The Welsh brain drain: An honest response from Australia
Matt Howells, Secondary School Teacher in Victoria
It’s morning in a rural town in Victoria, Australia and I don’t think I’ll ever get used to the deep winter in July.
Messages from friends back home in Wales tell me how they are still wearing their winter clothes and haven’t seen the sun in months.
Yet here, despite the freezing morning temperatures, the sky feels bigger and the sun stronger.
“Bore da!” I hear from the car park across the road. I may be 10,000 miles away, but it feels like home.
It’s Anwen, my colleague. A fellow teacher and immigrant from Ceredigion, we chat in Welsh about how we spent our three weeks’ holiday as we climb up the hill to the school.
Some students listen on in fascination at hearing us speak this unfamiliar language. As we reach the gate, we go our separate ways.
Her classroom is festooned with Welsh flag bunting.
“Are you Irish?”
It’s a new term, and so the first day is spent meeting brand new classes as they change every semester.
I answer the regular questions of “Where are you from?”, “Are you Irish?”, “Do you support Wrexham, sir?” and entertain them with my party trick of writing Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch on the board and listening to their entertaining attempts to pronounce it.
As the lesson draws to a close, I wonder what my life would be like today had I stayed in Wales.
What would I be doing, where would I live, and how much would I earn?
The answers come easily: Nothing meaningful, probably Cardiff, and not enough to live on. And so, I go to the staff room for recess.
Chasing the wind
So, what drove me from Wales? Brain drain is nothing new and affects several countries.
From Greece to Armenia, and Albania to Estonia, many small nations see their brightest and best leave for better opportunities in foreign countries.
Many Welsh flocked to London during the Middle Ages, and that trend continued with the dairymen during the 19th and 20th centuries. My story is no different.
News that GlobalWelsh, a Welsh diaspora organisation is launching a major research project as to why so many Welsh people leave Wales is welcome, but asking on what basis they might return is chasing the wind.
Before becoming a teacher, I spent many years working as a journalist, in communications, as a copywriter, and translator amongst other things.
I’m a fluent Welsh speaker with three postgraduate qualifications.
Australia is the sixth country I’ve lived and worked in, having previously resided in Norway, Germany, The Netherlands, and China.
But why? Because Wales offers nothing to the ambitious or talented.
I spent time in Welsh language media, but couldn’t bear the small-mindedness and nepotism.
I walked out of a job as a press officer role due to bullying and for asking why the Patagonia colony in Argentina was something to celebrate in a lengthy anniversary documentary series but why people who speak Welsh in Canada, Australia or New Zealand don’t get a look-in.
Trying my hardest to stay in Wales, I accepted a government job in Bangor, only for it to pay a pittance and the contract to end after seven months.
It was then that I decided that enough was enough and to try my luck abroad.
Respect and reward
And what did I find in the fjords of Norway, the hip streets of Kreuzberg in Berlin, the NGO-ladened quarters of The Hague and the megalopolis of Shanghai?
Respect and appreciation for talent. Much higher salaries. Efficiency. Better work-life balance. The list goes on.
I don’t want to berate my home country. I am no Caradoc Evans. Welshness and the Welsh language are huge parts of who I am.
But let’s get real, you can’t live the poetry of Gerallt Lloyd Owen or feed a family on cultural pride.
Dwelling on industrial heritage in the valleys doesn’t provide a future. Rugby and male voice choirs are cultural anachronisms and tired cliches that might garner hits online, but mean nothing to me or most of my generation.
Cracks showing
I was proved correct upon my latest visit to Wales last Christmas.
It was shocking but not surprising to see that things have got worse.
The streetscape of Cardiff had completely transformed, and not for the better.
Visiting the Christmas market in my hometown in Ceredigion felt like I was in England, such was the rapid anglicisation of the area and the brain drain of natives.
And where did they mostly go? To south east Wales.
I would understand if Cardiff was a hive of private sector activity with wealth-creating jobs, but stepping off the train at Central Square tells you all you need to know – it’s a public sector/third sector sinecure basket case.
The first buildings you see are BBC Wales, Cardiff University, the Tax Office, and now the bus station.
Most decent jobs pay little more than 30,000, which isn’t a wage you can realistically live on.
And these are jobs that could easily be worked from home and help keep people in their communities should they choose to live there.
I don’t really believe in hiraeth. It’s gone the way of popty ping as a word that is more English than Welsh and has no meaning.
I do, however, remember the happier days of my youth in Ceredigion where families were larger (and the majority of whom were Welsh speakers), where people were employed locally and a full life could be lived in Welsh. Now, most of that is gone.
And part of the reason is because people like me aren’t there.
But how is a young person supposed to afford a £300,000 bungalow on a salary of £22,000 with £40,000 in student debt?
Closed shop
I should feel guilty about being in Australia, but I don’t. I tried my utmost to stay at home, but it just wasn’t possible.
Wales is a poor, closed shop with no space for anyone with drive.
Do I miss the green, green grass of home? Sometimes.
I miss friends and family, British humour and supermarkets, but no romanticised notion of hiraeth can make up for the horrific political, cultural, social, and economic realities of living in Wales and I won’t be going back.
Australia may be mostly desert, but what little grass they have here is far, far greener.
Adre
The final bell of the school day has just rung.
I walk down the hill to the railway station with Anwen, and several other teachers from abroad. Many are Irish, Scottish, Singaporean, Kiwi and Indian.
This Sunday, I will be attending the Welsh-language Melbourne Church service, reading the news from Wales, reading a Welsh novel and speaking on the phone to my family in Welsh.
I’ve created my own little Wales here, and it’s far better than the real thing back home.
Do I sound like a white settler? Well you can also tell that to the people of Chubut and Gaiman in Patagonia.
My advice to anyone thinking of leaving Wales for Australia or elsewhere?
Be your own kind of Welshman and find your own Wales somewhere else and live it.
Gwell Cymro, Cymro oddi cartref.
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He is right and wrong…lead us not into a solicitor politician controlled Cymru…
Can I ask what subject you teach…
Like you I don’t entirely agree with Matt but he poses valid questions about the condition of our country. Anyone who dismisses out of hand the motives for leaving “home” and working in other countries is far too blinkered to assess our needs with honesty. The existing social and economic climate is severely constrained by political priorities which often bear little or no relevance to the real needs of our communities. Break out of that mess and we might get started on something worthwhile.
I became a denizen of the Soho music world for a decade and more…
My careers master in school offered me sweeping up in a chemical company or laundry van boy…
You can take the boy out of the Mawddach but you can’t take the Mawddach out of the boy, so here I am…any reference to drownings I would keep to yourself…on today of all days…with reference to the doings of solicitors etc…
The economy of Wales is what it is as a result of membership of the UK union which is designed to have one economic engine – London. That’s why most of the rest of the UK is in a similar situation. There’s only two fixes, a federal UK with central government moved out of London, or independence. Running away isn’t the answer.
And we need the change sooner than later. We will continue to become poorer and poorer while we don’t make the break with the centralised Uk regime.
The 1st step is to bring a majority Plaid Cymru with the mandate for independence, to set up a Sovereign wealth fund for Cymru and we can begin our recovery.
A federal UK needs the size of England to be split into component landers (i.e. Wessex, Mercia, Anglia, etc). This decentralisation of power in England is only proposed by Lib Dems and Greens. Therefore, not realistic for our timescale.
Independence would no doubt help, but it’s not a panacea: independence followed by bad policies impoverishes rather than enriches (see Ireland, 1920s-1980s). Plaid, sadly, don’t have any sort of economic plan which would make any of this happen, and their record so far has been to back Labour up on policies which sap entrepreneurship, destroy wealth and cause more poverty. As for a Sovereign Wealth Fund, you don’t get to have one of those unless you actually have some wealth, which is why it has been so absurd to see Rachel Reeves talk about having one for the UK; £7… Read more »
Matt poses valid questions about the condition of our country. Anyone who dismisses out of hand the motives for leaving “home” and working in other countries is far too blinkered to assess our needs with honesty. The existing social and economic climate is severely constrained by political priorities which often bear little or no relevance to the real needs of our communities. Break out of that mess and we might get started on something worthwhile.
The Sovereign Wealth Fund, that I propose and that Plaid should follow will be more like Norway’s fund built on Oil revenues. Our fund in Wales will be on Wind, Solar and Tidal power. Norway gave access to its reserves on short lease where it could realise its resources in the short to medium future. The Sovereign Wealth fund would be used to invest diversely in other sectors of the Welsh economy and overseas for return. The problem is the UK has little sovereign wealth income that will pay off its £2 trillion debt or even its interest and this… Read more »
We’ve had nigh on half a century of the neoliberal nonsense economics you’re promoting, look where that has got us! All you are arguing for is a race to the bottom, and that doesn’t serve Welsh workers well at all. Capitalism only works for all when it is strictly regulated as it is in all but one of the Nordic countries, the one exception beginning to suffer from the same malaise suffered by all the other countries that followed the neoliberal nonsense. The Welsh economy needs investment, just as it needs coordinated control over research and development, of which not… Read more »
The SNP had a mandate. They may not realise it but Labour needs a federal UK if they’re to help their impoverished English regions. They also need to move central government out of London and into modern surroundings if they’re to prevent the next Tory government reinstating 19th century governance once again. Unfortunately London Labour in power are no less drunk on the crumbling imperial opulence of SW1 than the lot they replaced. The only way things change is if the nations and mayoral regions gang up on Whitehall and demand it with one voice. None of this rules out… Read more »
The economy is not our only problem: the devolved components of our country are in a dreadful state too. Do you seriously think things would get any better if everything were run by the muppets in Cardiff?
It should be obvious that the range of people interested in applying for a job depends on the job. Devolving genuine fiscal powers would attract a much wider range of candidates for voters to choose from.
The feeling that English was charging in was abroad during the era of Hollywood ‘Talkies’ too, they being shown in a great many miners institutes in and around the coalfields. The entrance fee brought much needed finance to keep the institutes afloat in hard times at the cost of the need to understand the lingua franca…
Hopalong Cassidy in fifties Dol…
He makes it sound as if Wales has gone downhill since de solution
It can’t be disputed that Wales hasn’t moved forward as much as she should and could have since devolution. But that is a reflection on those who’ve been in charge during that time rather than on the principle of devolution and is not to say that the model of devolution that we have now, imperfect though it is, isn’t a big improvement on what was in place previously.
Wales is no longer the poorest part of the UK as measured by GDP per capita. That wooden spoon has been handed to the part of the UK which rejected devolution – North East England. It’s important to acknowledge this improvement even if it’s not yet good enough.
This is a massive problem for Wales, and it works both ways. I spent ten years or so working in Silicon Valley, in senior management of a tech company, but eventually I came home and tried my best to start up a tech company in Wales. It was an awful experience. First of all I found raising investment just about impossible. Time and time again as I went round the big technology investors, I was told “that’s an excellent business plan, and if you were based in Cambridge or Oxford or London we’d invest. But Wales? On your bike.” I… Read more »
Excellent post but how can the fundamental problem be solved? Investors are in the business of making money and the richest pickings are always to be found in the wealthiest part of any economy. Looking outside the golden triangle adds risk and reduces reward so why bother? There needs to be some sort of systemic differentiation that makes investing in the rest of the UK more rewarding. I’d like to see the regions and nations setting their own rates of corporation tax for one, as happens in Switzerland. Another option might be to vary Employers NI according to regional GDP.… Read more »
Again, it’s one of those things that lots of small countries manage (the usual list – Finland, Estonia, Slovenia etc.) but at the very minimum it involves removing the obstacles that hinder businesses from growing or from recruiting staff. These can involve spurious health and safety regulations (some, obviously, are essential) and DEI regulations (without exception, a pointless waste of energy and resources), and lowering costs generally as much as possible. Granted, the latter is harder without independence – Gwlad policy is to abolish Corporation Tax altogether, and tax only dividends rather than profits which are re-invested into the company.… Read more »
Knocking a small amount off business costs probably isn’t going to excite investors but the corporation tax idea is a winner especially if dividends are taxed as income, helping to offset the lost corporation tax revenues. The impact of higher ctax on the wider economy needs to be considered because this reduces disposable income so people spend less in local businesses, reducing GDP.
Yes, the policy is to tax dividends as income.
And where is Gwlad electorally? It’s quite obvious that Wales’ answer to Alternative für Deutschland is going nowhere in terms of gaining even a scrap of power except maybe on the odd Community Council.
Too many in Gwlad are of an Alt-Right world view or are paid-up true believers in conspiracy theories.
Gwlad has pretty much zero credibility.
[scroll down for English] A beth mae ‘Gwlad’ yn cynnig i ddatrys y problemau rydych yn disgrifio mor dda? Gofynnaf y cwestiwn o ddifri ac o ddiddordeb gonest. ~ And what does ‘Gwlad’ suggest to resolve the problems you describe so well? I ask the question in all seriousness and out of sincere interest.
I’m in a completely different field to Matt (the author) but so much of what he has written resonates. Hopefully people who are in a similar position to him a few years ago will see it and be inspired. I wasted just over a decade trying to make my career work in and around Cardiff. I gave up in 2021. Within 2.5 weeks of looking for work in England I had 4 interviews lined up and a permanent job offer paying £9k a year more than I was earning at the time in Cardiff after one Teams call! Even looking… Read more »
The size of the public sector in Wales – one of the biggest in Europe, and larger even than the Scandinavian countries that people on the Left are supposed to admire so much – is a huge problem. It saps energy out of the economy at large, and all too often does things which actively impoverish the country rather than creating the conditions for growth.
If you’re living in Wales but working for a company outside of Wales then your story is very different because you’re a one person export business that’s bringing wealth into Wales and spending it in the Welsh economy which helps domestic businesses. That’s something to celebrate and encourage.
For the record I haven’t been in that “one person export” category for long and won’t be either. Spent most of 2022 in South East England.
Working remotely has allowed me to take work with me wherever I go and I’ve had reasons to spend time working away in the East and West Midlands and North West England. Places I wouldn’t have ever had a need to ever visit but I’m glad I have.
I’ve preferred what I’ve seen elsewhere and am permanently relocating outside of Wales within the next year. A big regret is not doing this sooner.
You seem upset by the idea you might be contributing to success.
But your only mistake was not going abroad sooner. Everyone should do this as a young person and return with a more global worldview.
Until you’ve tried it you’ll never know that the grass isn’t always greener.
Bearing in mind this article’s focus is on Wales’ brain drain, even if I were living in Wales, paying taxes etc but working from home for an employer based outside of Wales, I’m still part of the brain drain. My “talent,” to put a label on what I bring to the table, is not being used to benefit any Welsh employer. When it comes to notions of contributing to success, I feel very much like the author of the article and another person who commented below (Robert). My abilities and potential were never maximised, certainly never recognised sufficiently and arguably… Read more »
“Wales offers nothing to the ambitious or talented”. b******s. Staying and trying to change things is hugely ambitious and requires all the talent we can get.
It’s bloody hard. Easier to leave and lament how unambitious and mediocre Wales is. Roll-up your sleeves and fight to make it better!
This is what I have done, I have always refused to leave Cymru for work despite having 2 very good opportunities early in my career. Even now, working from home but required a move from Cardiff to the north east of Cymru for my wife’s career, I refused to live on the English side of the border. I now earn over twice the quoted values in the article, but that may be down to the industry. Engineering is in high demand, not sure about teaching, banking, tech, etc. Regardless I am incredibly proud that my work contributes to the Cymru… Read more »
With respect Lee, how many years should we all devote to trying to get ahead in life in Wales? I gave it a go for 13 years after I’d graduated from Cardiff University with a 2.1 degree. I’d been working part time since 17, so add those years on and that was a total of almost 18 years of my life. How many more should I have waited before Another 5, 10, 15? Ultimately it speaks volumes that when looking for work for companies based in England, I had multiple interviews lined up within less than a fortnight of looking.… Read more »
That’s right. And who wants to spend that time waiting weeks to see a doctor or getting misdiagnosed by a roundabout of specialists it takes months to see.
Anyone can move to a country with a higher GDP per capita/better weather. Wales is less rich than most of England, but similar to Japan and Spain..More of the Welsh economy needs to be high value activities. As other posts have said, Wales isn’t very tech business friendly nor do people with the skills stay, because they can’t find jobs. What is the 20 mph speed limit message to potential investors in Wales? Risk aversed, where freight and travel costs have just risen or vibrant business friendly country?
Investors don’t care about speed limits because they’re not the ones driving around. A few extra mph in England is irrelevant when an accident grinds the M25 to a halt for half a day.
I moved here to teach.But encountered a political basket case of an education system, driven by ideology and a longing for the past. Time and time again bottom of the Pisa tables and sadly some of the unhappiest, disillusioned children I’ve come across in 21 years of teaching. The authour is entirely correct when he says ‘very little here for the talented and ambitious’ . Most of my students all say the same, the first they are going to do once coming out of the factory system of Welsh education is leave. In touch with some that left 5-6 years… Read more »
What you described with students you’ve taught was the same almost 20 years ago. I was one of the few from my year group (there were almost 100 of us studying A levels) who stayed in Wales and went to a Welsh university. Most went to an English one and never came back apart from visiting family. Disillusionment is definitely a huge factor. One of my other friends from school who stayed and went to Cardiff University was extremely disillusioned about job prospects and the fact he had moved to England on his own because he couldn’t get work in… Read more »
Da iawn, well said. I recognise all aspects of this analysis and also live in my own, created Cymry bubble within Lloegr.
Best of luck with Australia; when I lived there briefly I found it a nasty, parochial, racist inward looking country that hadn’t made even a tenth of the effort that neighbouring NZ had to make reparations with their indigenous people. Awful bigoted people, hellish climate… I left as soon as i could.
Spit on!
I found Australia to be exactly the same as you did. I lasted 11 months. I’d take Cardiff over anywhere there, that’s exactly what I have done and my ambition is paying off.
Absolutely from a personal point of view I have found Australians more racist than Afrikaner Boers.
You only have to see what reaction you get when you tell them “was, still is and always will be Aboriginal Land”.
I lived in Swansea for 16 years, and what this man is saying is the truth that nobody wants to hear. Wales is chock-full of nepotism, cronyism and disrespect for the contributions educated people can give to Welsh society. No wonder so many people leave. If you were constantly devauled by the people you thought were your brotherhood, you’d up and leave too. Granted, I’m English and I have now returned to England, but when I moved to Wales I was in my early teens and I spent the rest of my teen years and almost the entirety of my… Read more »
Excellent article and one that resonates with me. I wish I had left in my younger days. Now I’m stuck in a country with little enthusiasm for celebrating talented people and instead focus on creating a closed govt intent on turning Wales into a desert of ambition. Many of the Senedd are quite frankly mundane and talentless and have only got there through sheer luck or manipulation and ill deeds. I have been successful in my own field of work despite the fact of living here. It has not been easy and I do think it was a mistake not… Read more »
Anglicisation is the least of our current problems. The state of the economy, the NHS, and law & order is appalling. On top of that we now have our school children being indoctrinated into the three fairy tales of climate catastrophe, gender identity, and queer theory, I would advise anyone who has the opportunity to get out of Wales, and indeed the UK.
Oh cae dy geg
I presume it’s beyond your wit to form an actual argument.
Well, you were spouting filth. Maybe if you contributed something more than a crypto-fascist rant then maybe lufcwis might have engaged with you better?
We’ve always been so insular, it’s a shame. And now we have the ability to make our own decisions on many of the important things, life in Wales just isn’t improving for the majority. While most continue to vote for ‘big’ government, we will never get out of this predicament (no nation with ‘big’ government politics ever has).
Estonia has a thriving economy that has technology at its heart and freedoms that only the people in Wales could wish for. So please do not compare this country to Wales.
I moved our family of seven to Wales almost 20 years ago as we wanted different opportunities for our children in the historically and culturally diverse areas of Britain and Europe. So, within months of arriving, instead of our 9 year old daughter visiting a local museum for her school trip, (which is what would have happened for her in Australia), the school took her to Belgium where they visited a vast WWII graveyard, a theme park and a wonderful Belgian shopping experience. Our two older boys at 15 and 17 experienced an amazing music festival in Copenhagen etc. We… Read more »
Thank you for our contribution. It’s great to hear such heartwarming things from people who have moved here who present a different narrative to that which talks Wales down. We Welsh are past masters of doing just that! I’m sure you’re very aware of the many downsides there are to Wales, but I continue to believe in my country, and that whilst we must remain open to the world, we should also value what we have and strive to make our country a place fit for all who live here. Our economy does need investment, but that’s going to take… Read more »
I remember vividly as me and my young family (as expats) were driving across the old Severn Bridge and seeing the famous sign upon entering Cymru that I remarked to my wife – ‘you realise, don’t you, that my (highly paid) working career is totally f***ed and that we can never go back.’ Well, that turned out to be true. However, there have been some compensations – which is a long story in itself.
Spot on Matt and well done to you for getting out of this insular, visionless and corrupt country. The country is in a mess and we have had this pathetic, talking shop of a senedd for over 25 years, wasted millions and millions of our money on vanity projects, yet they still blame Westminster. There are of course pockets of private enterprise successes but almost everything touched by welsh government or Welsh councils are failings or missed opportunities. Our culture has almost disappeared and walking through the dirty, litter strewn and decaying streets of our capital says it all. Walk… Read more »
You complain that tourism is dying and argue against supporting something that’s needed to boost it – an international airport.
He’s also clearly a Reform supporter with his anti-immigrant stance. Kind of ironic isn’t it when the biggest immigrant group in Wales are the English, but somehow I doubt he was referring to them.
Lack of vision, knowing your place (for those in the valleys) and xenophobia (towards one country) has been an issue for years. I was born in Wales. Childhood in England and then back to Wales for teenage years. The bullying for, the assumption of, being Sais was unreal. Most of these kids were brain washed into believing every problem in their life was due to England. I left Wales for university and returned. I thought the issues I faced in school were just kids not knowing any better. I was wrong. The issues I’ve had with trade and in workplaces… Read more »
“You can pick anything” is probably careers advice for kids living in southern England having a global city within reach. I imagine careers advice in North East England is very similar to shop/factory/office but maybe your childhood was in Newcastle and can prove my ignorant assumption wrong?
Some irony here Matt. You seem to link Welsh economic and cultural decline to the English coming in and pricing the native Welsh out, whilst you yourself emigrate to a country whose famous quality of life was established on the back of the systematic extermination of an indigenous people (and language) by British (including Welsh) settlers. Your article is an apology for a form of Welsh nationalist bigotry and should be called out for what it is. Since returning to Wales, having lived and taught in England for over a decade, I have found a small but thriving local economy… Read more »
You are neither Welsh nor Welsh speaking so are not qualified to comment on the experiences of genuine Welsh people whose ancestry stretches back centuries.