An interesting report carried out by the InterNations organization, in which 14,272 expatriates of 174 nationalities residing in 191 different countries participated, provides a comprehensive view of the different aspects that surround the lives of those who live and work in a country other than their country of origin.
‘Expats Insider’ was based on five evaluation axes: quality of life, ease of integration, personal economic situation, work life, and family life in the case of expatriates with a family. All respondents had to rate 43 different aspects of their stay abroad on a scale of 1 to 7 points.
Although by definition expatriate almost always refers to a person who relocates their residence for work reasons at the request of the organization for which they carry out their activity, in ‘Expats Insider’ such a person is considered to be any person who for professional reasons lives in country other than the country of origin. Inter Nations establishes in its study ten different profiles of expatriates according to the reasons for the change, age, family and professional conditions, and another series of determining variables.
The overall results:
InterNations determined that the average expatriate profile is a man (51%) with a stable personal relationship (63%), approximately 43 years old, who works an average of more than 41 hours per week. Only 21% have dependent children.
31% of the more than 14,000 respondents plan to stay the rest of their lives in their new home, followed by 23% who are undecided, 22% who will do so for a minimum period of 3 years, 20% will remain between 1 and 3, and only 5% plan a stay of less than 12 months. In 81% of the cases surveyed, expatriates have university or postgraduate training.
In 15% of cases, expatriates found work by themselves in the chosen country of destination, 13% were transferred by their companies, 11% are expatriates for reasons related to love, and 9% are motivated to improve their quality of life. and 9% moved for work or training reasons for their partners.
A direct relationship
Taking the ten different profiles of expatriates as a reference, InternNations establishes a direct relationship between the reasons for the change and the destination countries: while those transferred by the organizations tend to be sent mainly to Romania, Kazakhstan, Kenya, India or Ukraine, those who they do it for study reasons they usually choose Denmark, Finland, the United States, Germany or the Netherlands.
Although in general terms, Taiwan, Malta, Costa Rica, Mexico and New Zealand are the five countries that welcomed the most expatriates, in some cases those destinations vary if the question answers the best places to work. In this ranking, the Top 5 is occupied in order by Luxembourg, Taiwan, Germany, New Zealand and Malta.
