[notahacker]

In Russia's case there's no real anomaly: it's one of the most populous countries in the world anyway and has a lot of ex-USSR family and historic ties to the surrounding countries. Throw in the sort of political problems and business opportunities on both sides of the borders that might further incentivise migration.

The UK has strong historic connections with the rest of the world that are reflected in relatively generous reciprocal visa arrangements, strong family ties and dreams to move here. Europeans can easily move backwards and forwards as job opportunities come and go, and usually speak good English these days. People from South Asian and Caribbean have strong family connections as well as economic incentives to migrate here. On the other hand, we have a strong economic incentive to take higher paying jobs in Australia (with young people getting automatic work visas for a year in advance of any attempts to secure a job) or the US, which is probably a little less unsympathetic towards Anglophone countries and qualifications when it comes to handing the visas out.