13 May 6 Ways Becoming an Expat Will Change Your Life Forever
The number of expats is growing worldwide
The world is globalizing oh so quickly.
Flights are becoming cheaper, accommodations abroad more affordable, and open markets are allowing people to live and work wherever they please for the most part.
Colleges and universities are encouraging exchange programs, creating partnerships with institutions overseas to promote a flow of incoming and outgoing students, making campuses more multicultural and diverse than ever before.
Companies are going increasingly global, establishing headquarters and bases in different countries; hiring people locally and internationally to collaborate together from miles or a cubicle apart.
All these factors have led to a record number of expatriates worldwide.
A recent report by market research company Finaccord revealed that there are about 50.5 million expats worldwide, and it doesn’t stop there. The figure is expected to reach 56.8 million by 2017, which happens to be 0.77 percent of the population.
According to the report, the largest chunk of the expats – 73.6 percent – are individual workers. Students, retired expats, corporate transferees and any remaining expat groups make up 8.8 percent, 3.7 percent, 1.0 percent and 12.8 percent of the pie, respectively.
As you can see in the bottom video from Expat Insider 2017, a survey conducted by InterNations shows the top reasons people move abroad: for work and career, love and family, adventure and travel, quality of life, and for education and language.
It even told us some of the best countries for expats according to a number of criteria.
Trip to Bahrain, anyone?
How being an expat will impact your life
Of course, we each have our own special reasons to move somewhere else. The experience of packing all your belongings and transferring to a foreign city has the power to leave a big impact on how we perceive ourselves and the world around us.
Living abroad can change us forever.
As for myself, I feel I’ve been a bit of a nomad my whole life. I’ve grown up in both Italy and the United States, dividing my year between the two countries, spending the school year in one and breaks/vacations in the other. Now, after graduating from college, I’m studying for my master’s degree in Austria and currently doing an internship in Germany for a few months.
Whether you’re an expat yourself, have been one before, or are planning to become one soon – you’ve maybe experienced or read up on what to expect.
Here’s how your life will change once you’ve moved abroad:
1) You won’t be the same person ever again
The process of moving abroad and becoming an expat has a huge impact on you.
You’re not just moving to a new house or a new job, the novelty you experience as you change scenery is another realm.
You don’t know who most people around you are, you don’t recognize the streets or transportation system anymore, you may not even speak the language.
That can be terrifying.
You may not realize it right away, but fast-forward a bit to the future and you’ll recognize the experience as a scar that will forever remain imprinted in your brain letting you know that you grew, evolved, and moved on. You dealt with the hardships you had to face on your own, without anybody else’s help.
Things that once mattered to you seem no longer as important. Your idea of friendship shifts as you make new friends and stay less in touch with the old, your concept of family changes as you create yourself a new network of support outside of your loved ones (Friendsgiving starts making sense), and what you once took for granted has to be worked for again.
2) Material possessions start to matter less
“Things” won’t equal happiness for you anymore, in fact, quite the opposite. Every new frivolous purchase will equal sacrifice in your mind, as you realize you could have bought a plane ticket or booked another trip with the money you spent on a new purse.
Your idea of success in terms of material possessions will disappear as you start to define your own idea of having made it – by living life to the fullest.
Experiences take first priority as you slowly realize how a good story will draw you closer to people than owning the shiniest jewelry or having the fastest car.
3) Differences take on a whole new meaning
As you breathe in different cultures and languages, differences in other people become a source of curiosity rather than discomfort.
When you weren’t accustomed to being surrounded by people of different nationalities, making it difficult to find common ground and start a conversation, but as you get used to an international environment you won’t wait to ask questions.
Maybe you will want to get to know other people’s perspectives, their take on world issues, more about their life, or just note down the next place you will likely visit.
Oh, and your bucket list of things to see will grow to no end.
4) You will incorporate different aspects of your host cultures
As you become accustomed to living in a new place, you will also start to absorb different aspects of your new home.
The language, expressions, habits, fashion sense, and even lifestyle sometimes.
When I lived in Italy I did not eat breakfast in the mornings, if I did it consisted of a small sweet snack and a coffee. Italian culture places less importance on breakfast compared to other meals, a notion I grew up with most of my life.
But when I moved to Austria, I found a new appreciation for breakfast. Austrians (and Germans as well!) have hearty and healthy breakfasts to start their day right and give them energy for the tasks to come.
Now as an expat I eat a hefty breakfast with fruit, pancakes, or whatever floats my boat.
Another common thing for expats to incorporate are perspectives. Yes, talking to new people and finding out their views on different subjects will likely influence your own.
Exposure to different perspectives will open your mind and broaden your horizons in novel exciting ways.
5) It doesn’t feel the same back home
You’ll often be missing home when you are living abroad, as you think back to all the familiar routines and people you used to interact with, and as you book your trip back home you’re gonna be excited to go back.
But you’ll arrive, it won’t feel the same.
The place you once called home will remain the same, but the way you perceive it will change.
You’ll find that the people you saw most of your days have developed their lives as you were gone, people getting married, others have moved away, some are taking on new jobs… All going about their lives without you.
You will not be in the loop anymore.
The show goes on, with or without you present.
And that’s perfectly ok.
It will be nice to catch up with friends, hear their updates, and talk about the good ol’ times. The places you used to hang out in, that park, shopping mall, square, or candy shop will most likely still be there, reminding you of home.
Another big change is your inability to recount to your friends all the adventures you’ve lived – travels, new cultures, new languages, new routines – you’ll find that they won’t be in sync with you anymore.
Many will fail to comprehend your feelings and stories, as they have not experienced moving away, making you feel a bit disappointed, but this feeling will fade as you make new friendships in your new home and you learn to accept that you are a different person now.
Your relationship with your old friends will either wither away with time or intensify as you sift out those that truly care about you and keeping contact. You’ll realize who your true friends are.
6) Anything is possible
You came, you saw, you survived.
You made it through the process of moving to a different place and starting your life on a blank slate, building it up from scratch.
And most importantly, you made it all on your own. Future obstacles in your life got nothin’ on you as they will seem so tiny in comparison.
What can else can you achieve?
You start setting more goals and see challenges as opportunities rather than setbacks.
Ask for a promotion? You can achieve it.
Approaching that person you liked? You can do it.
Mastering that new skill you were working on? You will excel in it.
Go explore the world
There you have it. These are the six ways being an expat will change you, according to my experience.
As we all live change differently, I cannot wait to hear about your experience as an expat or future expat too.