Recession: A Tale of Migration

One of my recent projects for a client dealt with immigration news for a variety of countries, as well as covering the migrant visa programs for each country and the hoops that people jump through to move to a new place. Having no small amount of personal experience in the matter with our international move in 2008 from the U.S. to Bulgaria, I was actually more than a little shocked at the numbers I was seeing when I actually delved into it from a research standpoint.

The U.S. and the U.K. are leading the pack in terms of skyrocketing unemployment rates. The U.S. alone has seen more than 2 million people lose their jobs in the months of January and February, and things are expected to get worse before they get better. Unemployment numbers in 2008 are expected to double--if not triple--in 2009. But there are countries out there who are experiencing actual steady employment rates and somewhat stable economies.

Australia is one of those countries. I knew little about Australia prior to the projects I worked on in February, which included travel information for the Territories, as well as immigration overviews. What struck me as somewhat shocking was the number of immigrants coming out of the U.K. and moving to Australia. There was literally a 32% increase in immigrants to Australia from the U.K. in 2008, based upon 2007's numbers, and they are expecting to see an even more drastic increase in that percentage in 2009.

The reasons why are multi-fold. Firstly, the rising cost of living in the U.K. is a leading factor. By comparison, the cost of living in Australia is anywhere from 30% to 50% cheaper than in the U.K., but wages are roughly the same. The average Australian makes a median wage of just over 40k USD a year. In the U.K. jobs are not only scarce, but the competition for jobs that pay a salary high enough to cover the rising cost of living is fierce at best, meaning that most people--even if they are lucky enough to find a job--aren't working a job that pays enough to cover the cost of living. With unemployment rates relatively stable in Australia, not only are there more jobs to be had, the competition is relatively low. Combined with these elements is the fact that Australia has basically opened its doors to immigrants, making sweeping changes to its migrant systems in an effort to bring in a flood of skilled workers to help keep their economy stable. When you look at the overall picture, it only makes sense that people are starting to relocate with alarming speed.

Canada is in a somewhat similar situation, with major changes being made to their migrant programs in an effort to bring more people into their economy. While not as bad off as others, Canada is just now beginning to feel the pinch of the global crisis but even so they are looking for skilled workers and doing all they can to fast-track people into the country to fill up the job slots.

I consider myself lucky to have gotten out of the U.S. when we did. We left in January of 2008, which was right when things started to go from bad to worse. 2007 was a really bad year for us in terms of finances; it was the first year since I was a teenager that I actually had to budget money for groceries and other living expenses. We don't have kids, and we have talked often about how hard it must be for people living in such conditions who have children to think about as well. Some of the people we play MMORPGs with are being hit just as hard; in California in 2008 we knew a couple who had 2 kids, and around March or April of last year she was talking in the forums about how they had to make a choice to put gas in the car to get hubby to work, pay the electric bill, or take one of their sick children to the doctor. Making those kind of choices should never be part of your daily routines, and it just goes to show how bad things have gotten. These are people who have held the same jobs for the past 10+ years, and up until 2007/2008 were making more than enough money to live comfortably between their shared income, as well as provide those extras for the kids...X-box, games, computers, etc., but with the cost of living skyrocketing yet wages remaining the same, it creates an impossible situation where you begin to find yourself choosing which bills to pay and which ones to be late on.

We are extremely lucky to be where we are. Yes, we don't make a lot of income at the moment, but we also have an apartment that's paid for in-full. We have no rent or mortgage, and our only bills are living expenses such as utilities, groceries, Internet/cable, cell-phones, and entertainment. But what makes me think about how bad it is out there beyond the walls of my apartment is the numbers I saw when doing my research. People are leaving their homes, their countries of origin, in vast droves, all because the grass is truly greener on the other side of the fence. And while an international move might not be the solution for every person/family out there, for a lot of them...it is.