Hi guys. Welcome back to Global Business Environment course two. This is part three of module five. We're still talking about expatriates and what it's like to live abroad and work abroad. And I want to show you some data based on what we talked about in part two. And that is the challenges and opportunities for having a great experience. We are looking at some data from HSBC, which is an international bank that hires and utilizes a lot of expatriates. And they have conducted extensive surveys on things like the overall experience. What it's like to set up when you first arrive, finding a home, integrating into the new lifestyle. Overall integration, and then overall quality of life. And so, this data we're looking at are from 2011, and this information or these surveys are constantly being updated. In fact, we'll show you some updated data from 2014. And point you to this site so you might explore this a little more on your own. But according to the survey in 2011, the best places for the best overall experience in the world for expatriates were places like Thailand, number one, Canada, South Africa, Malaysia you know, the United States is down at number ten. Some of the, some places that you we saw earlier that were a little more challenging to integrate into were China Russia and India. You might believe that to be because of the language barrier in part. Those languages are harder to learn if you're an expatriate. And these surveys are extensive, they show all types of information. About what it's like to be a survey, and you know, the, they give you information on the percentage of expatriates who plan to stay, extend their assignment. You know, that, that believe that it's been such a great experience for them, and their career, and their families that they'd like to stay. And so I point you again to these surveys and the extensive data that are included in them. Let me point you now to 2014 data and they changed their site, HSBC has, and it's a little more interactive but you can see that, that things have changed quite a bit. The data aren't stable. In just three years overall, Switzerland is rating the number one spot in the world for expatriates. Singapore number two. China number two. And they were lower in the list earlier, India, is here at number nine. And so things have changed. The United States is down at number 30. And so I don't know how you would interpret all these data. A lot of it depends on your own personality, your own career, your own family situation and what you might find important to your experience. In fact let me click on the data that they have how extensive it is and how detailed it is. They provide you information as detailed about being a, an expatriate as looking at diet, feeling welcome at work adju, local food, setting up utilities. That was a challenge for me in Mexico, was, just simply setting up a phone line. In fact, it would have taken about a year for us to get a phone line in mid 1990s in Mexico for a variety of reasons, and so we chose not to get our own phone line, but instead put a cordless, or wireless phone base, in my friends or family's house three doors down. And we just had the extension to the wireless phone in our house during the day. At night, we would go charge it and put it back on its base. So we just shared the phone number with my family and friends. Three doors down, rather than dealing with setting up a new utility. The abilities to adapt to local weather, making friends, finding a social life, opportunities for entertainment and travel, what's the commute like? It was a shock for me, I drove 13 miles, from Hakispan outside of Mexico City to the headquarters of American Express downtown, and it took me an hour and 45 minutes to drive that distance. That was one thing that was a negative. The smog we talk about climate and health, that was an issue. There's there's issue with smog because Mexico City is such a large population. The opportunities for food and travel were amazing though. So you just have to, to understand, there's going to be a balance. But you don't have to go into it blind, you can get information from sources like this survey. Quality of, of education for your children, quality of child care what are the children like at school? Will they be welcoming to your child? In addition to survey data like this, you can go to other sites like this one, expatforum.com. This blog that I pointed to you from the professor in Spain. You can go to Justlanded.com and there's a lot of information there that can give you very specific information about where to find housing. The best places to live if you'd like to be more connected to individuals from your home country. Where you could go for schooling. Where do you shop for food from home for example? The best places to eat for local food. This site has a whole host of information. Individual country guides. What it's like to work and live abroad. And so, in today's day and age with social media, and websites such as these, you can get a realistic preview, what it's like to live, what the assignment's like, what the company's like in the local setting. Those can all be very important to your success in fulfilling expatriate assignment. This will end part three. We will see you back here next time for our fourth, and final part, of module five.
