Expats’ aspirations, expectations and minor frustrations (1)

So what makes us move, anyway? Some of us will have a head start as we have benefited from either a high school or university year abroad. Expectations are that one day, up to 10 percent of all college and university students will have done just that (an eventual yet significant increase when compared to just over 2 percent in the early 1980s, figures correct for Western Europe). Nearly all of us will have been abroad on some form of holiday. Still, for a majority of us packing up and moving overseas for at least a year or two – with a considerable number of us staying longer and some even for good – everything will be new and a new experience, too. Hence, there must be huge rewards waiting in the chosen destination, or so they say.

Less cliché, more reality check

Potential future expats are often lured into a dream world of sorts. Unless relocated by your bank or government, you will soon realize that your salary although more than sufficient will not stretch limitlessly. You will have to manage two homes, and unless you rent out your first one, you will sit on dead capital. Romantic tales of travelers in far-away places – when it comes to Turkey more often than not the Peter Ustinov Orient Express cliché – will make you believe that even in today’s expatriate world domestic maids and servants are standard and that a chauffeur-driven car (no longer a horse-drawn carriage though) will be at your permanent disposal and yes, of course, your house comes complete with personal security and a swimming pool. Well, as I have written above, unless you represent your government or a leading financial institution, your daily life will center around how to get to and from work by cab or public transport, where to find suitable accommodation at a non-inflated “foreigner” price and how long it takes to the nearest hypermarket for your weekly shopping trip. Sounds familiar, not too different from what you experience every day in your place of origin?

So it is all about the job, our career and, of course, the “one day going back to where we came from.”

For nine out of 10, it’s the job!

Undoubtedly an extended stay abroad will not only enhance your career prospects back home but will enrich your personality quite significantly, too. Today’s expats are no longer confined to the usual suspects with regards to which professions qualify for being sent overseas as from adult education via business management to consulting (and including nearly all further letters of the alphabet) anything and everything is possible as long as the work-related legal framework of your chosen destination allows for it.

Once back home, though, you will soon find out that your colleagues may not necessarily approve of Mr. or Mrs. High-flyer, and I would expect your boss will have a promotion (and perhaps management position) in store, as he will be all too well aware of the fact that many people simply do not understand why someone who voluntarily moved abroad ever decides to come back.

If you are self-employed and intending to perhaps join the ranks of an international company back home, the mention of “two years’ professional experience abroad” will most definitely increase your chances come the day for the all important job interview.

It all depends at which stage of your career you decide to move overseas and for how long.

Are today’s expats different?

21st century expatriates are a new breed of migrant workers as one thing will unite them all: the use of the English language as key means of cross-cultural communication. This comment may surprise some of our readers as it stems from a “25 percent” Francophile writer (both by family background as well as my own happy expat days in Brussels), but by sheer choice of countries where English is used and where French is preferred, English does come out on top, indeed.

What’s more, many decide to bring their partners along, and quite a few opt for traveling complete with their children, too. To be fair to the French language, just last week I received a request from a future Canadian expat asking me about English curricula -- or in his case of course, French, too -- schools for his 8-year-old son.

We will have benefited from in-depth pre-departure studies about our home away from home thanks to the Internet and much more globally inclined newspapers (think International Herald Tribune, think Le Monde).

What has not changed, though, is what I referred to earlier on in this contribution: When the day has arrived for heading to the airport, we are all the same: anxious and definitely a bit nervous, and most of the three or 13 hour flight will be spent brainstorming whether or not we have packed everything we need, whether the gas is switched off at home and/or whether our temporary house sitter will pay the rent on time.