The Munich expat portal Internationals, the recently acquired by Xing asked its users which country is the best place to live and work. Germany received a mixed result.
Many expats, i.e., foreign employees who live abroad temporarily for work, value Germany's economic stability. Around two-thirds praise the secure jobs, and more than half praise the higher wages than in their home country. Nearly two-thirds of respondents also rate the work-life balance positively.
Satisfied despite language barriers
Nevertheless, Germany only ranks 23rd out of 65 in the overall ranking. This is largely due to the fact that many expats perceive Germans as not particularly open-minded: 68% describe Germans as reserved. When it comes to the difficulty of settling into a country, Germany even ranks 56th. A British participant in the survey says:
“Germans can often seem rude and unpleasant.”
More than half of respondents (58%) find it difficult to make German friends. Most of them (56%) attribute this to language barriers. 69% of respondents find it difficult to learn German, but 60% still state that they speak German well or fluently.
Although around one in three expats surveyed does not feel at home in Germany, the vast majority (83%) are still generally satisfied with life here.
Love moves to Germany
Americans make up about one in five expats in Germany, making them the most represented nationality. They are followed at some distance by the British (111,448), Indians, and Italians (51,448 each). The study participants' motives for living in Germany are interesting: The most frequently cited reason was moving for love. Only then did they consider the fact that their desired job was in Germany and their partner's career.
German expats are top earners
Germans, by the way, are also most frequently drawn to the USA (11%). Switzerland (7%) and Great Britain (6%) are also popular. Unlike expats in Germany, it's rarely love that attracts Germans abroad, but rather attractive jobs and career opportunities.
Only two-thirds of Germans are satisfied with their life away from home. More than one in five feels that their work-life balance isn't right, including one German surveyed living in the USA: He feels that "work here becomes the focus of life, and it's difficult to schedule time off." This could also be due to the high income and exposed position of many German expats: The annual gross household income of 28 expats exceeds $100,000.
The 13,000 respondents arrived at a rather surprising overall result: The Arab microstate of Bahrain takes the top spot among the most popular destinations for expats, followed by Costa Rica and Mexico. It's reasonable to suspect that, especially for the top two countries, the number of respondents wasn't large enough to justify blindly trusting the results. However, the study authors guarantee a sample size of at least 75 for each individual country.
