16 mai 2007@16:59

Pourquoi les Français s’expatrient au Royaume-Uni?

Categories:

This is the main question of a poll made by the company GfK NOP just after the French presidential election, the 6th of May 2007, just outside the lycée Charles de Gaulle (Cromwell Road).

I answered this poll and I was waiting for the results.

The poll was very interesting, it was asking questions such as:

  • Will you return to France if Royal is elected? If Sarkozy is elected?
  • Do you prefer the French Health System or the NHS (UK health system)?

The company released the results, which are very informative.

Here you have the preference between British and French systems:
Preferences

Here you have the future plans to leave the UK to live in France:
Future Plan

And here you have the future plans to leave the UK to live in France according to the presidential winner:
Return to France

According to me this poll is well reflecting French opinions, but it was made only with people who are registered in the French embassy in London, as a consequence it does not take into account a lot of people who are living here but not registered, and there are far more people that are unregistered. So, this poll is interesting but has some limits.

Source: the press release, the full report and the poll summary.

Share it: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • Netvouz
  • DZone
  • ThisNext
  • MisterWong
  • Wists
  • Technorati
  • Ma.gnolia
  • Furl
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
Google Talk this:

Posted by: ImAzIr

Responses

It seems pretty clear cut. A small percentage favour the UK welfare system over that of the French. The big one positive response was work. No surprises there. France cripples its free economy by putting in place a maximum number of weekly working hours…not so in the UK. You can be made to work over 12 hours a day in the UK especially in medicine, accountancy and law. Commerce flourishes for the simple reason the UK works on average far more hours. Not forgetting of course the strength of the pound. You get more Euros to the pound than you get pounds for your Euro. If you want to make your fortune and you get paid each week ten coins, then it makes sense to get paid in gold coins rather than silver. Those are the carrots.

This is the stick. The French have ridiculously high Income Tax. If you’re in it for the personal wealth why would you work hard only to have the lion’s share taken out of your pocket before you see it.

On an aside note….national health isn’t really an issue. They’re French. If anything seriously goes wrong they can just skip back across the channel and get the op. there. Chances are they’ll still have family living in France to bunk in with whilst they’re getting fixed.

One thing that isn’t raised is why record numbers of Brits are now leaving the UK for overseas destinations. The fastest growing market being, you guessed it……..France.

By: albionshores on 16 mai 2007
at 12:56

Interesting comments.

But about the NHS, French can’t cross the channel to return in France in order to benefit from the French health system, because they are working abroad, they don’t pay taxes for this system and as a consequence they will not benefit from it.

And I think that Brits are going to France because of the quality of life.

By: ImAzIr on 20 mai 2007
at 12:57

The reason why most would return to France under the French Thatcherite is because they think France is about to undergo what the UK did in the 80s.

Loadsa money….but no road sweepers.

By: albionshores on 20 mai 2007
at 12:57

@albionshores

“No surprises there. France cripples its free economy by putting in place a maximum number of weekly working hours…not so in the UK. You can be made to work over 12 hours a day in the UK especially in medicine, accountancy and law”

I have worked in France in the UK and in New Zealand and I can assure you that most french people work more than you imagine (except in the public sector maybe). finishing work at 19:00 or 20:00 is quite common

“The French have ridiculously high Income Tax”

Well good social security and public services (transport) have a price, most french people are aware of this

By: manu on 23 février 2008
at 16:12

s7dbuep6btgrslvg

By: Josefina Michael on 13 novembre 2008
at 0:26

Leave a response






Your response: