expatriation

I am an ex-pat in the strictest sense, but not the kind that comes with corporate expense accounts.  So contrasting my voluntary expat experience with some of my friends who have been ex-patted for work, here are some observations.

Few report a drop in their standard of living, regardless of their place of origin and their relocated cities.  The issues on hand are those of 1) income discrepancies, 2) tax burdens, 3) quality of life.

When it comes to income gaps between home and host countries, those moving from less-developed countries to more developed ones usually have their salaries bumped in accordance to the higher local salary levels and cost of living.  For places that suffer from severe housing shortage or exorbitant upward price pressures, i.e. London, New York, Moscow or Tokyo, companies usually have long-term lease or outright owns condo units to alleviate house-hunting pressures and contain costs.

Those moving in the opposite direction will more or less retain their salary level from back home. There we have the enviable case of someone on an European or American salary, but now facing costs as low as 1/10 of what they are used to back home.  In countries with low labour costs, many are equipped with live-in help.  In certain places where security is a concern, drivers are assigned.  Expats in a number of select countries also qualify for a “hardship allowance”, to compensate for real or imagined political and social uncertainties. On the upside, they are able to do all the things that young people are supposed to want to do.  Namely, carrying on the hedonistic lifestyle that ex-colonials indulged in from centuries ago.  On the downside, living in rapidly-growing urban centres come with the inevitably stress arising from noise and pollution, not to mention a myriad of social ills.  Read more...