Do you believe that expat trends ...

Most Expats are opportunistic, thus their number will rise or fall with foreign job chances and thus with the economic situation. The general trend, though, is up, due to increasing globalisation (and that is despite stereotypical Expat perks like cushy packages, free housing, etc. becoming rare).

Most of the people becomes member and after some time they disappeared for forever....so always it will increase with new members but simultaneously their disappearance will also continue.

aryavrat wrote:

Most of the people becomes member and after some time they disappeared for forever....so always it will increase with new members but simultaneously their disappearance will also continue.

Anil, my topic does not refer to whether the number of forummers here is going to increase or decrease.
I am referring to persons who decide to become expats.  Will their number rise or fall?
On what news or facts do you base your opinions?

In my experience the number of expats working overseas will slowly but surely decrease.
This is due to the training and learning that the locals undertake and so eventually take over from the expat.

In Laos, the engineers we trained up when I worked there, now have good jobs in the govt or private sector and a couple have their own businesses.

In PNG, locals we trained up there in 1980's when we developed the Ok Tedi mine and other projects, some now have senior positions in the mining industry, others have moved into the private sector.

In Afghanistan, our local engineer  / inspectors have good jobs as well after 2 years of mentoring alongside us.

I think for the "retired" expat it will continue to rise.  Many times it is much cheaper to live (a similar lifestyle) in another country.  That is what allowed us to "retire" early

Bob K

I too think that the numbers of job expats will decrease and retiree expats will increase.  It remains to be seen at what speed it will happen, and when one trend is going to prevail over the other.

Expat trends will not disappear. We must wait and see how they will evolve.

I am curious what other forummers will say. 

We talked about job expats and retiree expats, and we seem to be in agreement with one another. 

How about investor expats, those folks who put their money where their mouth is in foreign countries?
Every country has strong incentives to attract serious investment ideas and capital influx.  However the market one country offers is better than that in another country.

Will the numbers of investor expat increase or decrease? 

John C. wrote:

How about investor expats... in foreign countries? Will the numbers of investor expat increase or decrease?

John. You distinguish between "investor expats" and "retiree expats". On another thread I rebuked James Woodward (mildly!) for confusing expats with immigrants. I'm guessing you classify yourself as an investor-expat. But I also guess that you have no intention of moving on from St Lucia. If that's so, then you're an immigrant, and will become (sooner or later) a St Lucian national. At what point, in your mind, will you cease holding expat status?

Gordon Barlow wrote:

John C. wrote:

How about investor expats... in foreign countries? Will the numbers of investor expat increase or decrease?

John. You distinguish between "investor expats" and "retiree expats". On another thread I rebuked James Woodward (mildly!) for confusing expats with immigrants. I'm guessing you classify yourself as an investor-expat. But I also guess that you have no intention of moving on from St Lucia. If that's so, then you're an immigrant, and will become (sooner or later) a St Lucian national. At what point, in your mind, will you cease holding expat status?

Hello Gord,
1). Do not worry about James.
He just got his ID papers.  He is now OK.

2). No, I am not an investor-expat.  As per my profile, I am a serial expat who, by Destiny, found a home.  By the way, SLU is more beautiful than flat, lime stone Caymans. 

3). Yes, you're right, no moving out of St. Lucia for me. Maybe buying a new house will make me move out temporarily.
I am a St. Lucian (which makes me a Saint automatically) since early 1992. 

4). When I said investor-expat, I referred to wealthy businessmen who go to a new country to invest in commercial/industrial projects and decide to make that new country their new home.
We don’t seem to catch one of those here on this forum.

How do you see expat trends: increasing or decreasing? 

Hopefully i am expecting to see a dramatic rise in expat because migration brings success and civilization to a country

stumpy wrote:

In my experience the number of expats working overseas will slowly but surely decrease.
This is due to the training and learning that the locals undertake and so eventually take over from the expat.

I don't anticipate the Norwegians or Icelanders getting training to be housekeeping staff in hotels anytime soon. In some countries, the expats are providing all kinds of labor that the locals don't want to do anymore.

ECS wrote:

stumpy wrote:

In my experience the number of expats working overseas will slowly but surely decrease.
This is due to the training and learning that the locals undertake and so eventually take over from the expat.

I don't anticipate the Norwegians or Icelanders getting training to be housekeeping staff in hotels anytime soon. In some countries, the expats are providing all kinds of labor that the locals don't want to do anymore.

I'm with ECS on this - although to be fair to Stumpy he may have been thinking of middle-class expats only. Here in my rich little Caribbean island (Grand Cayman) every native-born feels he or she is entitled to have a quasi-slave domestic helper (Jamaican or Central American at $5-6 an hour) and every business a security-guard (Indian or Filipino at $4 an hour), and no native Caymanian would take those jobs at any price. I gather it's much the same in the Gulf States, and even the USA (Mexicans) and Britain (East Europeans). My son lives in Norway, where Latvians are in great demand.

Protectionist sentiment is rampant here, and a large proportion of the native-born ethnic Caymanians is infuriated by the numbers of expats + immigrants. Nevertheless, there are no signs of a decrease. As our population grows, the numbers will get higher and higher, and I expect this will be the case in most places. We are cursed here with an affirmative-action program designed to reserve certain jobs for locals; but it doesn't work.

My personal blog contains several posts on the topic - most recently in November last year. Here is the link (below), for anybody who might be interested. Other relevant posts are scattered throughout the blog - usually identifiable by their titles. I'd be interested to learn what other countries have similar situations.
http://barlowscayman.blogspot.com/2013/ … abour.html

ECS wrote:

stumpy wrote:

In my experience the number of expats working overseas will slowly but surely decrease.
This is due to the training and learning that the locals undertake and so eventually take over from the expat.

I don't anticipate the Norwegians or Icelanders getting training to be housekeeping staff in hotels anytime soon. In some countries, the expats are providing all kinds of labor that the locals don't want to do anymore.

Yes, you are correct.
In Europe, it all started in Germany with Turkish people who were migrating in droves in late 1960, all for menial jobs.

Gordon Barlow wrote:

ECS wrote:

stumpy wrote:

In my experience the number of expats working overseas will slowly but surely decrease.
This is due to the training and learning that the locals undertake and so eventually take over from the expat.

I don't anticipate the Norwegians or Icelanders getting training to be housekeeping staff in hotels anytime soon. In some countries, the expats are providing all kinds of labor that the locals don't want to do anymore.

I'm with ECS on this - although to be fair to Stumpy he may have been thinking of middle-class expats only. Here in my rich little Caribbean island (Grand Cayman) every native-born feels he or she is entitled to have a quasi-slave domestic helper (Jamaican or Central American at $5-6 an hour) and every business a security-guard (Indian or Filipino at $4 an hour), and no native Caymanian would take those jobs at any price. I gather it's much the same in the Gulf States, and even the USA (Mexicans) and Britain (East Europeans). My son lives in Norway, where Latvians are in great demand.

Protectionist sentiment is rampant here, and a large proportion of the native-born ethnic Caymanians is infuriated by the numbers of expats + immigrants. Nevertheless, there are no signs of a decrease. As our population grows, the numbers will get higher and higher, and I expect this will be the case in most places. We are cursed here with an affirmative-action program designed to reserve certain jobs for locals; but it doesn't work.

My personal blog contains several posts on the topic - most recently in November last year. Here is the link (below), for anybody who might be interested. Other relevant posts are scattered throughout the blog - usually identifiable by their titles. I'd be interested to learn what other countries have similar situations.
http://barlowscayman.blogspot.com/2013/ … abour.html

Yes, Gord, but let's not forget that many Caribbean islanders migrate overseas too.
It's not only the foreigners who pour into these shores, it's also islanders who become expats going abroad.

St. Lucia has a 30,000-person strong diaspora, mostly New York, Toronto (Canada), UK and Australia.