Why am I here?

Jen, my near neighbour, and fellow American expat blogger, posted an interesting excerpt from the good old Financial Times on Sunday (dang capitalist FT requires subscription for too much, so no linky).

It's all about the flood of American immigrants to the UK. Which is kind of funny since I just posted on immigration to the US.

Anyway, the FT article says that there were more Americans granted permanent leave to remain (kinda like the green card status) than Bangladeshis - 4, 120 Americans settled here in 2004.

According to an analysis of the latest available census data by the Institute for Public Policy Research, a London-based think-tank, there were about 155,000 US-born people living in Britain in 2001, outnumbering all other migrant groups except those from the Irish Republic, India, Pakistan, Germany and the Caribbean…

The numbers that I hear are higher - with around 75,000 American citizens (which is different from American born) living in London and around a 250,000 living in the UK. There's some indication that the number may be even higher - there are many people in the UK entitled to American citizenship (for example if they have a US parent) but may not be aware or know how to take it up. (Some of this population is legacy of WWII).

But the FT questions why so many Americans are coming to the UK:

…Yet the surprise, surely, is that any Americans move to Britain at all. While American brides may have a long tradition of settling with British husbands - Nancy Astor, Wallis Simpson and Madonna, to name a few - why would other Americans want to leave the land of plenty for a grim, drab and relatively poor little island with leaden skies, high prices and appalling food?

Well, I moved to be with my husband, though when I've been a month without glimpsing sunshine as can happen in the winter, I do ask myself the very same question. But really, y'all your drab little island ain't that bad. And believe it or not the food has improved markedly - in London it's pretty easy to get good food at well, I was going to say reasonable prices, but that would be not entirely true.

I like it here. I like a lot about being here. And now that there are so many Americans around, I feel less like a foreigner and more like part of the vanguard of American imperialism. (Just kidding!)