Stuck
in a rut, craving a little excitement, something different and more glamorous
than school runs in a small town, a chance perhaps to move up the corporate
ladder, expand your horizons, intrigued by how others live on this increasingly
crowded planet? Those pictures of the sophisticated café life in Paris or
picturesque villages nestled in the sun-baked hills of Tuscany beginning to
look better and better? Starting to ask yourself what you’re missing? Have you
started, secretly at first, collecting a pile of information about life
overseas?
If
so, then you’re a good candidate to join the more than 7.5 million Americans
whose home address doesn’t include a U.S. zip code. This, however, is the
moment to sit down and think again, very carefully. While an expat life can
undoubtedly be very fulfilling and fascinating, it is not for everyone. No
matter how attractive the brochures, no matter how often you’re told ‘You don’t really need to speak the language.
Everyone speaks English’ it will certainly be very, very different. For
many people that is the very essence, the satisfaction, of an expat life. For
others, it can be a nightmare.
Like many things it is a much easier
decision when you’re young, just out of college. You have time to live for a
while in many different countries, learn languages, you don’t need that much
money, you’re generally more flexible. Beware, though. Once you gain that
experience at an early age it is very hard to get it completely out of your
system. It will always be there as a temptation, an alternative. On a rainy,
miserable day back home you will stare pensively out the window and think
longingly about those days in Malaysia, India, or Chile. Add a family, a decent
job, a dog or two and it becomes a much more difficult choice. Still possible,
but it can be difficult to convince everyone around you that disrupting their
lives and moving abroad is the best choice.
My older daughter, then on a research
trip for several weeks in the Republic of the Congo, recalled what
may be the extreme example of commitment to an expat life. She met an American
missionary family with two children living deep in the bush far from any town
that could remotely be called large. After a while she politely brought up the
question of exactly how they came to find themselves deep in the African bush. They
had been living quite happily somewhere in the Midwestern United States when
the husband came down to breakfast one day and said he had been called to do
missionary work in Africa. Fair enough. But if I had been his wife I just might
have had him sit down, have a cup of coffee, maybe a couple of aspirin and double
check that the call wasn’t a wrong number.
Before you grab your boarding passes
and head to the airport there are couple of things to think about.
1.
Be
careful about people who tell you how easy it is to transplant your lifestyle
to another continent. Closer examination may reveal they have a few advantages
you don’t. Such as, a) already having dual citizenship and fluency in the
language, b) having family members with invaluable connections in the host
country, c) being married to a native of the country in question, or d) already
having job open only to citizens of that particular country.
2.
Be
careful also of rushing into foreign assignments for your company. They can be
the springboard to more responsibility and promotion or they can equally be the
slide into oblivion. Out of sight, out of mind. Make sure the country of your
assignment is critical to the company’s overall success. Otherwise you are in a
sideshow that doesn’t even have the benefit of useful gossip around the
water-cooler. You can get into a position where a number of previously junior
colleagues are promoted ahead of you at home simply because you are not there.
When it comes time to go home, you may well find your bosses hemming and hawing
about ‘difficult times’ or ‘it might be hard to slot you back into your old
position’, etc. etc. Without iron-clad guarantees you might well be stuck
overseas for a much longer period than you anticipated. Few things are sadder
than an aging expat who hangs on by the skin of his teeth with marginal jobs in
a foreign country simply because there are even fewer opportunities at home.
3.
Be
especially careful of taking a job for a foreign company regardless of how much
they offer you up front. You may be coming in over a number of local executives
who could resent your presence and undermine everything you try to do. When
trouble comes it is a lot easier for your new employer to get rid of you than
them.
4.
Check
the procedure for obtaining tricky things like resident permits and work
permits. You never had to give either of those a second thought at home.
Overseas they are crucial. Without them you will be floundering around.
Countries are very careful about giving jobs to foreigners ahead of their own
citizens unless you have some special skill. Don’t assume you can pitch up
anywhere you like, find a place to live and start looking for a job without
jumping through a lot of hoops.
5.
In
cross-cultural situations the words ‘why’
and ‘should’ are the worst words in
the English language. You can go nuts constantly asking ‘why’ things are done in a certain way that seems totally weird.
Your life will be a lot less frustrating if you can restrain that impulse and
take the time to appreciate that maybe, just maybe, there is a good reason that
is not obvious at first. Also, no one wants to hear your opinion about what ‘should’ be done. Most people are well
aware of their national problems and don’t appreciate constantly being reminded
of them. Wait until you are asked. Things may take a little longer than you
would like, but you will earn a great deal of good will by not constantly
informing everyone within earshot that ‘We
do it differently at home.’
But most of all work hard to get the
most out of your total experience. Don’t be afraid to jump in the deep end and
immerse yourself totally. Moving overseas, even for a few years, can be one of
the most memorable things you have ever done. Enjoy the difference.
