Adapting to a new environment

Dealing with a culture shock is part of being an expat. The acclimatistion to local food or weather is not the most difficult aspect during the relocation, but the emotional aspect is. Expats tend to have a mood dip that lasts about the average of six months.

At first everything seems very exciting and you are thrilled to discover as many things as you can of this other country. You meet new interesting people who show you around. After a while you start to notice that things are not really how you thought they were. The persons that helped you in the beginning don’t spend as much time with you as initially. At this moment you feel very frustrated. You deal with this by trying to forget that you are living in a other country. Meeting people or trying more new thing out is not really what you have in mind. But once you get through this phase you will feel at ease in your new environment.

Margarita Wilson

Asian firms will send more workers abroad

According to a recent study, Asian companies are planning to send more workers abroad for the next three years, despite the financial crisis.
This study is linked to a previous study right after 2001. Then 60% of the queried companies said to send more workers overseas. In 2004 appeared that 70% of those companies actually did it.
There are several reasons why it’s necessary for companies to change their policy of overseas assignment regularly. One of them is globalization. Also the falling birth rate in Western and industrialized countries and the retirements of baby boomers makes it necessary to send workers over there.

Jana Jonckheere
source: http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?ArticleId=422656&publicationSubCategoryId=66

Dubai and its Belgian residents

Dubai, the capital the Emirate of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, has turned from a small dusty dessert city in to a metropolitan city with a booming economy. This new prosperous nation attracts many foreign investors, companies and workers among whom several fellow-countrymen. Today only 15% of Dubai’s population are locals.

The economy of Dubai has changed a lot in the last 50 years. Some of there oil reserves were sold for petrodollars, but luckily these dollars weren’t spent on the Rolls Royce’s of the sheiks or on weapons for war-hungry regimes, the petrodollars were invested in ambitious developing projects and other long term investments. Currently revenues from petroleum and natural gas account for just 6% of the GDP.

Unlike some of its neighbours where the economy still is fully reliant on the oil industry, Dubai has a sustainable economy and Belgian companies are setting up branch stores in every part of this small kingdom. Belgian companies are also being contracted by the government to work on some of its most ambitious structures. The world famous Palm-Islands for example were constructed by the Belgian dredging company Jan de Nul.
We don’t only help making these wonders of engineering we are also living on them: over 100 Belgians have bought a house on one of the Palm-Islands and over a 1000 Belgians live in the city of Dubai.

This economic miracle does have a dark side though. The construction of some of its most ambitious structures would have been impossible without the heavy labour of the Pakistani, Indian and Philippine workers who work for next to nothing in inhumane conditions. But from an economic point of view you could only have respect for the achievements this country has realised in the last decades.

Sources: Several articles of Het Nieuwsblad en De Morgen

Felix Braeckman

Expats in the dredging industry

Despite the financial crisis that’s affecting many other sectors, dredging companies, such as Deme and Jan De Nul, are still recruiting more employees. Many of them are being hired to work overseas because there is worldwide a great demand for complicated dredging projects. For example maintenance works in ports and harbors or treatments of contaminated soils.

Because of the lack of technically skilled personnel, these companies train their new employees during several weeks. They learn how to operate cutter and hopper dredgers using simulators. But this training aims as well to prepare them for the experience of working out of the country. This is very important because they will have to deal will great responsibilities. Many weighty decisions will have to be made quickly.

The company arranges the accommodation abroad. It is often located near the workplace to gain time and to be able to be immediately on the spot in case an emergency occurs. The company takes care of the housework as many expats have longer and more working days per week. Usually they work for one or two months abroad and then they get a month off to visit their family back home.

Margarita Wilson

International carrier

More than 50% of starting employees are tempted for a short or long term assignment abroad. But this motivation declines when getting older. There is also a strong connection with the family life and the partners’ carrier choice.

Especially international operating companies feel this trend. Spouses aren’t eager to end their carrier and follow their partner abroad. But this phenomenon doesn’t cause problems yet. When companies search people to work abroad, they still find them.

But there is also another focus. Companies want to reduces expats because they imply an extra cost to the company. Therefore the interventions are limited and local employees are used. That is why there are more short running projects, where the employee is only gone for a couple of months.

In the past, companies couldn’t guarantee employees they could maintain their job, but nowadays expat assignments are part of an option package offered by the company. This can only be an extra stimulant for employees.

Delphine Pattyn

www.trends.be

Flemish expats are concerned about their children’s education

Being a parent isn't always that easy, especially when you live abroad. Couples that move to foreign countries are very doubtful about the environment in which they will have to raise their kids. Many parents worry about differences in standards and values, social services, social associations and schools. Expats who are planning on coming back to their country of origin and those who still are in close touch with family and friends back home are the ones who worry the most.

School quality abroad is their biggest concern. Sometimes their children intend to go to university or college in their mother country. It’s important that the received the education that is required to qualify for higher education.

Age is a very critical aspect as well. Kids younger than 10 years adapt easily to new environments. But it's a lot harder for those who are older than 12 years.

Most of the expat’s children become an expat themselves when they are older.

Margarita Wilson

4 out of 10 Belgians wants to work abroad

A Belgian survey among 5.856 job-seekers shows that men are more likely to enter into an adventure abroad than women. Also the education level plays an interesting role. 43% of university students consider going abroad, college students 37% and only 28% of the people that finished secondary school have the ambition to take the plunge.

France and Luxemburg maintain number 1 and 2, but also transatlantic countries such as Canada and the United States are in the top five. Fifth place goes to England and no longer to the Netherlands.

One third says the expat journey can last at least take 5 years and even more, short terms are less popular.

The motives to go abroad are: gaining more experience, interest in other cultures, a more interesting job, the opportunity to learn another language, better promotion chances…

Delphine Pattyn

http://www.hln.be/hln/nl/957/Belgie/article/detail/292450/2008/05/28/Vier-op-tien-Belgen-willen-in-buitenland-werken.dhtml

The Prince Albert Funds

The Prince Albert Funds is an organization that wants to help young Belgian professionals acquire experience abroad. The Funds helps you to find the right company (established or headquartered in Belgium) that matches your profile. Before you depart you take a intercultural training session and spend a month at the company in Belgium to make preparations. Then you spend at least 11 months abroad and start your project. After your return a feedback session is organised.

This one-in-a-lifetime experience gives you the opportunity to discover a new work environment and has many fiscal advantages.

Testimonials of alumni represent the great success this formula has to offer. Many of them are still working in the company where they started their project or the experience had a great boost for their carrier. Another person even started his own company abroad. 

Delphine Pattyn

http://www.prinsalbertfonds.be/paf/Default.aspx?LangType=1033

Is the boom in migration good for sending and recipient countries?

The total number of expats in the world is already estimated at about 200m. That’s only 3% of the world’s population, so there is still potential for growth.
Rich countries, who are in an economic boom, need more workers than they have. So they hope that outsiders will keep coming. And they will! For some, there is a strong incentive to work abroad, since their income could be the fivefold of the income at home. The problem in poor and middle-income countries is that there is a chronic shortage of skilled workers. This “brain drain” is mostly to rich countries. But these poorer countries should realise that emigration of these skilled workers is a consequence rather than a course of its problems. For example nurses in Malawi emigrate massively, because their salaries are too low, or often not paid. What the government should do is managing this problem, for example by raising the salaries of the nurses.

Jana Jonckheere
Source: http://www.economist.com/specialreports/displayStory.cfm?story_id=10286197

Belgian managers are in demand

More and more Belgians leave the country to work abroad, according to John Attenborough, from PMO, Prospective Management Overseas. Since not all of them are registered in an embassy, it’s difficult to know the exact number of expats. The organization VIM, Vlamingen in de wereld, tries to find out how many Belgians work abroad and has information about the education, gender, occupation and age of the expats. Men are in the majority and although a lot of young people are enthusiastic to leave the country, the real topmanagers abroad are between 45 and 50 years old. Belgians are beloved in the foreign board of directors because of several qualities, such as flexibility, multilingualism, diplomacy and adaptability. Some can perfectly work in an organisation with a total different culture. These qualities can be important to function in an environment of globalisation. Many “High potentials” think that work in Belgium is too limited. There are mostly small and medium enterprises. Big enterprises generally moved to foreign countries. That’s why they search a bigger challenge and experience abroad. Most of the expats prefer to stay in the foreign country. So when they come back, it’s usually for a personal reason.

Jana Jonckheere
Source: http://www.trends.be/nl/archief/2003/24%20april%202003/De+machtigste+Belgen+++in+het+buitenland-6298-214076.html

The Obama-effect: moving to the land of renewed hope and glory

The new resident of the White House didn’t only bring back hope into many American hearts, this new hope crossed the Atlantic and brought back a feeling of respect and fraternity between US and European citizens. Suddenly the US doesn’t seem like a gun loving, imperialistic, obese almost bloodthirsty nation anymore but rather represents a country where change is possible and hope is alive. This change gives a great incentive to every European who has ever considered moving to the US. The Flemish organisation Vlamingen in de Wereld, which offers assistance to Belgian expats, has noticed a large increase of interest in our country. VIM offers 2 information sessions regarding 'moving to the US' every year but are now overwhelmed with candidates and will have to organise additional sessions this year to meet the demand. Participants have more than doubled since Barack Obama was certain of his place in the oval office. But not only individuals are searching to find a new life on the other side of the pond, more and more European companies are preparing to enter the American market.

The new image Obama gave to his country has restored the European confidence in the US, let’s hope he’ll live up to his expectations.

Felix Braeckman

Source: De Standaard (18/11/2008)

Already 10,000 Belgians emigrated in 2008

Foreign affairs announced this week (Article: 23th of October 2008) that in the first 9 months of this year 9,713 Belgians packed their bags and moved from their homeland. Now over 326,000 Belgians live abroad, or at least that’s what the official figures say. The ministry of foreign affairs only relies on the consular register but signing up in a Belgian consulate or embassy is optional, so the actual figure could be much higher.
The most popular countries haven’t changed a lot: France (96,124) is head and shoulders above all the other countries, second are the netherlands (28,550), Spain (21,333) stays popular as well. Most popular non European destinations are the U.S.A (20,039), Canada (12,100), South Africa (7,360) and Australia/New-Zeeland (together about 4,000 Belgian expats). Some countries like the United Arab Emirates (1,565), China (2,167), Japan (693) and India (588) are welcoming more Belgians than ever before. Some of the least favourite destinations are Azerbaijan (11), Estonia (15), Lithuania (21), Gabon (29), Kazakhstan (32), Kosovo (33) and Jamaica (34).

Felix Braeckman

Source: Gazet van Antwerpen (23/10/2008)