It's the relative higher standard of living compared to poorer countries, and language. If someone can migrate to a country where they can understand people and be understood it's at the top of the list.

One reason it doesn't happen the other way round is language again. We have the burden of English being spoken as a second language in many other countries, so there is little incentive to really push language learning in school here. It's foolish, but there is a logic.

As the UK becomes poorer compared to the rest of Europe there will be those that will wish they could speak a second language. Not that it will do much good, as post-Brexit unless you are rich or a high performer there is very little chance of landing a job. The British population happily voted away that right.

Because those people are not originally from _western_ Europe.

Far more stay in Lebanon (e.g. from Syria) or other european countries than try to make it to the UK.

> in Western Europe

key part here

They are travelling from Western Europe to the UK, yes.

Sure, in the same way that if you take a flight from Australia to London which stops in Singapore and Frankfurt, then you are technically travelling from Germany to the UK.

The point is that the migrants could stop in France or Germany rather than cross the channel, but do not choose to do so.

The thing is, a lot of them do. Germany is outside most refugee routes (most of the people in Calais never went through Germany) but they get people from Eastern Europe fleeing westwards. But France has way more refugees per capita than the UK, and way more in absolute numbers. Seriously, have a look here for example, it’s ridiculous: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_refugee... .

Those who try to cross the Channel planned to come to the UK since the beginning of their journey, mostly for cultural reasons.

The vast majority do. Germany, Italy and France get a lot more refugees than the U.K.

The few refugees that choose to cross the Channel do it because they have relatives or friends in the U.K. and take significant risks to cross the channel.

I cannot speak to where people go (lots of countries have lots of immigrants, including Italy, France, Germany, etc), but culturally the UK is more accepting of integrating immigrants than its neighbors. They also speak English, which will also be a driving force from certain countries.

> culturally the UK is more accepting of integrating immigrants than its neighbors

Considering the part of the populations that keeps voting for xenophobic Tories, that the whole country threw a hissy fit about immigration in 2016 and has been hardening its stance by the day since, and the pile of scandals à la Windrush, the reality is somewhat more nuanced than that.

> They also speak English, which will also be a driving force from certain countries.

Yes, this is an important motivation. There is also the aura from nearby commonwealth countries. The UK used to be good at building soft power.

Except they do. A very few risk their lives to reach the UK (usually because they have family there), but millions choose to stay in Western Europe (e.g France, Germany).

many young people still choose Britain over Italy, France, Spain, etc

Western Europe is their passage, not their origin.

British exceptionalism at it's finest!

Immigrants settle in all rich countries not just the UK.

Just because there is a queue of 100s at calais to get in, doesn't tell the whole story of millions of economic migrants travelling all over the world.