Many people have the impression that expatriates earn a lot of money. In fact, tensions are sometimes created in subsidiaries of large companies where the locals may be earning a lot less than half of the money of expats working in similar positions of responsibility.

To understand this better, it is useful to have a idea about how companies go about calculating compensation for expatriates. One of main factors is something called the ‘hardship allowance‘, which can be defined as the:

premium compensation paid to expatriates who experience – or should expect to experience – a significant deterioration in living conditions in their new host location.

Roughly translated, this means that the worse the place is, the more you get paid. So, how do you judge one destination against another? One of the main benchmarks which can be used are quality of living indices. There are a few of these created by different organisations. A good place to start is Mercer (which is one of the largest HR consultancies in the world) – a lot of the information is subscription only, but there are some useful articles and information on the site.  In their 2009 Quality of Living Survey, they have some interesting information which can also be used by expats when evaluating pay and prospects when moving from one country to another.

Best quality of life for expats

Mercer evaluated the following cities as having the best overall quality of life for expatriates:

1. Vienna, Austria
2. Zurich, Switzerland
3. Geneva, Switzerland
4. Vancouver, Canada (tied 4th)
5. Auckland, New Zealand (tied 4th)

The worst places to go and work in included Bagdad, Brazzaville and Khartoum – for pretty obvious reasons!

HSBC International today released the first results from their 2009 Expat Explorer survey (download a copy here HSBC Bank International Expat Explorer Survey 2009). It makes chilling reading as it clearly shows that the economic effects of the worldwide recession are making themselves felt among expat communities worldwide. On the positive side, expats as a whole still evaluate that they are wealthier and manage to save more than when they were resident in their home countries! Some highlights:

Where is the crunch causing the most damage?

Residents in the US, Thailand and South Africa have identified the largest changes in their spending and saving patterns. The largest reduction in day-to-day items was shown by 81% of expatriates in Spain cutting back on spending for day-to-day essentials, with the US (79%) and the UK (75%) close behind.

Going home?

15% of all expats surveyed are considering going home. A massive 44% of all Expats surveyed in the UK are doing so and 23% of those in the US are thinking the same.

Paul Say, Head of Marketing and Communications for HSBC Bank International said,

As the world continues to undergo a significant economic shift, we are seeing some interesting patterns amongst the expat population, particularly in the changes to their spending habits. Despite expats in the UK and US considering a move home we also found that the majority of expats are staying put despite growing employment uncertainty across many regions.

Is there anywhere still looking OK?

Emerging markets seem to be the most promising on pure economic measures. 30% of expats surveyed in Russia are earning more than $250,000/year. Other high-earning destinations (with % earning $250k+ in brackets) were: Hong Kong (27%), Japan (26%), Switzerland (25%) and India (25%). The global average is 16%

Expats save more

68% of expatriates say they save more than at home. Russia (97%) and Qatar (98%) have the highest saving rates. Only 14% of expats say they save less than at home. On the investment side of things and despite falling prices, 46% of respondents still invest money in property.

Read the report in full:  http://www.offshore.hsbc.com/expatexplorer

Apologies in advance to Western Union (a useful service used by many people to send money home to their families in countries where many people do not have access to banking). However, this post is about why you should not send money to people to you don’t know using Western Union.

The scam

You are looking for somewhere to live (you can substitute free puppy dogs, cars, trunks of gold bullion or pretty much anything else where you can get scammed for a payment in advance).  You find an ad with a place that looks great and is well-priced and ask for more information. This scam can work in reverse, where you post an ad saying you are looking and then they get in contact with you.

The gang

Scammers split up the responsibilities and work in teams. The people doing the legwork of posting the ads and making first contacts with people are usually sat in an Internet café in Western Africa. Once a lead is generated, someone else (usually with better English) will take over to work the scam. Payment will then usually be picked up by a ‘mule’, which gets a commission for the risk of picking up the cash (usually with fake identification), but who might not be able to reveal the real guys running the scam factory.

The bait

Whatever is on offer is usually a bargain. This means you will be told there are lots of other people asking for it or some other reason why you need to make them ‘confident’ you are really going to take the offer.

The reel

Things start to get difficult for the scammer with questions like, “can I see the flat” or “I would prefer to pay the deposit when I arrive”. However, these guys are pros and sick mothers appear or they have had to go on an urgent assignment to the other side of the world and can send the keys by Fedex. The story might sound a bit weird, but they have built up some trust with the victim and – after all – it does sound like a great flat!

The sting

Can you send the money by Western Union to Mr X, Street Y, City Z? Maybe, you offer to pay with a bank transfer, but you hear the sick mother/cousin/aunt doesn’t want to give out her bank details because she was scammed in the past (this is a nice touch with some reverse psychology in there). At this point some people ignore any doubts they have and go and send the money.

If you send money to a bank account, this is linked with an account and banks mostly have decent proceedures to make opening an accout linked to a physical person. Although some scammers do get their hands on real banks accounts this is relatively rare. The important thing is that the banking system does have processes in place to reverse transactions and follow up on fraud.

Western Union, however, pay cash out to someone identifying themselves with the transfer number and some sort of ID. This is a non-recourse transaction, meaning that once you have sent the money and it has been collected you cannot get it back. Scammers use fake ID to collect and the only trace might be some blurred CCTV pictures in the shop where the money is collected. The perfect theft.

Stay safe!

Use common sense and don’t enter into transactions where you have the slightest suspicion of the other party. We have written some more about common scams and frauds here. At Just Landed, we are working hard to detect fraud with both automatic and manual processes and keep the bad guys off the site.  We catch a lot,  but despite all our efforts, some of the more clever scammers are still sometimes getting through, so we continue to work on the problem. We will also be adding some more information for users to help get them more informed and protect themselves3

We are happy to announce the launch of the Polish country guide in German. More than 9000 Germans emigrated to Poland in 2006 making it the fifth most popular emigration destination among Germans.

Not only the accession to the EU but also a generally high standard of living have boosted Poland’s attractiveness. Since it borders Germany directly, emigration does not necessarily mean farewell forever. Therefore, many Germans decide to leave their home country and accept a new challenge.

Our Poland guide will provide you with the most important information on your move to Poland, e.g. how to find a nice place to stay, how to make your tax declaration as well as essential facts on the national health care.

Landesführer Polen auf Deutsch

Wir freuen uns, dass unser Landesführer für Auswanderer in Polen nun auch in Deutsch verfügbar ist. 2006 wanderten 9000 Deutsche nach Polen aus. Damit war Polen das fünftbeliebteste Auswanderungsziel der Deutschen, noch vor Spanien und Frankreich.

Der hohe Lebensstandard sowie vergleichsweise niedrige Lebensunterhaltskosten haben zu Polens Beliebtheit beigetragen. Mit dem Beitritt Polens zur EU ist es zudem leichter geworden, nach Polen auszuwandern. Die direkte Nachbarschaft zu Deutschland erleichtert das Auswandern nach Polen zusätzlich, da es sich dabei nicht um einen Abschied für immer handelt.

In unserem Polen-Führer Sie alle wichtigen Informationen für einen gelungenen Start in Polen. Der Landesführer umfasst neben Tipps zur Wohnungs- bzw. Arbeitssuche unter anderem auch  Erklärungen zu Steuern und Versicherungen, zur polnischen Sprache sowie zum polnischen Bildungssystem. Weitere Fragen können Sie gerne an unsere Polen-Community richten.

This is a guest post from Amy Foxwell, who has recently started blogging about and for expat mothers in France.

Being a mum and an expat is double duty. Not only do you worry about if your children are eating enough green vegetables and brushing their teeth correctly, now you have a myriad of other things to brood on. Are they integrating with the other children, are they falling behind in school because of the language, are they losing their connection with your home culture?

While being an expatriate parent can certainly give rise to many concerns, the best way to handle the situation is as with any parenting issues; be informed, be connected and be open with your children.

Join an expat support group and meet up with the members and their children. It is important for you and your children to have some time in the company of people that have similar life experiences. In addition these groups are great places to uphold traditions from the home country, such as hosting Halloween parties and Easter egg hunts.

The Internet is the perfect tool to help you find answers to your questions, or even connect with other parents in your area for play dates and local activities. Try the many forums and blogs, such as Mums and Meres, my own blog for expat mothers in France.

And as with any good parenting advice, talking with your children, and most importantly listening to them, is essential. Let them express their concerns and empower them by finding solutions together.

While being an expat family may add some stress to your job as a parent, just remember that the expatriate experience is incredibly enlightening for children and is a gift to them for their future in a global world.

By Amy Foxwell – http://mumsandmeres.wordpress.com

You probably have heard this question before: “What is exactly is your target market”? Of course, we hear this question a lot as well, an our answer has so far been straightforward: “Anybody living, working or studying abroad”. In other words, Just Landed is for expatriates and migrants that choose to live in another country, either for a limited time or for the rest of their life.

The next question is obviously how big this market is. According to UN statistics, 177 million people worldwide lived in a foreign country in 2005, and this number is likely to increase to more than 200 million in 2010. These include expatriates that are sent abroad by their company for a limited time, international students, long-term immigrants and pensioners that choose to move abroad for lifestyle reasons.

To shed a little more light on our target group, we have created a special expatriates section on our site which gives an overview of the worldwide expatriate market.  Though the reasearch on expatriates is rather limited, our findings give a pretty good picture of the most important characteristics of expatriates, their problems and their needs . It also give an overview of the most popular expatriate destinations and an insight to worldwide expat salaries.

Want to learn more about expatriates, their background and their need? Check out our new information on expatriates worldwide. And if you want to share your own expat story with us, we’re happy to hear from you.

We are excited to announce the launch of our community in Dutch! There are over 27 million Dutch speakers on this planet and it’s an official language of the European Union. Dutch is spoken mainly in the Netherlands and Belgium, as well as Suriname.

De Just Landed community is nu beschikbaar in het Nederlands. Ga snel kijken!

Na Zweeds, Grieks en Noors is de community nu ook beschikbaar in het Nederlands. We hopen dat dit het leven van Nederlandstalige expats iets gemakkelijker zal maken.

In de community kan je nieuwe vrienden maken, praten met mensen van over de hele wereld, alsook met andere Nederlandstaligen in contact komen.

According to a new study from the German expert association for integration and migration, more than 180,000 qualified workers have left Germany since 2003.  One of the most affected sectors is the medical sector: in 2008 alone, more than 3,000 highly qualified doctors have left the country, some 19,000 German doctors are now working abroad. At the same time, there is an increasing shortage of doctors in Eastern Germany.

The social cost of the brain drain is enormous: Since most German emigrants are young and highly qualified, the state loses billions in tax revenues according to the experts. According to their calculations, the lost tax revenue of an emigrating doctor amounts to more than one million Euros over the rest of his lifetime, a qualified worker costs more than 280,000 Euros in oportunity costs. Even if only one third of emigrated doctors stayed abroad, the tax loss of these workers alone would thus amount to more than one billion Euros.

At the same time the experts criticize the complicated bureaucratic procedures for recognizing foreign qualifications in Germany. According to them, many highly qualified immigrants in Germany cannot work in their chosen profession since their degrees are not recognized. The experts are therefore demanding a rapid restructuring of the German immigration system with special incentives for attracting qualified migrants.

We are pleased to announce the arrival of another European language to our Community pages.  All areas of our site are now available in Greek.  Greek is an official language of the EU and is spoken by roughly 15m people, mainly in Greece and Cyprus.

Η κοινότητα του “Just Landed”, είναι τώρα διαθέσιμη στα Ελληνικά!

Χάρη στον Θεοδόση Καλλιώρα (tkallioras@gmail.com) η κοινότητα για τα απόδημα άτομα είναι τώρα online! Έχοντας ήδη λανσάρει τις κοινότητες στα Αγγλικά τώρα προσθέτουμε γλώσσες ώστε οι χρήστες να μπορούν να χρησιμοποιούν καλύτερα την ιστοσελίδα μας. Στις σελίδες των κοινοτήτων μπορείτε να κάνετε φίλους και να μιλήσετε με οποιονδήποτε από οπουδήποτε στον κόσμο.

We’re happy to announce the launch of our expatriate guide to the Czech Republic. Whether you need information about working in the Czech Republic, getting a visa, finding accommodation, the Czech education system, health or financial services, our guide to the Czech Republic will help you get going.

With EU accession in 2004, many obstacles for foreigners living in the Czech Republic disappeared. In 2008 the Czech Republic had a vibrant expat community of about 430,000 people. This is partially due to the fact that many international companies choose the Czech Republic to establish a European headquarters, right in the heart of Europe. While the standard of living in the Czech Republic almost reaches that of Western Europe, the cost of living is still comparatively low.  Boosted by these advantages, net migration to the Czech Republic has risen more than tenfold, from 0.06% of total population in 2000 to 0.8% in 2007.

As with any move abroad, life in the Czech Republic is almost sure to differ from what you are accustomed to in your home country. Our expatriate guide will help you with everything you need to consider when moving to the Czech Republic. And if you still have doubts, or simply want to meet other expatriates, you can exchange ideas or ask for help in our expat community in the Czech Republic.