Expatriates in search of friendship and love find it more easily in Asia than anywhere else in the world, especially if they move to Thailand, a survey revealed yesterday.
Asia claimed the top five friendliest places for expatriates to live — Thailand, followed by Vietnam, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Brunei — in the second annual Expat Experience survey, commissioned by HSBC Bank International.
Taiwan was not included in the survey.
The least friendly place for expatriates to live is Belgium, followed by the Netherlands, Switzerland, Germany and Japan, the survey of 3,146 people working in 30 different industries and 26 countries found.
When it comes to serious relationships, expatriates in Thailand are more likely than their counterparts anywhere else in the world to find love, with almost half of all expatriates finding partners there.
Globally, one in five expatriates said they found love overseas. Germany and Brazil were the second and third most likely places to find a long-term partner.
The least romantic destinations for expatriates are India and Qatar where just 4 percent find love while living there, researchers found.
When it comes to integrating, expatriates tend to stick with their own and not mix with the local community, the survey found, although locals and expatriates mix better in some countries.
Brazil was the place where they are most likely to mix, with 94 percent of expatriates saying they make local friends easily, followed by Canada, South Africa, India and Russia.
Expatriates in the Middle East, especially those living in Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, were found to be the least likely to make friends with locals.
QUALITY OF LIFE
The survey revealed that expats in Canada have the best quality of life and found it among the easiest places in the world to integrate with the local population.
Australia and Thailand rounded out the top three in terms of quality of life, even though Thailand was one of the countries worst-hit by the recession for expats.
“We have seen that there is a distinct trade-off between income and overall quality of life, as many of the top performers ... scored towards the bottom of this report’s league table [of the best places to make and save money],” said Betony Taylor, spokeswoman for HSBC Bank International.
Last year Germany, Canada and Spain were the top three countries deemed to have the best lifestyle for expats.
This year Britain was one of the lowest ranked locations when it came to lifestyle after being named as one of the most expensive places for expats with the recession taking its toll.
About 44 percent of expats in Britain are considering returning home, compared with only 15 percent of expats overall.
About 41 percent of expats in Britain find it difficult to find somewhere to live, most find the quality of their accommodation drops after moving to Britain, and a third claim their health has deteriorated since moving there.
“Despite this, the UK does hold the crown for being expat entertainment capital of the world, with over half [58 percent] of expats in the UK saying that the quality of entertainment had increased,” Taylor said.
She added that 62 percent of expats also said that employment prospects were the main reason keeping them in the region.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY STAFF WRITER
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary