Expat trends: Recession drives people abroad
Britons consider emigrating to escape recession: According to a survey by HiFX, about a quarter of Britons are seriously considering to leave the country to avoid the economic crisis. More than a million pensioners have already move abroad for retirement. However, the record low of the pound also affects those living abroad: Over the last 20 months, people whose income is fixed in sterling (e.g. pensioners) could watched their spending power going down in many countries.
Record numbers of British teachers want to find better life abroad: There are fears of understaffed British schools, because the number of qualified teachers who left the country has risen by 26% in the last three years. The flight of teachers could lead to a shortage of maths and science staff. According to a prediction of ISC Research, by 2013 this number will have risen to 54%.
Icelanders flee their country to find a job abroad: According to AFP, many well-educated Icelanders employees are trying to find a job abroad, and don´t care where they will land. After the country´s sudden economic meltdown, many employees were losing their jobs and their savings, too. Let´s see where lots of the North Atlantic nation of just 320,000 people are going to start their new lifes.
New Zealand’s expats may have a hard return: Many New Zealanders that lived abroad and now want to come back home may have difficulties in finding a job. As professional firms report, those who stayed in the country took their places. Since the international employment market tightens, there are more New Zealanders coming home, but they clash with the local rising jobless figures.
Image improvement for American expats through Obama: Many Americans living abroad said they had to hear lots of critics about US policies. Some even avoided telling where they are from. According to the Boston Globe, this has now changed: With the new president American expats suddenly have new cachet and it seems that goodwill toward Americans has returned.
Indians going abroad can keep school seat for children: Going abroad in India meant to leave the heavily competitional seat in good schools for their children behind. Now more and more Indian parents decide to pay the full fee over their whole absence time, and get back the child’s seat on return. According to the Sunday Times of India, as more and more parents go abroad on short- and long-term assignments, the number of these requests is growing.
Update: We have addes some information on expatriate demographics here.
