Expatriates and the Internet

Less than a decade ago the Internet was a tool used by techies and the technologically aware - difficult to access, often expensive and certainly not the feature rich environment we are used to in modern times. Most people know what the World Wide Web is these days, and a particular phrase was coined twenty years ago to describe it - the phrase "Global Village" was used to describe a communication form which literally shrunk the world.

Expats have benefited more than many as the Internet has grown. The idea of the Global Village has been adopted by many expats, as the internet has enabled them to communicate with their homeland, do business and arrange their finances in the most remote of locations. If the Internet gave birth to the Global Village, then expatriates are surely its first generation of citizens. In a future post I will examine some of the key technologies that have evolved within the space defined by the Internet, and how they can benefit expats; many of these technologies enable the average expat to live life in a completely new way whilst maintaining their current location in the host nation of their choice.