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Your Moving Abroad Location Checklist

December 15, 2010 in Expat Locations, Moving Abroad Tips by Paul Allen | 1 comment

If you’re considering moving abroad then you want to do it right from the off. Your happiness depends on it. And that means making sure you head for a destination that best meets all YOUR requirements.

So here are some of the key issues to contemplate when deciding where to live:

1)      Education

For any parents, the quality of education available to their children – whether in the local state system, a private institution or at an international school – has to be a crucial factor.

If a country’s educational options are poor, think again. Your child’s future is too important.

2)      Language

Which languages do you speak? Where in the world will you find it easiest to integrate, and feel most comfortable living, as a result? Which languages will prove most beneficial to your prospects going forward?

At the gates of my daughter’s school here in Britain I hear many foreign accents. One big attraction for these parents of raising their children in the UK is the English fluency they are achieving. As the world’s dominant business language at present that will stand them in good stead in the years to come.

3)      Quality of life

Definitions of quality of life vary from person-to-person. But common considerations include the location’s relative cost of living, the climate, career opportunities and earning potential, access to leisure activities, the country’s political freedoms and cultural mores.

For instance, the UK is renowned for its high cost of living and poor weather. However, HSBC’s latest Expat Explorer Survey[1] ranked it the top country for entertainment, and reported that it is an easy place for expats to integrate.

The important thing is to determine which quality of life factors matter most to you.

4)      Social network

It is great to have family support and contact. Yet for many people living abroad often means having to do without that.

In such situations, it is important to be in a location where there are plenty of opportunities to develop a strong circle of friends who can offer emotional support, and with whom you can share the good times.

5)      Future prospects

Looking ahead, what sort of life will your location offer?

Does it hold out the prospect of attractive career opportunities, for you and any children you may have?

If you are considering retirement there, is it affordable?  What sort of social life can you expect? How do the healthcare system, and healthcare costs, stack up?

Answer these crucial questions before you leave home and you have a much better chance of finding happiness and contentment when you arrive.

[1] Expat Experience is the second of three reports from HSBC’s 2010 Expat Explorer research series, http://www.offshore.hsbc.com/1/2/international/expat/expat-survey/expat-experience-report-2010

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Living Abroad and the Joys of Family Support

June 2, 2010 in Living Abroad Pros and Cons by Paul Allen | No comments

It was my wedding anniversary yesterday, which put me in mind of some of the good and bad aspects of living abroad.

Unlike our actual wedding day, when we were fortunate to be bathed in sunshine from dawn to dusk, yesterday saw uninterrupted grey, glowering skies. The sort of poor excuse for summer for which Britain is renowned.

But that is what the English weather holds. One day it can be glorious, when you think summer is finally here to stay; the next it is cold, wet and windy. Temperamental.

It’s not what we had become accustomed to during our years living on the Spanish Mediterranean coast, where a long summer of heat and sunshine were guaranteed, promising endless days in the pool or on the beach. Indeed, it was one of the major reasons for us moving abroad in the first place. Re-acclimatising to what England has to offer will not be easy.

The upside to repatriating to the UK is the contact it gives us with family and friends, and the support network that is now on hand.

Yesterday, for instance, my in-laws offered to babysit, giving my wife and me the chance to head off to a restaurant for the evening. It was the first time we had been able to go out to celebrate our anniversary since our children were born, as living abroad meant there was no extended family around to watch them.

Such constraints don’t affect all expats. But If you’ve been used to having parents or siblings around to lend a hand while you go to the shops or the doctor, or look after the kids while you have a well-earned night out with friends or your partner, then their sudden absence can come as a big shock. Something to consider!

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Spanish School Holidays

June 20, 2008 in Education Abroad by Paul Allen | No comments

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!

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