, you might as well throw them in the bin - they're not worth the paper they're written on,” Kevin said.
But when the Wards finally arrived, Kevin was told to retrain. They’ve called it quits, and back home it was - feeling like they were sold a dud.
They went back home - a 30,000 kilometre round trip.
“We ended up ringing the shipping company and saying ‘leave the stuff on the container, just send it straight back again’,” Lynne said.
The adventure down under cost them a $100,000.
Daphne Loffman is a nurse who’s just moved to Perth from England with her family, hoping for a better, easier lifestyle. But it's been anything but.
“Everything's more expensive,” she said.
“We wanted to stay. We didn't spend that money, and all that time and effort, for a laugh, and to sit here and moan about it,” Daphne said.
Coming to Australia is a huge commitment, and an expensive exercise.
“They told me that it would be ten to fifteen years, and if I wanted citizenship, I'd have to fork out about $34,000,” said Jan Peters.
Peters is the flip-side. She actually wants to stay in Australia, but fears she'll have to move back home to New Zealand.
“It leaves a sick feeling in your tummy, even though you're contributing, you're working hard, and you're making a good life - you're doing all the right things,” Peters said.
Like so many other migrants, it's Australia's rules, regulations and red tape that's putting her off, and forcing her aboard the migrant merry-go-round.
“I've had the advice, and I don't see the point in going through the process of applications, so I haven't done that. Maybe I should,” she said.
TV and radio personality Jono Coleman thinks “Australia does have a bit of an image problem.”
According to Coleman “life is more expensive, petrol's more expensive, and going to the supermarket is more expensive.”
Coleman's parents were ‘ten pound poms’. He chased fame and fortune back in the Motherland, before returning home to Australia.
Seeing it from both sides, he says it's time for an image overhaul as Australia's reputation overseas is getting trashed.
“There's a joke that goes around in the UK: ‘What's the difference between a tub of yoghurt and an Australian?’ And they say ‘the tub of yoghurt has got more culture’,” Coleman said.
And Australia’s also getting more expensive. A report by public policy think tank, The Centre for Independent Studies, has found our cost of living is spinning out of control.
Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane are now among the top twenty priciest cities in the world, where a decade ago they would've just scraped into the top 100.
“That's one of the things we don't realise about Australia - we're not just a great immigration country, but we're a great emigration country,” Professor Graeme Hugo, the head of The Australian Population and Migration Research Centre at the University of Adelaide, said.
Professor Hugo says it's time the Federal Government focuses more on stemming the stampede abroad, rather than trying to keep the migrants out.
“The increase in cost of living in Australia may be one of the factors which is encouraging some people to go back. I think a lot go back because they miss that interaction with family, and also lifestyle factors. You know things don't turn out quite as they expected they might,” Professor Hugo said.
The worst part is we are losing our best and brightest as highly skilled workers, our most educated, are lining up to live elsewhere.
“I often think that Australia could well do to have an emigration policy as well as an immigration policy,” Professor Hugo said.
But it may be too little too late, especially for those migrants already on their way home.
http://au.news.yahoo.com/today-tonight/lifestyle/article/-/12721871/migrants-leaving-Australia
The latest figures show that migrants are leaving Australia in record numbers.
There are those who want to stay, and those who can't wait to leave. The grass is supposed to be greener, but it seems ‘the sunburnt country’ is losing its appeal.
Last year alone the number of people coming here to live dropped by nine per cent to 127,000. As well as that 88,000 left, planning to never return. That's double the number of a decade ago.
Travel agent Lisa left the United States ten years ago, and now she's among the tens of thousands of migrants who wants to move back home.
“I find Australians in general not as accepting of foreigners. TVs, fridges, cars - they're double or triple the price here. Movies take like three months to get here and there's nothing to do at night. All I think about is going home,” Lisa said.
Joining the queue are ping pong poms, Kevin and Lynne Ward. The couple moved back home to England after a month long visit to Perth.
When they first applied to come to Australia, Kevin - a qualified plumber - was told he'd be in demand. It was good enough to get a Skilled Migrants Visa, but not good enough to get a job when he finally arrived with his family.
“If you're an English plumber, with all the qualifications under the sun, you might as well throw them in the bin - they're not worth the paper they're written on,” Kevin said.
But when the Wards finally arrived, Kevin was told to retrain. They’ve called it quits, and back home it was - feeling like they were sold a dud.
They went back home - a 30,000 kilometre round trip.
“We ended up ringing the shipping company and saying ‘leave the stuff on the container, just send it straight back again’,” Lynne said.
The adventure down under cost them a $100,000.
Daphne Loffman is a nurse who’s just moved to Perth from England with her family, hoping for a better, easier lifestyle. But it's been anything but.
“Everything's more expensive,” she said.
“We wanted to stay. We didn't spend that money, and all that time and effort, for a laugh, and to sit here and moan about it,” Daphne said.
Coming to Australia is a huge commitment, and an expensive exercise.
“They told me that it would be ten to fifteen years, and if I wanted citizenship, I'd have to fork out about $34,000,” said Jan Peters.
Peters is the flip-side. She actually wants to stay in Australia, but fears she'll have to move back home to New Zealand.
“It leaves a sick feeling in your tummy, even though you're contributing, you're working hard, and you're making a good life - you're doing all the right things,” Peters said.
Like so many other migrants, it's Australia's rules, regulations and red tape that's putting her off, and forcing her aboard the migrant merry-go-round.
“I've had the advice, and I don't see the point in going through the process of applications, so I haven't done that. Maybe I should,” she said.
TV and radio personality Jono Coleman thinks “Australia does have a bit of an image problem.”
According to Coleman “life is more expensive, petrol's more expensive, and going to the supermarket is more expensive.”
Coleman's parents were ‘ten pound poms’. He chased fame and fortune back in the Motherland, before returning home to Australia.
Seeing it from both sides, he says it's time for an image overhaul as Australia's reputation overseas is getting trashed.
“There's a joke that goes around in the UK: ‘What's the difference between a tub of yoghurt and an Australian?’ And they say ‘the tub of yoghurt has got more culture’,” Coleman said.
And Australia’s also getting more expensive. A report by public policy think tank, The Centre for Independent Studies, has found our cost of living is spinning out of control.
Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane are now among the top twenty priciest cities in the world, where a decade ago they would've just scraped into the top 100.
“That's one of the things we don't realise about Australia - we're not just a great immigration country, but we're a great emigration country,” Professor Graeme Hugo, the head of The Australian Population and Migration Research Centre at the University of Adelaide, said.
Professor Hugo says it's time the Federal Government focuses more on stemming the stampede abroad, rather than trying to keep the migrants out.
“The increase in cost of living in Australia may be one of the factors which is encouraging some people to go back. I think a lot go back because they miss that interaction with family, and also lifestyle factors. You know things don't turn out quite as they expected they might,” Professor Hugo said.
The worst part is we are losing our best and brightest as highly skilled workers, our most educated, are lining up to live elsewhere.
“I often think that Australia could well do to have an emigration policy as well as an immigration policy,” Professor Hugo said.
But it may be too little too late, especially for those migrants already on their way home.
http://au.news.yahoo.com/today-tonight/lifestyle/article/-/12721871/migrants-leaving-Australia
හොඳ ජොබක් තිබුනොත් ගොඩ!
