The best place for expats to live is Panama. It follows from the eleventh year of the Expat Insider index, which is processed by InterNations. It is one of the most comprehensive studies of expat life and collects responses from more than 12,500 expats representing 175 nationalities in 174 countries or territories. Of the European countries, only Spain was in the top ten.
An expat is a designation for a person who resides outside the country of his citizenship. The term often refers to a professional, skilled worker or student from another country. However, this is not always the case and it may be “normal” migrants who have found work here.
The report ranks the best countries to live in based on indicators such as quality of life, ease of settling, job opportunities, personal finance and an index of basic needs for expats, including housing, administration, language and digital services.
Panama rose to the top spot this year from third place last year, and according to the index, foreigners really like it here. According to the report, 82 percent of immigrants are satisfied with their life in Panama, well above the global average of 68 percent.
Three out of four expats say they are satisfied with their financial situation, and 88 percent even consider their disposable income sufficient or more than sufficient for a comfortable life. People here are also satisfied with the availability of housing and transport. In addition, immigrants feel welcome and have no problem integrating into local life, and they also praise the balance between work and personal life.
“I like many things, such as my neighborhood, the weather, the variety of climates and landscapes, the cultural experience, the variety of restaurants, the people, the health care, the cost of living, and the stability of the government,” one American who settled in Panama told the index.
First 10 CountriesLast 10 Countries1. Panama45.Great Britain2.Mexico46.Ireland3.Indonesia47.Malta4.Spain48.Italy5.Colombia49.Norway6.Thailand50.Canada7.Brazil51.Germany8.Vietnam52.Finland9.Philippines53.Turkey10.United Arab Emirates54.Kuwait
Just behind Panama was last year’s winner Mexico, where expats especially like the warmth of the local population, the availability of housing or the ease of obtaining a visa. But they struggle with bureaucracy and only less than two-thirds of them feel safe in the country.
The third place was occupied by Indonesia, where most expats feel at home and, according to them, can lead a happy life here with relatively little money. However, they perceive insufficient digital services, healthcare or poor air quality as negative.
Kuwait fared the worst, finishing in last, i.e. fifty-third, place. Expats are especially bothered by the weather, as temperatures here can rise above fifty degrees in the summer. They also struggle to settle in Kuwait, visas are difficult to obtain, and only two out of five expats are satisfied with their personal finances in Kuwait.
Turkey finished penultimate, and according to the index, Finland is the biggest loser in this year’s ranking. It fell from 16th to 51st place in the ranking year-on-year. Although it performed very well in terms of digitization and environmental protection, in just one year the share of expats who are satisfied with their life in the country has decreased from 78 percent to 51 percent.
Unfriendly Czechs, but transport available
The Czech Republic also ranked surprisingly low, falling from last year’s 21st place to 39th place.
According to survey respondents, the Czechs and their unresponsiveness are mainly to blame for the bad results. Expats do not feel welcome here and find it difficult to make friends among the locals. Precisely from the point of view of how friendly the locals are to them, the Czech Republic was even ranked 51st, i.e. really almost at the end.
The result has worsened year-on-year, and expats also rate the general friendliness of locals towards foreigners poorly. According to them, for example, it is difficult to live in the Czech Republic without mastering the Czech language. They even ranked the language availability as high as 52nd and consider Czech a really challenging language to learn. They also rate the availability and quality of health care or food options relatively poorly.
But not everything is evaluated negatively by expats. In some aspects, the Czech Republic even made its way into the top three. Foreigners especially praise the availability of public transport and quality road infrastructure. They are also relatively satisfied at work, and they rate the security that local employment gives them particularly well.
So why is the Czech Republic doing so poorly compared to other countries? In order to find out the core of the problem, according to Anna Marie Vinařická, director of the Center for the Integration of Foreigners, it is necessary to understand who is actually hiding behind the word expat.
“I would say that in the Czech language it evokes an educated person from a relatively safe part of the world, who works here in a multinational company that can take care of him to a large extent in administrative matters, he does not need to speak much Czech, because he moves more or less in the English community speaking. In short, he doesn’t really need to get involved in that society, he lives in his own social bubble. But if we take an expat as an expatriate, that is, in short, a foreigner, it’s a little different,” he thinks.
Classic migrants, i.e. people who leave their country because they would have no good prospects there, or even refugees, according to her, tend to have much more difficult conditions.
According to her, the language barrier depends very much on the context in which a particular person lives. Some foreigners do not need the Czech language at all, but for others its knowledge is absolutely crucial. Often the problem is not ignorance, but mainly the inability to learn the language.
“Unfortunately, there is a shortage of available Czech language courses. Of course, Czech is a rather complex language, it takes quite a long time to master it for communication, let alone at a level suitable for professional activity. That’s also why a large part of qualified professionals here, such as health professionals, accountants, teachers, work in inadequate positions, typically in services or in production,” he explains.
