Monday, February 04, 2008

The At Home Abroad (AHA) generation

More details have emerged of the NatWest-commissioned report discussed in the previous blog post. 37 per cent of the expats surveyed said that the main reason behind moving abroad was the search for a better quality of life, 26 percent were looking for a better standard of living (to be honest I'm not really sure how that differs from "quality of life"!) and 20 percent were motivated by concerns about the cost of living.

Whatever the reason, it looks as though the vast majority were happy to have left the UK. 87 per cent said their expectations had been surpassed, while 91 per claimed to be happier than when living in the UK. Surprisingly (to me, at least) 63 per cent felt more at home when abroad and have no plans to return.

The survey also included a term I hadn't heard before - the "At Home Abroad (AHA) generation". I wonder what that really means though - have these expats created British ghettos in their adopted countries or have they settled in to their new homes and "gone native"? I suspect the truth is a little of both in most cases!

1 comment:

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