Surveys conducted in the UK on whether people have thought about moving abroad, retiring overseas or just generally getting out of the UK for a protracted length of time usually flag up high numbers of people ‘thinking about’ going overseas with a high percentage citing the poor weather and quality of work/life balance in the UK as motivators to leave.
So, when HSBC brought out the latest section of their Expat Explorer Survey you would perhaps expect to see many expats citing better weather as being their main reason for living away from home – however, that is absolutely not the case!
The expatriates surveyed by HSBC are not so much motivated by the weather or even the way of life necessarily – so why do expatriates move abroad? They move for employment reasons primarily. They relocate for better job prospects, they remain overseas as their contracts are extended and they perhaps relocate again internationally for improved career prospects. This is fascinating stuff to know – but does it mean that there are better work prospects abroad?
Last year’s HSBC survey revealed that expatriates earn more on average than their peers back home – and this year’s evidence is stacking up in favour of that theory as well. Therefore, just the very fact that you can perhaps earn more overseas is going to encourage many to look at what employment prospects they could expect overseas. Adding to a person’s increased interest in going abroad to work is perhaps the fact that employment prospects back home are less than ideal at the moment, and the fact that employers often cite that they are interested in candidates who have experience of working overseas as it often suggest they are able to think outside the box and are better at problem solving and integration.
The fact of the matter is however, that this global recession we’re all living through is affecting international jobs markets as much as it is affecting the one in the UK. Many employment sectors such as construction and finance have shrunk, and this then has a knock on effect into other business sectors. This has restricted the amount of jobs available in many nations making it harder for expatriates to find work abroad. That said, it has not dampened anyone’s enthusiasm for going overseas to find a job! And now that HSBC have revealed that expats go overseas and remain overseas largely for work related reasons, we can see clearly that employment and career prospects are both strong motivators for people to live abroad.
51% of expatriates surveyed by HSBC said that the length of their employment contract was keeping them abroad and 44% said that career prospects in their new nation were the main reasons for them remaining in that new country of residence. You can now add to these findings the fact that the vast majority of those questioned by the survey stated that yes, the financial benefits of being abroad were also key to keeping them overseas! One in three expats in the Middle East living in countries like Dubai enjoy a far better financial status now, with almost all expatriates stating that financially speaking, they had gained a great deal from going abroad. They have been able to earn more, invest more and save more tax just proving once and for all that the expatriate advantage is alive and well and that more and more expatriates are aware that they can use their time abroad to advance their lives fiscally speaking.
If you are therefore considering seeking out a better job or improved employment and career prospects and you’d like to then benefit from an increase in your wealth status – it seems that you need to think about moving to live and work abroad! We hate to say we told you so but…well, we told you so!
