Thread: Australia is widely viewed as the best place for young peopl

http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/ ... click=true

We're on top of the world's wishlist
By Mark Coultan
New York
June 28, 2005


Australia is widely viewed as the best place for young people to migrate to.

A worldwide opinion poll, the Pew Global Attitudes Project, asked 17,000 people across 16 countries about their attitudes to the United States and found that America was no longer considered the land of opportunity.

Only in India did the US register as the most popular country to which to migrate. Australia topped the ratings in four countries - Britain, Canada, the Netherlands and Germany. It was followed by Canada, which was the most highly regarded in the US, France and China.

Not surprisingly, given its history of emigration and strong ties, Britain was the country in which Australia ranked highest. But Australia ranked highly even in Canada, which has its own record of large-scale immigration. Among the Chinese polled, Australia ranked second - tied with the United States.

Overall, Australia came in no lower than third in any of the countries surveyed.

The wording of the question might have favoured Australia, as it seemingly asked people to consider lifestyle as well as economic opportunities. Respondents were asked about where they would advise a young person to move in order to lead "a good life".

Although Anglo-Saxon countries ranked highly as destinations, Pakistanis seem to regard China as the land of opportunity. And Indonesians looked towards Japan.

Historic ties were evident in the choice of most Lebanese to move to France but Australia was a close second. The French chose Canada, with its large French-speaking population.

The survey also asked people about their views of their own country. Perhaps surprisingly, China was the country that was happiest about itself (88 per cent), followed by the US with 83 per cent.

Among the Chinese polled, Australia ranked second - tied with the United States.The view that the French are arrogant about their own country proved false, as least by comparison with the other polled countries (74 per cent).

Germany seems to have self-image problems, with its own countrymen, particularly in the former East Germany, rating themselves lower than other Europeans did. Other European countries regarded Germany more favourably than the US, France, China or Japan.

We have a few million illegals we could send them.