Intercultural & Cross Cultural News

Moscow is most expensive place for expatriates to live

Moscow is the world’s most expensive city for expatriates for the second consecutive year, according to annual research.

A study by Mercer Human Resource Consulting revealed that London is in second position, climbing three places since last year. Seoul moves down one place in the ranking to take third place, followed by Tokyo in fourth.

Intercultural Training and the Expatriate Assignment

International business assignments are becoming increasingly important in the modern business world. As companies expand they need to trade with, manufacture in and have a presence in foreign countries. Much of the time these moves initially involve sending out employees from the home country to oversee the burgeoning developments. This expatriate community is often critical to a business’s success yet more often than not the proper time, investment and skills are not given to the expatriate assignee to ensure they can do the job properly.

One key area that many businesses ignore is that of intercultural training.

Expatriate professionals seek 'accent reduction'

It was not what Sergei Petukhov said. It was how he said it.

"The way I said 'accent reduction,' he couldn't understand me," Petukhov said. That was enough for Petukhov, a Moscow native who works for the law firm Kaye Scholer as a scientific adviser, to get his employer's approval to pay for training to decrease his Russian accent.

He is one of many educated, non-native English speakers working in the United States who take voice training and accent reduction to improve presentations, workshops and everyday conversations with their American-born co-workers.

Asia the top investment choice for expats

Asia has overtaken continental Europe as the top investment choice for investors living outside their country of origin, according to a survey. The survey of 350 expatriate investors conducted by online broker Internaxx in March and April showed that 39 percent had exposure to Asia, up from 33 percent a year ago.

New Expat Forum Launched

MoveForward.com - the UK based Internet ventures group - has today launched a new on-line community and networking platform for Expats at The Expat Forum. The Expat Forum is structured as two key parts; content and community. The content aspect of the site provides hundreds of informative guides for Expats including local property buying guides and country specific moving guides. The community aspect of the site is focused on its members networking with each other to provide help and advice from people that have experience in moving away from their country of origin.

Generous expat packages - a relic of boom times

Times have been tough. But despite signs that an economic pickup has been slowly taking hold, lavish expat benefit packages have largely disappeared as companies and governments move to crack down on costs. Mary Kissel, of CareerJournalEurope.com, reports on the trend to no-frills foreign assignments.

Language barriers, inability to adjust cause stress to foreign students

Language barriers and the inability to adjust to living in Singapore are the two main causes of stress for foreign students. University counsellors said these issues usually occur during the early phase of their move to Singapore. And if these issues are not dealt with at the onset, it may lead to severe depression and loneliness.

JobsinStockholm.com to revolutionize the expat job search

English speaking professionals seeking jobs in Sweden have a new source of job leads. JobsinStockholm.com is the first website in Sweden solely dedicated to listing professional jobs for English speakers. English speakers and multilinguals can find fresh job listings daily in addition to information for making the transition into Sweden smooth, and links to other websites of interest to expatriates.

The best markets for expat entrepreneurs

So opening that local coffee shop or taking over the family business just won't cut it? You're craving adventure and eye-popping growth?

Sure, there is plenty of action in India and China, where big boys like Microsoft, Citigroup and Intel have made deep inroads. But for entrepreneurs with vision, patience, an appetite for risk and command of a second language (or two), there are plenty of opportunities in even more exotic locales.

Building support for the trailing spouse

Trailing partners often face a break in their careers as they follow their spouses to foreign destinations. For some, the prospect of not working is unacceptable; a three-week holiday is great, but a three-year pause may be too much of a good thing.

The experience of one British expat shows how women's networks help accompanying partners cope with mobile careers.

What (Expat) Women Want

The number of women being sent on assignment is increasing as more women express interest in gaining air-miles to improve their international career prospects and companies begin to realise that actively drawing women from into their pool of candidates for overseas postings can give them a distinct competitive advantage.

Mercer Human Resource Consulting's 2005/ 2006 International Assignments Survey found that companies in Asia-Pacific had 16 times more females on assignment in 2006 than they did in 2001, companies in North America had nearly four times as many, while those in Europe had more than twice as many.

iJET Enhances Worldcue(R) Expatriate Risk Management Solution

iJET Intelligent Risk Systems, a leading provider of global intelligence, operating risk management technology and integrated emergency response services, today announced significant enhancements to its Worldcue Expatriate Risk Management solution. New technology and features improve the ability of organizations to find and communicate with their expatriates and families -- whether at their assigned work location or on travel.

Europeans favour Spain for expat jobs

Spain is the most favoured destination for West Europeans considering to move from their own country and seek jobs elsewhere in the EU.

According to a Financial Times /Harris poll on attitudes among over 6,500 adults in the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the US towards immigration - published on Monday (19 February) - 17 percent of respondents said they would like to work in Spain.

Valentine's Day: The Cross-Cultural Experience

Heart-shaped traffic lights for Valentine's Day, a wealth of chocolate treats and an influx of bright young things from all across Europe arguably make Brussels the continent's love as well as political capital.

But for the hoards of expatriates from a myriad of European cultures, differences in language and background can make or break relationships. And Valentine's Day, the festival of romance viewed in some countries as a litmus test of love and in others as a commercialised waste of time, puts these romances under the microscope.

The Expat Syndrome

Life can only get better abroad: The new opportunities and friends, the freedom, the chance to reinvent yourself where nobody knows you.

With these thoughts, Anna, a psychologist from Poznan, Poland, left for Eindhoven in the Netherlands with her husband. He had a three-year placement there, and she'd given up her job to go with him.

But the move didn't herald a feeling of exhilaration -- just six months of depression. "The first morning was terrible," said Anna, 32, who has lived in Moscow since 2005. "I woke up, and it was like, 'OK, this dream is coming true, because we wanted to move here, but what now? I'm so far from my family, from my mother, my sisters, friends. What am I doing here? I don't have anything to do.

Quality of Life Survey: Best Places to Live

For the second year running in our annual Quality of Life Index, we say: France.

At the other end of the Index, again for year number two, Iraq scores the fewest points and ranks as the world’s worst place to be.

The European countries always get top scores (with the Netherlands, Switzerland, Denmark, and Luxembourg making it into our top 10 this year), as do the antipodean nations of Australia (second place) and New Zealand (fourth). Argentina, for the first time, makes it into our top 10 (in 10th position).

Expat Women Find New Direction with ExpatWomen.com

Expatriate women around the world now have a much-needed compass for their lives abroad: ExpatWomen.com launched this month and has been receiving fabulous feedback from women all around the world. This free, comprehensive site is designed to help all expatriate women living outside of their home country – both first-timers and seasoned expats.

China's Expatriate Population Expected to Grow

China's expatriate population is expected to grow this year, according to a recent study by Hewitt Associates, a global human resource services company. Traditionally that would mean more expatriate men working in China, but the newest tendencies indicate that international career women are entering the Chinese labor market, as well.

Expat Redundancy

The words, "surplus to requirements" or "redundancy" are enough to chill the soul of the most indomitable expatriate.

They take on an even greater significance when located in a foreign country where you are more vulnerable than you would be back home. Although globalisation has resulted in increased mobility of labour, which is good news for expats, the reality is that when it comes to cutting costs overseas, expensive middle or senior managers on generous expatriate packages often top the hit list.

Expats keep Indian Property Market buoyant

With foreign companies continuing to form new joint ventures with large Indian corporations, more and more expatriates are looking to buy or rent property in Mumbai, Colliers International has reported. ‘The capital and rental market will witness a continuous upward pressure’, said the firm in its latest overview of the Indian property market.