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The brightest and best

(84 Posts)
varian Wed 19-Feb-20 13:49:32

Research on emigration ahead of brexit found that-

"An increasing number of British people are leaving the UK to go and live in continental Europe ahead of Brexit, the latest figures show. A study by academics at Oxford University and the Berlin Social Science Centre found that emigration from Britain to the EU is now at a 10-year high. An estimated 84,000 UK citizens migrated to the EU in 2019, up from 58,000 the year before the Brexit vote in 2015, and 46,000 back in 2012."

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/british-emigrants-europe-continental-brexit-deal-latest-leave-uk-a9166136.html

The vast majority of UK emigrants to the EU are not retired people but young and middle aged highly skilled people - doctors, nurses, scientists, technologists, engineers, architects, IT professionals, linguists - people who can do well anywhere but not in post-brexit little Britain.

That is why the government is having to try to replace these people by offering inducements to skilled immigrants - but why would they want to come here when their skills are in demand worldwide?

Labaik Wed 19-Feb-20 14:23:30

And this country is now regarded as a hostile environment....

Dinahmo Wed 19-Feb-20 16:02:12

And this government has decided not to allow in unskilled workers so who is going to work in care homes and on farms etc?

A spokesman said today that businesses would have to start to rely on technology. One result would be no more strawberries as I can't imagine how they would be picked without any damage apart from by specially trained robots.

P Patel stated that there are 8 million unemployed people who could be hired. But this comprises mainly the disabled, people caring for family members and the retired. It's funny because I thought that the country had nearly full employment.

growstuff Wed 19-Feb-20 16:57:20

… and students and those who don't need to work.

There was a thread about this a few weeks age with statistics from FullFact.

There's already a shortage of people to do care work, so where are these people going to come from? If people want to do that kind of work, they would probably choose it now. Do people really want people who don't really want the work looking after them?

Daisymae Wed 19-Feb-20 17:25:23

The NHS is kept going by people who are not born here. Most are low paid. ditto people who do seasonal work eg harvesting crops etc. I dont think that it makes sense for the economy to make it impossible for these workers to come here. However that is the ticket that this government promised. No doubt they have a cunning plan. Oh wait, maybe they are making it up as they go along.

varian Wed 19-Feb-20 17:31:28

P Patel's 8m "economically unactive" include students, carers, disabled and sick people and those under 65 who have retired. How many of them want to pick vegetables or wipe bottoms?

varian Wed 19-Feb-20 17:36:24

At the other end of the scale the brexit brain drain is depriving our country of the brightest and the best of our own people - those we can least afford to lose.

Labaik Wed 19-Feb-20 18:18:21

Looks like those of us are retired will have to work in care homes until the time when we need to live in them. I thought there was a government initiative a while back to stop people working over a certain age? Did I imagine that?

MerylStreep Wed 19-Feb-20 19:17:07

By the same token this country didn't have a problem taking the brightest and the best from some of the poorest countries in Europe. Countries that could ill afford to loose their brightest and best when they were starting to find their own way after being under the communist cosh.

varian Wed 19-Feb-20 19:22:25

There are at present so many vacancies in social care that any of the "economically inactive" who wanted to do this work could easily get a job. But they don't.

Do you really want your mother or your husband or yourself to be cared for by someone who has been forced into the caring role?

growstuff Wed 19-Feb-20 20:19:09

Generally, it wasn't the brightest and best who have come from the former communist countries.

Callistemon Wed 19-Feb-20 20:39:28

I know hardly anyone whose DC has gone to live permanently in an EU country. However, I find that practically every other person I meet has a DC or more than one in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the USA.

Statistics show that since about 1980, at 200,000 emigrants, emigration went down in 1982-1986 pa then rose to a peak in about 2008 of 427,000, then declined, rising again to about 381,000 pa in autumn 2019.

Callistemon Wed 19-Feb-20 20:41:17

sorry, that would not post, I rewrote it and it seems to be an amalgam of both posts.
Gremlins are in the system today.

1982 - 86 emigration went down to around 164,000 pa

Callistemon Wed 19-Feb-20 20:44:35

At the other end of the scale the brexit brain drain is depriving our country of the brightest and the best of our own people - those we can least afford to lose

But this has always happened varian.
I remember when nearly all newly trained doctors were leaving the country en masse because the system changed and there were no jobs for them.
15 years ago when a young friend had her baby in Sydney she said that nearly every midwife, nurse, doctor in the unit was English.

vegansrock Wed 19-Feb-20 20:47:49

Well 2 doctors who lived in my road have gone to work in Paris and two others , one a medic and the other an architect are now in Germany. Others are in Canada, Singapore and Malaysia.

varian Wed 19-Feb-20 20:48:28

But it has increased a great deal since the fraudulent referendum of 2026.

varian Wed 19-Feb-20 20:49:19

2016, not 2026 - who knows what 2026 may have instore?

Chewbacca Wed 19-Feb-20 20:56:41

India has a shortage of 600,000 doctors. And 2,000,000 nurses. Is it fair that we are draining countries of their "brightest and best" instead of having investment in training and supporting our own?

lemongrove Wed 19-Feb-20 21:00:59

No it certainly isn’t fair, we should restore bursaries for nurses asap and train here, and restore the police colleges too,
It’s ridiculous to have policemen going to Uni, it puts so many off.

GagaJo Wed 19-Feb-20 21:04:01

Teachers too. Give them bursaries. Voila, more teachers.

Greenfinch Wed 19-Feb-20 21:17:45

Labaik grin
I read about a hospital in Malawi which is run by one nurse alone.The doctors have all moved to more lucrative posts elsewhere.

Labaik Wed 19-Feb-20 21:52:16

But it was the Conservatives that scrapped bursaries because they said it would stop us needing health workers from other countries.

Granny23 Wed 19-Feb-20 22:02:39

In Scotland Nurses and would be STEM subject Teachers are in receipt of Burseries.

growstuff Wed 19-Feb-20 22:30:33

Won't leaving the EU mean that we have more medics from India? Some Indian medics, scientists and IT professionals, etc are hoping that they will have easier access to the UK after Brexit.

growstuff Wed 19-Feb-20 22:32:42

Some STEM subject (and other) trainee teachers in England are in receipt of bursaries too - and there are still shortages in new trainees.