Flaps,
Why would I rubbish the UK? I like it. However, when we go to the local pub there's plenty of Englishmen who are quite happy to rubbish the UK.
When I was in Eastern (Qantaslink, BA Citiexpress is the equivalent), there were 10 British pilots, a Canuck, an American, a couple of Kiwis. Pilot population at the time was 120.
I know of several British pilots in QF, since I don't know them all, I can't give you an actual number.
In Ansett again I don't know the actual number. There were 800 pilots in Ansett. At the Perth base on the Bae 146 fleet, there were 40 pilots. 8 of them were British.
I am in the UK because my father was born in Scotland. Thus I am eligible for a British passport. My fiance is here because his grandparents were born in Scotland. He's here on a visa.
If you had an Australian parent/grandparents then you could get the passport too.
Ok, you don't want to. You don't want to shift countries to get experience. That's not my fault.
We both hold JAR ATPLS with a reasonable log book too. Note, we too get knocked back for jobs here. It's not all plain sailing for the foreigners.
The govt isn't going to change the immigration rules. Gee, they're letting more in from Europe.
How did that 90% get the jobs? In my last job, 90% of the employees were British.
One was from the ROI, one was Italian, one was from Kenya and I am from Australia. The rest are from Britain.
As I've said many times, it's a mongrel of an industry to get a start in. That's the same the world over.