Expat Living 101.com Blog

We had some friends come to visit last Saturday. They were on holiday in France, a couple of hours up the road, and so took the opportunity to drive across the border into our corner of northern Spain to see us for the day.

Last time they did the same journey they got held up for hours in traffic and shortly after they arrived we were hit by a massive thunderstorm. This time though the journey was quick and the sky cloudless. After they arrived we all went in our pool for an hour. Their three young children thought it was marvellous – a pool in the back garden!

Afterwards we had a long lunch. And then later in the afternoon, when the sun had dipped a little, we strolled along to the beach, where we swam and built sandcastles with the children.

Both sets of kids played nicely together all day and had a wonderful time. As did we adults. At the end of the day the parents turned to us and said, “You have a great life here.”

They were right. We know it. That’s why we moved here in the first place, for the long sunny summers, to have the Mediterranean on our doorstep.

For our friends it was a perfect holiday day: the sun, the warmth, the pool, the beach. By contrast, for us it was a pretty normal Saturday. No doubt we’ll be doing something similar this weekend.

And our choice of location has been reaffirmed all week. Each day has dawned bright and clear. It’s been relentless sunshine and baking temperatures.

Britain, meanwhile, has been enjoying its traditional August weather: rainy, windy and cold.

There is a downside though to this ‘idyllic’ existence, and that shone through the day after our friends were here. At breakfast our three-year old asked: “When can we see them again? I miss them already.”

And, of course, we do too. Whenever we get together with them we have fun. If we were in England they would be among our closest friends. But we’re not. Instead we see them once a year at best, more often once every two years.

And that’s the pattern of our life. It seems we, and our young daughters, are always saying goodbye to the people we love: my wife’s parents, our siblings, nieces and nephews and friends. And our daughters wonder why.

Yes, we do have a great lifestyle here. It’s all the things we wanted. If only our family and friends would move over too! Then it would be complete.

But that’s not going to happen. So instead there is a choice: a great lifestyle in one place, or family and dear friends in another.

If you have your sights set on moving to Australia or Spain – perennial favourites among expatriates – then you might want to think again.

According to HSBC Bank International’s new Expat Existence survey, the best place to be an expatriate is in fact Singapore, followed by the United Arab Emirates and the US.

The HSBC report sought to investigate the opportunities and challenges that expats face in their new locations. To this end it ranked the countries according to a variety of factors that assessed expats’ ability to earn and save, their quality of accommodation, the level of luxury enjoyed (such as access to private healthcare, pool ownership, and the ability to employ staff), and a country’s popularity in terms of how long expats live there.

I wouldn’t disagree with the findings. I haven’t been to Singapore since the early 90s, but at the time I found it a clean and pleasant (if somewhat sterile) city.

It’s got an equable – albeit humid – climate, high education standards, low unemployment and good job opportunities, superb restaurants, low tax and living costs, and it serves as a convenient hub for travel in the wider region.

I can’t directly comment on the UAE, having never been there. However, as the CIA World Factbook notes, it has a high per capita income, strong economic growth and zero taxes in its Free Trade Zones. The money-earning potential therefore must be a particular lure. On the flip side I would imagine its climate is a significant drawback though.

The US has evident advantages too. My wife and I lived in New York for a year and loved it: the bustle and excitement, the opportunity to pursue the ‘American Dream,’ the chance to travel around what is an enormous and extremely varied country. I can therefore well-understand the allure it holds (which will no doubt increase once President Bush finally leaves office!).

By contrast, some traditional expat locations fared less well in the HSBC survey.

Australia came in 10^th, having received high marks for levels of luxury, accommodation, and the ability to earn and save, but with a low score for longevity. Spain, meanwhile, was 12^th and France 13^th.

The UK, which trailed in 14^th, proved the most expensive expat location for accommodation. It also ranked as the least luxurious, with decreases reported in nine of the 11 luxury categories. This will come as no surprise to the millions of British citizens who indicate they are planning their own escape from the country.

However, before you get carried away with the overall rankings and start changing your plans, it’s worth paying attention to the longevity scores. And here Europe came out triumphant.

The report found 82 percent of the expat respondents in the Netherlands have been there three or more years. Germany had the next highest figure, with 77 percent, while Spain was close behind with 76 percent.

No doubt there are a whole slew of reasons to account for this. Factors such as a reasonable year-round climate, ease of accessibility for trips back home, decent infrastructure (including transport, telecommunications, healthcare and education), political stability and a rich cultural heritage.

So although a hefty pay package and an army of domestic staff may be appealing, the financials of your move should not be the be-all and end-all. Rather, relocating abroad should be about improving your overall quality of life. Ultimately that is what will make it an enjoyable, and successful, experience.

“We always have been, we are, and I hope that we always shall be detested in France.”

That may have been the sentiment of Napoleon’s great adversary the Duke of Wellington, but two centuries and two world wars as allies on and relations between the Brits and French have become – mostly – more amicable.

Certainly I detected no animosity during my family’s recent foray into France on holiday. Instead, despite my barbarous misuse of their beautiful language, we were greeted with smiles and warmth wherever we went.

Likewise, today’s Brits seem to hold their neighbour and erstwhile foe in particularly high esteem (although for some reason my grandmother, who I’m sure was not alone, harboured a lingering resentment towards France, and refused to buy any French produce in the supermarkets until the end of her life!).

And we Brits are not alone. As the CIA’s World Factbook observes, France is the most visited country in the world, to the tune of 82 million foreign tourists in 2007.

With good reason too. For it is a breathtaking country, as I was reminded on our recent journey across the Pyrenean border from Spain and up through Aquitaine into the Charente, near the Atlantic coast.

I have to confess, our time in the country made me a little envious of the French and anyone else who lives there. Not enough to want to upsticks from Spain and move perhaps. But I can certainly see why its appeal for anyone else thinking of relocating abroad.

So here are my top five reasons for moving to France:

1)      The Countryside

As Meg Ryan exclaimed in the movie French Kiss, while admiring the French countryside passing by her train window: “Err, beautiful!”

Oh yes. Think of the Loire, the forests of Fontainebleau, the Bordelais and Burgundian wine regions, the Alps, the Côte d’Azur. France has it all.

2)      Towns and Cities

Is Paris the most beautiful city in the world? It’s got to have a claim. But even in the smallest provincial towns and villages it is easy to find a delightful shaded square, an arched bridge across a meandering river, a bustling market, or a maze of narrow cobbled lanes.

3)      Climate

France encompasses all three European climates: maritime, continental and Mediterranean. And while this contributes to the beauty and variety of its geography, it also brings an abundance of leisure opportunities, whether for adventure sports like skiing or surfing, or more gentle pursuits such as golf, walking or painting.

4)      Wining and Dining

Need I say more?! Just picture yourself kicking back with a glass of claret after a sumptuous four-course French meal. I rest my case.

5)      French Living

And all of this is wrapped up in something that is at once intangible and yet very real: the whole mode of French life, its attitudes and cultural mores. The beauty that seems to imbue everything French, whether in its art or architecture, its language, music or their inimitable sense of style. And, perhaps most importantly, a cultural emphasis on pleasure and appreciating the good things in life. Indeed, like chic, the French expression has even entered the English vernacular: joie de vivre. Who could say it better?

So we’ve hit July, which marks the high summer season on the Spanish costas, and indeed all round the Mediterranean.

The beginning of the month sees the start of the school holidays in France, and so we get the French influx as people hop across the border. They are followed by ever growing numbers of Dutch and Belgians and Germans. Then, at the end of July, the Brits start to roll in. And once we get into August it’s the Spaniards, many of whom stick to tradition and have the whole month as vacation.

From now through to August 31 the beaches will be packed, the restaurants and bars mobbed, the roads chock full of cars with foreign plates driven by people who haven’t a clue where they’re going.

It’s both a boost and a bane.

I hate the fact that I can’t even get in the car park at the local supermarket, and that the check-out queues will stretch back to the ends of the aisles. That the idyllic and almost deserted beachside pathway we stroll along most days out of season will become so crowded that there’s now a 50-50 chance of getting run over by a cyclist or out of control roller-blader.

But I like the life the summer, and its tourists, bring to the place. Like so many coastal places, our little fishing town can be somewhat ghostly through the winter. But in summer it’s pulsing.

And of course we get to enjoy the blessed golden days and balmy nights that attract the tourists in the first place. It’s the price, I suppose, of paradise.

It was the festival of Sant Joan (St. John) this week in Catalunya. The celebrations start at sunset on June 23 and run through until sunrise on the 24^th (which is the feast day marking the birth of St John the Baptist), and are popularly known in this region as the Nit del Foc, meaning “night of fire.”

It is also the noisiest night of the year. Fire, with its purifying qualities, is one of the three symbols of the festival. As such it is traditional to light bonfires, as the flames are supposed to scare off the imaginary creastures that come out at night, and to ward off bad luck for the remainder of the year.

And along with the bonfires come huge organised firework displays, as well as a general and continuous explosion of rockets and firecrackers from every quarter, which lasts right through until dawn. Of course, you can imagine what licence for uproar this gives to the local kids.

A second symbol associated with Sant Joan is water, which is supposed to have curative powers on this night. According to the Barcelona city council’s website (http://www.bcn.es/santjoan/en/simbols.html), it is also customary to collect thyme, rosemary and verbena, as the powers of medicinal plants are thought to increase during this period.

Taken together, the Christian religious festival and these pagan Midsummer symbols that underlie it speak of purification and health, of rebirth. Not that many of the celebrants looked all that rejuvenated on the feast day itself I noticed, having been up most of the night. Nevertheless, the fiesta seemed to me a fitting reminder to all of us to make the most of the passing year.

To this end, it should mean celebrating our health and summer’s blessings. And also to seek out our own form of “rebirth,” in the sense of creating a better life for ourselves, whatever form your goals may take.

My daughter broke up from school for the summer holidays yesterday. That’s twelve weeks of glorious freedom ahead.

It’s probably just in time too. After an unusually wet and cool spring in our north-eastern corner of Spain the weather has taken a sudden change. Summer has arrived with a vengeance – cloudless skies, little more than a zephyr of breeze, and soaring temperatures. And the forecast is for more of the same, only getting hotter.

The full heat of a Spanish summer therefore makes the long vacation something of a necessity. And of course it’s fantastic for the kids. When I was growing up our six week summer break from school seemed like forever. But three months! And being able to spend it on a Mediterranean beach … it makes me green just thinking about it.

Still, it’s not so great for the parents, for two reasons.

Firstly, three months is a long time to be out of the school routine, with its timetable and the habit of learning that comes with being in the classroom. So how are you going to keep them from going crazy with boredom and in that learning mindset through the extended break, so they’re not hardened against school and all it represents when they go back in the autumn?

And secondly, if both parents go out to work, as is increasingly common, what are you going to do about childcare? Foist your little angels off on the grandparents for three months? Get a nanny? Quit your job?

Or maybe do what many of the Spanish parents seem to and enrol the children in summer school for the duration. Makes you wonder then though why the education department bothers having the long summer break!

At last, the European Championships have got under way. Of course, as an English football fan it is with a tinge of regret … I’m still wondering how England didn’t manage to qualify! Still, this is no time for harping on about past disappointments.

Instead, I shall be focusing on the fortunes of my adopted country, Spain. I’ve put money on Spain in major football tournaments and been disappointed too many times in the past to get carried away. All the Spaniards I’ve spoken to seem to feel the same way, recognising their team as the perennial underachievers.

Still, the eternal optimist inside me can’t help but wonder if this year may really be the one. Many of Britain’s football pundits seem to think so too.

Individual talent has never been in question. It’s that cohesiveness as a unit that lets them down … and the reason why Germany always seem to do so well, even when they have a dearth of individual brilliance.

So is the Spaniards’ failing down to a lack of organisation, of belief? Quite possibly. It’s certainly something the German team never seem to be in short supply of.

Commitment? Maybe that too. There were reports in years gone by of severe divisions and antagonism in the Spanish camp, particularly between the Real Madrid and Barcelona players, who carry the burden of their great team rivalry and its political backdrop.

I read not long ago that FC Barcelona defender Oleguer Presas, a radical Catalan nationalist, didn’t want to play for the Spanish national squad and only agreed to join up with them when invited in 2005 because of pressure from the Barça president and the threat of not being able to play for his club. Can you imagine an English player being so antipathetic to representing his country?

And it is a not uncommon attitude among the wider Catalan population, many of whom refuse to cheer the Spanish national side. Centuries of centralist “repression” have left their mark!

Hopefully there is more unity and more belief in the Spanish squad this year though. And I, for one, will be cheering them on to the final.

Last summer it was the record floods impelling people to flee Britain in search of a better life abroad. This year’s headline incentive it seems will be the global credit crunch.

According to new research conducted by YouGov for Legal & General, and reported in the Scotsman, 19% of Scotland’s five million population would be prepared to move abroad to escape the sharp rise in living costs stemming from the credit crunch. And an estimated 550 people a week are thought to be leaving Scotland for a life overseas already.

But while the UK is undoubtedly an expensive place to live, it isn’t the only nation to be hit by escalating living costs.

Food prices around the world are soaring thanks to a combination of forces, including long-term droughts in Australia and more US farmers turning their crops over to biofuels. Meanwhile, oil continues to trade around $130 per barrel, compared to an average of $20 - $30 over the past 60 years, which has caused petrol and fuel costs to rocket everywhere. And because oil powers so much of the world’s manufacturing it has fed through into price rises for a welter of other goods.

As a result, inflation is once again rearing its head on a global scale.

In response, the European Central Bank raised eurozone interest rates to 4% last Wednesday, double what it was just 18 months ago. ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet indicated further rate rises could follow too. Not got news for borrowers.

And with the euro remaining strong against the pound, any money transferred from the UK to Europe will not go nearly as far as it once did. Popular British expat destinations like Spain, France and Portugal are no longer such cheap alternatives then.

In addition, while you may find moving abroad gives you a lower cost of living, you also need to consider what your earnings are likely to be in your new location. Yes, your living costs may go down, but if your income decreases by a similar amount how much better off will you really be?

Of course the expense of UK living is a concern for many people. But it is a global phenomenon. Better therefore to think before you jump. So if you’re considering a move abroad, make sure your decision is based on a real heart’s desire to experience life overseas, rather than in response to external – and potentially temporary – factors.

I saw with sadness that Sydney Pollack died earlier in the week. Not that I knew him to feel a sense of personal loss. Rather it was a sadness stemming from the passing of someone who made such a wonderful contribution to the world of film.

Coincidentally I had watched Michael Clayton, which Pollack produced and acted in, only the night before. The story follows the struggles of two men, the eponymous hero (played by George Clooney) and his colleague, lawyer Arthur Edens, who are caught up in a class-action lawsuit against an agrochemical production company. Both feel trapped in their current situations. Both desperately want to change their lives, to make them better, to be the people they want to be.

It seems a fitting testament to Pollack. While he may not have had the public status of the likes of a Clooney or Spielberg, in the industry he was a highly-regarded and influential director and producer. And as George Clooney’s tribute put it: “Sydney made the world a little better, movies a little better and even dinner a little better.”

Could any of us hope for a better eulogy? To feel perhaps we’ve contributed in some small way to making the world a better place, to have pursued our dreams and ideals in our careers and lives, and to have brought some happiness to the people around us along the way.

So think about what it is that you truly want for your life. What would make you feel happy and fulfilled? Perhaps it’s that move abroad you’ve been dreaming about. Or a new job. Whatever it is, now is the time to shoot for it. Sure it may take a struggle, but aren’t the rewards worth fighting for? After all, it is your life.

Research this week from the House of Commons Library suggests England’s population will have shot up by 17 million people by 2056, taking the total for England alone to 67.9 million. The cause: more births, people living longer, and large immigration flows.

Indeed, the latter point appears to be gaining increasing significance, according to the National Statistician, Karen Dunnell. Her research, reports the Daily Mail, reveals that from 1992-96 (when the Conservatives were in government) ‘natural change’ as a result of people living longer or having more children was the biggest contributor to UK population growth. This accounted for an additional 582,604 people, compared to 143,112 from net migration and other factors.

However, under Labour, points out the Mail, net migration has taken over as the primary factor behind population growth. From 1997-2001, migrants and other factors added 532,652 people to the total, whereas 416,471 came from natural change. And from 2002 to 2006 net migration climbed to 932,999 people, almost double the 528,429 increase that stemmed from natural change.

On the flip side, the most recent figures from the Office for National Statistics show that 207,000 British citizens emigrated in 2006, the highest number since current records began in 1991. And from 1997-2007, a total of more than 1.5 million Brits moved abroad. The figure was jumped on by Conservative immigration spokesman Damian Green, who claimed the exodus was a reflection of a decade of life under Labour.

Certainly there is a connection in many people’s minds between the two flows (particularly if you browse through the Daily Mail and Telegraph reader message boards). Immigration is making our densely populated little island even more overcrowded, putting more pressure on our already stretched housing stock, and on our health, education and transport systems. As a result, disgruntled Britons are fleeing in their droves in search of a better quality of life elsewhere.

This seems an illogical argument to me. You’re fed up with people moving into your country, so you’re going to move to someone else’s instead! And how do you suppose the local population in Spain or Australia or Canada feels about it? Would you blame them if they reacted with hostility to your incursion?

I too jumped ship and left England five years ago, so I can understand the motivations involved in migrating somewhere in search of a better life, wherever that may be. And I can only say I hope any legal immigrant to Britain is welcomed as warmly as I have been by the people here. After all, what’s sauce for the goose …