Happiest Country for Expats

[fountainhall]

Yes, I know - it's another of those lists. But they are sometimes quite interesting. According to the BBC website today, the number of people voluntarily living outside their home country today is around 244 million and rising. This is a poll for those working overseas rather than specifically retiring overseas. The top five countries are -

Taiwan
Malta
Ecuador
Mexico
New Zealand

http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20170120-want-to-move-abroad-try-here

[goji]

Perversely, I cannot access that from the UK.

"BBC Worldwide (International Site)

We're sorry but this site is not accessible from the UK as it is part of our international service and is not funded by the licence fee. It is run commercially by BBC Worldwide, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the BBC, the profits made from it go back to BBC programme-makers to help fund great new BBC programmes. You can find out more about BBC Worldwide and its digital activities at www.bbcworldwide.com."

Would that be some survey looking at people sent abroad by corporations on cushy expat contracts ?

And to state the obvious, if moving to Mexico to work were such a good thing, I suppose the Mexican government would be building a wall to prevent US citizens moving south. Rumour has it that's the exact opposite to what is happening.

[Marsilius]

The list mentions New Zealand. There was an interesting piece the other day in, I think, The Times. It reported that the word's very rich - Russian oligarchs, Silicon Valley billionaires, etc. - are buying up estates there. They reckon that, with recent world developments, political/economic/military Armageddon may well be just around the corner and that New Zealand, geographically out of the way and generally not on the world radar, may well be a good bolt hole. Of course, it's got a lot of other things going for it too, not least the gorgeous scenery and environment.

My father-in-law went there recently, though, and hated it: even though he's a reactionary stick-in-the-mud in his 80s he thought that the country was still stuck in 1950s attitudes and ways of doing things - and, while he might think that that would be a good thing in theory, in practice it made the place, even to his eyes, rather dull and backward.