Around half a million people leave the UK to live abroad each year. A survey by the British Council showed 72 per cent of 18- to 30-year-olds would consider living and working overseas, with cold weather, the high cost of living, extortionate childcare, a lack of work-life balance and even poor romantic prospects among their motivations for leaving the country. The i Paper’s Expat Files follows Britons who have taken the leap and settled elsewhere, detailing the ups and downs of their journeys.
Earlier this summer, my family and I travelled home to England for a short visit. Home because England is where we are from; for a visit because we are temporary expats, living in Washington, DC, where we moved just over a year ago.
It has become fashionable, in certain circles, to denigrate this country. I had braced myself accordingly: we were all excited to come home, but I was anticipating shockingly high prices, chaotic politics, a general sense of malaise and of course, an unbearable heatwave making life practically not worth living.
Shorts
And sure, it was warm. Normally, a trip back to the UK necessitates the immediate addition of a jumper after exiting Heathrow; this time as we travelled north on the train we sweated in our t-shirts as we whizzed past stubble-cropped fields where the harvest had already long been gathered in, even though it was only mid-July. As we journeyed, we ate ready-made noodles from the buffet car that cost us £8.50 a pop.
