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Sending it back to Bangalore

Dan Johnson

Who are the worst offenders when it comes to earning money in the UK and draining the economy by sending it home?

Although Antipodeans have something of a reputation for coming to London on temporary working visas, finding work and then sending their hard-earned Sterling back to their homeland, new figures from the world bank show that it is in fact Indians who repatriate more money from the UK economy than any other nation.

In 2007, more than $1.2 billion was sent back to India, compared to just $0.8billion to Australia. In fact, French workers sent back almost as much as Australians, with around $0.7 billion being ferried away across the channel.

Not that we British can complain… Twice as much was repatriated from Australia back to the UK last year, with a whopping $1.7 billion finding its way back to Blighty. Almost as much came from the USA, with $1.5billion, while Canada was not too far behind with $1.1 billion.

In fact, almost twice as much money was sent back to the UK in 2007 from expatriate workers than was drained from the British economy, with inflows of $8.1billion against outflows $4.6 billion. So much for migrants coming to the UK and stealing all our jobs…