Expat survey: the best country that's not home

[mount_oregano]

If you're going to be an expatriate, what's the best country to live in? Canada — especially for its high quality of family life, ease of integration, and a good environment for children.

That's according to the most recent global survey of expats, Expat Experience, by HSBC Bank International. Australia came in 2nd, and Thailand 3rd.

The US came in 8th. Expats said getting healthcare and organizing finances were particularly difficult — but we already knew the healthcare and banking systems desperately need reform.

I live in Spain, which came in 9th, and would have ranked higher except that Spain speaks Spanish. The international community prefers English. But expats ranked it the healthiest place to live. Of course: lots of olive oil, red wine, sun, and siestas.

Of the 26 countries in the survey, the four worst were United Kingdom at 23rd, Russian Federation 24th, India 25th, and Qatar 26th.

Overall, survey respondents said the benefits of being an expat were financial rewards, improved quality of life, cultural opportunities, career development, and travel. The regrets were missing family and friends, language barriers, adapting to the culture, establishing a social life, and "constantly being a foreigner."

You can get the whole report and more information about expat life (and a lot of encouragement to make HSBC your bank) at:
http://www.offshore.hsbc.com/1/2/expatexplorer

— Sue Burke

Comments

[arhyalon.livejournal.com]

We just visited Canada this year and it was really wonderful. I can see why people would like it. Though, of course, we were there in the summer. Not sure how we would have felt after weathering a winter. ;-)

An interesting thought brought up by this report you mentioned is the difference between a country that is pleasant to live in and one that is easy to move to. I can imagine some countries could be great for natives but hard on immigrants...and possibly visa versa.

It would also be interesting to see the countries ranked within language groups. I bet Spain would have come out higher if the people being pooled were the very large group of Spanish speakers living elsewhere than their original homes.

Expat survey

[expatexplorer.blogspot.com (from livejournal.com)]

Hi Sue! Thanks so much for taking the time to review our survey and we're glad that you found the results of interest. Your blog tells an interesting story of expat life and we were wondering if you would be interested in being a guest writer on our blog (expatexplorer.blogspot.com) to tell us about some of your experiences?

Are you also on Twitter? Would be great to follow you and have you follow us if so. We are looking at launching the 2010 survey very soon and would love to have you take part!