The US and UK governments are very keen to emphasise the fact that we’re in a global recession, and that the financial crisis is not only being felt ‘at home.’
Could it be that their determination to make us understand clearly that the fiscal issues affecting each nation are not just of their making has something to do with guilt or embarrassment? Or is it just a way for the leaders to deflect attention away from the dire state of each country’s economy?
Either way, who cares, because we have evidence that proves life is actually better if you’re living abroad – which is why we’re pretty sure expats are going to do all they can to remain expats so that they don’t have to return home and face their country of domicile’s terrible economic woes!
There’s a lot of speculation in the British media at the moment about the number of Britons who will return ‘home’ now that the financial crisis has gone global and jobs are being lost all over the world. There are discussions about the fact that a weak pound is buying less for retirees abroad, that expats are the first to get fired by their international employers who will look after their own nationals first, and that there will be a large repatriation of British expats who have ‘failed’ overseas.
But we’d like to counter all this speculation with a few fabulous facts!
Halifax International has been speaking to their expatriate client base and they have found that actually, a whopping 66% of expats say that things are far better abroad than they are back in the UK. Two thirds of those surveyed said that their new nation of residence was fairing far more healthily economically speaking than Britain. So there you are!
Add to this the fact that professional expats are still earning more on average than their peers back home, and that for at least a third of Brits living abroad their property prices have not fallen and you can see that many who have chosen the expatriate path are doing alright thank you. Those who have been renting a property abroad have not suffered massive rental hikes on average either, and there are still a few expats who haven’t even seen their cost of living rise. Okay, so the latter are in the minority – but they do exist! How many onshore Brits can say the same?
So, in conclusion, the grass does actually seem to be at least a little bit greener abroad. Which is probably what you thought, and it’s probably why the likes of Brown and Obama are trying to convince their citizens otherwise, because after all, if we all expatriated then there’d be no one left to pay the increasing taxes to stop the country going bankrupt!
