America and Americans in Australia

Rating:
Summary: Must-read book for prospective US migrants to Australia
Review: This is not a "general interest" book, meant for the casual reader -- it's a dense, detailed academic study of migration of US citizens to (and from) Australia. That's what I was looking for, and I was generally pleased with the result. It is based on a study of questionnaires completed by 302 US migrants to Australia regarding their reasons for migrating from America, reasons for choosing Australia as their destination, degree of satisfaction with life in Australia, reasons for returning to the US (if they did so), and so on. Thus, the book provides very useful insights into the positive -- and negative -- experiences of those Yanks that have spent considerable time in Oz. As such, it is a very useful guide for any Yank considering to move there.

The book is marred by being based on a sample that dramatically over-represents academics (42% of the sample, but less than 4% of the US-to-Oz migrant population). Even taking this into account, though, its information is still quite valuable -- just don't think that all American migrants are this left-of-center, this over-educated, or this tenured.