Prague has been recommended as the fourth best destination in the world for emigrating Britons by the UK newspaper The Daily Telegraph.
The Czech capital came in behind top-placed Warsaw, Cambodian capital Phnom Penh and Thailand’s Bangkok in the ranking of the best 20 worldwide emigration destinations listed by the paper.
Prague was praised as being “beautiful and easily reachable from Britain with a short flight.” The paper added that the city of a hundred spires offered European stability and it was not even really necessary to learn the local language. “What’s more it has the best beer in the world,” the paper commented, with its web pages offering images of traditional tourist landmarks such as Charles Bridge, Prague Castle, and the Malá Strana district of the city center. The daily says Prague is beautiful, easily reachable from Britain, and has ‘the best beer in the world.’
The Telegraph admitted that the first place position of Warsaw might appear surprising given the city’s near destruction during WWII and gray sprawling tower blocks that rose up around the city center during the communist era.
“Poland has the healthiest economy in Europe with 4.4 percent growth in 2011. Not a visually attractive city, falling house prices may deter potential buyers but the affordability of life, booming economy and proximity to home should prove a strong pull,” the paper explained. Affordability was also one of the strong points behind Prague’s high ranking as well as the prospects of higher economic growth in the future than in western Europe.
Reports of a latter day brain drain from Britain have filled the pages of the center-right daily over the last days following figures from the national statistics office suggesting that emigration is now running at record levels since WWI.
The figures suggest around 200,000 British citizens are quitting the country every year, with many of them highly skilled. Those sort of emigration statistics have not been seen since the so-called “brain drain” to the United States in the 1960s.