Expat "longevity" - how long will you stay?

Taking data from a recent HBSC survey, which presents a whole host of interesting information regarding the top expat locations, we find some surprising facts.

First let us consider longevity, or how long an average expat lives in a particular country or area of the world. We find that Europe overall sees the most long term expats, with up to 80% of them living in Europe for more than three years. This is hardly surprising in itself, it only becomes interesting when correlated with the next fact.

Almost every European country scored very low in the overall scores, most displayed a relatively high cost of living and low standards of lifestyle based upon income, almost all of them were criticised for their social and economic environment.

So the real question is why are so many people so keen to stay in these countries, even though the survey results would seem to suggest that they are the least attractive expat options to be found? Could it be that the survey neglected to factor location into the equation? European expats who relocated to another European country have the huge advantage of easy access to their home nation, something the survey seems to overlook...

Family Matters survey

Robin Pascoe of ExpatExpert.com has asked me to let everyone know about a survey she's carrying out called "Family Matters". Here's some info from Robin's site:

In honour of the 10th anniversary of ExpatExpert.com being on the Internet and available to moveable families; and, in recognition of the five years of support from the Canadian moving company AMJ Campbell International, we decided it was time to hear what moveable families feel about the kind of relocation support they are receiving, whether they are moving around the world or around the corner.

Our mission is to find answers to this question: Are you getting the relocation support you need in order to succeed as a moveable family?

There are numerous relocation surveys that examine the challenges of relocation in order to help companies and sponsoring organizations to better develop relocation policies. But, with very few exceptions, they neglect to go straight to the source—the family—for input.

Family Matters! will fill this gap by sampling only the accompanying spouse, the working partner in his/her capacity as spouse or parent, and any high school children in the family. The entire family can do this survey with lots of room provided to give us your opinions. As we are only offering one survey (instead of multiple surveys depending on where you fit in the family) do keep in mind that some questions may not apply to you. Just skip them.

In recognition of your contribution to this important exercise, after we have collected all the responses, we will be making a donation of $2.00 CDN for each survey to a very well-respected Canadian organization which helps families in Africa called The Stephen Lewis Foundation

It sounds like a very worthwhile exercise and I look forward to reading the results. For further details, and to complete the survey itself, please head over to the survey page at Robin's site!

Would you be cut out for the expat life?

Would you be cut out for the expat life? That's the question asked in a news article posted this morning on the BBC news website. According to the responses the reporter received - from Brits living in Spain - most expats have found their move abroad suits them very nicely. This comes hot on the heels of a survey carried out by the Centre of Future Studies for NatWest international personal banking which suggests that more than nine out of 10 British expats think they have a better quality of life now than they did in the UK. Canada came out as the top country to emigrate to, followed by New Zealand and Portugal. Further details of the survey's results can be found here - see what you think!