Australia is the G20's most expensive economy. According to a World Bank study, the cost of goods and services here hovers at the level of pricey European states including Switzerland thanks, among other dynamics, to the mining boom.

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Nostalgia: The nation's high cost of living can be a disincentive to return. Credit:Julia Kingma

Emigration from Australia has grown sharply since the mid-1990s – 92,000 people reported that they left forever between 2012 and 2013, according to the Government: typically, it says, the reason was economic, which will come as no surprise to many. Meet Ho Chi Minh-based economic migrant Ross Stewart, 37, who before he moved to Vietnam worked here in IT and the arts, also managing bands and events, yet earned barely enough to cover his costs.

Worse, he felt pressured to prosper. "I guess with Australia being a fairly isolated nation, the focus is generally internal, and everything was more about what I had, what I earned, where I lived, who I knew. So keeping up with everyone was a huge pressure," Stewart says.