Why do expats move abroad? According to the Expat Insider 2021 survey, 47% of working expats name their career as the most important reason for relocating to another country.
Most found a job on their own (17%), were recruited internationally (15%), or were sent by their employer (13%). Just 2% moved abroad to start their own business.
The key focus of this year's survey by InterNations, the world's largest expat community with more than 4 million members, is the future of working abroad. Expats shared what it is really like to work abroad and described their working conditions. They also provided insights into how new working arrangements (such as remote work) are changing their working life and what they would like to see in the future.
The report is based on data from 12,420 expats who responded to the online survey, while results related to work were based on responses from 8,313 working expats. They were on average 43.1 years old, with 53% male and 46% female.
Responses came from expats in a total of 59 countries, with Taiwan, Mexico and Costa Rica ranked as the three best places to work -- Thailand was 14th -- while Kuwait, Italy and South Africa were the bottom three.
When it comes to employment 30% are in a senior/specialist position, followed by lower/middle management (17%) and top managers/executives (13%). Eleven percent are self-employed or freelancers, 9% are teachers/professors and 7% each either work in entry-level jobs or have their own business.
To read the full report online, scan the code.
The most common fields of work are education (12%), IT (11%) and finance (8%). Other frequently mentioned fields include manufacturing and engineering (7%), healthcare (6%) and advertising, marketing and communication (5%).
About one-third of working expats (33%) have a gross yearly income ranging from US$50,000 to $100,000, 44% earn $50,000 or less, while 23% make more than $100,000.
Eighty-two percent of respondents work full-time, but that is down four percentage points since 2015. Average working hours per week have fallen in the same period from 42 to 39.9. Seventy percent of working expats are happy with their hours in 2021, compared with 64% in 2015, and 68% rate their work-life-balance positively versus 63% in 2015.
Expats are less happy with their local career opportunities, at 49% compared to 60% in 2015. On the other hand, they rate their job security better now, at 67% vs 60%. Overall, 73% are happy with their job in general, which is 5 points more than in 2015.
Close to three in five working expats (58%) say factors like autonomy, freedom, creativity, personal development and self-fulfilment are important in the business culture of their host country. These values are closely related to the concept of New Work, which describes new ways of working in the global and digital age.
The top 10 countries where expats rate the importance of New Work in the local business culture highest are the United States, the UAE, Finland, Estonia, the Netherlands, Bahrain, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Sweden.
One aspect of New Work is already an everyday occurrence: close to four in five (78%) are able to work remotely in 2021. However, while 62% say they can work remotely, 16% add that they can work remotely but usually prefer not to.
Close to two in five working expats (39%) work fully remotely, while 18% work remotely for more than 15 days per month. This figure is followed by two to five days (14%), one day or less (12%) and six to 10 days (10%).
When asked what they like best about their current job, working expats most frequently mention the opportunity to work remotely/from home (32%), a good work-life balance (32%) and flexible hours (29%).
"What working expats enjoy about the job they have is not necessarily what they envision for their future career," says Malte Zeeck, the founder and chief executive of InterNations. "Businesses all around the world will have to offer more within the context of New Work, such as room for creativity. But this is not everything expats ask for.
"Despite a growing desire for self-fulfilment and personal development, hard factors such as a good salary remain extremely important for expats in a business context."
In fact, the top three aspects that would be especially important to expats in an ideal work environment are a good compensation and/or good benefits (54%), a good work-life balance (49%) and creative/interesting tasks (29%). At the moment, just 28% are happy with their compensation and/or benefits, and only 21% benefit from having creative/interesting tasks at work.
Expats even seem to be willing to trade off some of the factors they currently enjoy: with just 28% citing flexible working hours and 22% mentioning the opportunity to work remotely/from home as part of their dream job, these factors do not make it into the top three aspects for an ideal work environment.