It’s interesting how different we all are.

The BBC website served me this page, the reasons people immigrate are of interest to me because I seek to understand why other people make a life changing decision that I have also made.

Why we quit Australia for the UK is about people who had left the UK for Australia, and then moved back to the UK again. Interesting.

I stayed in Perth for 15 years after my parents emigrated there when I was seven. At 24, I came back to England and have been here ever since. The dullness and isolation of living somewhere like Perth can't be explained unless you experience it. There are so many reasons why England is preferable to Australia for a lot of people such as being able to buy groceries past 6pm, local shops and pubs, having Europe on your doorstep, comedy and culture. Even when I am stuck on the M25 it is preferable to driving on dull empty roads at mind numbingly low speeds. This will probably be perceived as "whinging pom" by any Aussies as they can't understand why anybody wouldn't want to be them but it simply isn't for everyone.

Amazing, an almost 180 degree turnaround from my own view.

I moved from Oxfordshire to Canberra with my husband in 1990 after our children had grown up. He had been offered a job there. We later lived in the bush for 13 years. It was a fascinating experience to live in a house we built, with only solar power and rainwater, in an unspoiled area where wild flowers and animals could be studied close up. We both loved it but our families were back in the UK. We were also retired and British state pensions are frozen if you retire in Australia. We returned in 2008 from our wonderful 100 acres of forest in New South Wales to a bungalow in Oxfordshire. No regrets.

Sorry, the last one was merely pedestrian. This one is amazing. A 100 acre forest paradise for a bungalow in Oxfordshire? I’m insulted you would pose such a question, the answer should be plain!? </sarcasm>

Actually, sarcasm aside, what these stories point out most forcefully is that there is simply no one standard for happiness that binds us all. It is not the duty of the state to bind us all under an inescapable single vision of what it thinks we need to do to be happy (Karl Marx anyone).

No, instead, given the freedom to move and to own ourselves and our futures, only we can make our lives fulfilling and purposeful; or, we may not, for freedom also gives us the opportunity to make our lives a miserable mess. The way we tie ourselves down with our decisions is show in the following stories.

After migrating to Australia in 1995, I moved my family back to the UK 18 months ago so my kids could know their grandparents. Now I feel obliged to stay, but am incredibly homesick for Queensland. Life was simple there. Here, it is harder and very consumption-oriented while people are more tense and noticeably less optimistic. There is also a wider social divide here. It's nice to see old friends and extended family but the sacrifices overall are not worth it. I wish I had the money to take my parents back to Australia. As it is, I am thankful that my Aussie-born kids will be able to return and that I will be able to retire there.

I know the pressure of having family back home. How much you let that family get in the way of your dream, is up to you. Children also tie you down. With kids, you can move less freely between work and homes.

Unfortunately work is the reason we are returning to the UK as we cannot earn enough to pay the mortgage. The cost of living here is scandalous and the wages don't reflect this. I am a fully qualified plumber and I came out here on the "demand list", however no one tells you that your qualifications do not mean anything here and that you have to return to college (and pay a fortune) to restudy your trade. When you are trying to get on your feet in a new country, you can't afford to start studying again because you can't get a job in the area you were accepted into the country for. Shame as we love the landscape. We have loved camping, four-wheel driving, beach visits and BBQs but with no money to pay the mortgage, you can't survive.

A mortgage ties you down. If you’re not confident in that you’re well instantiated in a new country then don’t get one. I am still renting because I’m not sure where I want to be yet.

They also have stories from people who went to Australia and decided to stay.