Figures from John Mason International’s study into what impact Brexit has had on international moving has revealed that over half the people to have left the UK in the past two years did so because of Brexit.
John Mason International Movers helps over 10,000 people a year relocate overseas, and 53% of customers the firm has helped move abroad since 2016’s referendum have reported that they did so because of Britain’s decision to leave the European Union.
The firm has seen the number of people leaving the UK rise by 33%, with the number of enquiries from people looking to move overseas up 22% since before the referendum.
The most popular destination of British residents starting a post-Brexit life overseas include Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the USA. Seven in ten of the migrants surveyed by the firm said Brexit had had a “negative impact” which contributed to them emigrating, with responders calling the vote:
• “An embarrassment”
• “Our relegation to a second class nation”
• “A joke”.
Just 3% of those surveyed felt that Brexit had had a “positive impact” and made them think twice about leaving. The fall in the value of British pound, worry about uncertainty and drop in property value were highlighted as the top reasons of how Brexit had impacted international moves.
John Mason International director Simon Hood responded to the figures commenting: “We’ve seen a huge rise in the number of customers trusting John Mason International to help with overseas moves in the past couple of years, and we were interested to see if Brexit had anything to do with it. We never anticipated we’d end up with figures like this, which suggest that more than half of the people we’ve helped start a new life in a new country since the EU referendum did so because of Brexit. John Mason International has been helping people to leave the UK because of the climate for more than a century, but we’ve never seen so many people leave because of the political climate! A recent survey by the Institute of Directors found that 29% of businesses are currently thinking of relocating overseas because of Brexit, so there’s every reason to suggest that this possible Brexit exodus is far from over”
121,000 people British people choose to leave the UK in the year to September 2018, with no less than 4.9m British citizens residing in other countries as of 2017.
