What is your life like as an “expat”? 25/04/2008 00:00

7 reactions to this article

zazidanslemetro posted: 05-05-2008 | 11:59 AM

I do not know where Marja Ruigrok lives.Ca veut dire on which planet.I have lived in france for almost six years and I have yet to meet these highly educated,high earning world citizens looking for adventure.There are economic refugees,those aiming to improve their social status(too competitive in UK)who refurb a 14th bus shelter and never stop talking about it,and the Dailymailers who think britain is going to les chiens,but where are these others?

zazidanslemetro posted: 08-05-2008 | 11:36 AM

"Often very little is known about ex-pats"
Marja Ruigrok
You said it Marja

Mari posted: 27-05-2008 | 11:23 AM

I totally agree. I am an expat living in France and I have yet to see any other expats looking for excitement. Most are retired and looking for the easy life. I have been standing in stores with my husband and we have been accosted by Brits who want our assistance in getting what they want, rather than try and speak the language themselves, some exitement. Saying that we are renovating our 14th century building, but we do have three children in French schools, who have thrown themselves into French life with gay abandon,the way that only children can do. Life can be tough here but we love the friends we have made, who laugh at our expense with the many cock-ups we make. C'est la vie!

Val posted: 02-06-2008 | 2:44 PM

I live in The Hague, in The Netherlands. Since it is the city of expats - I mean diplomats; ambassadors; people working in international organisations, it caters only for these rich and posh people. However, I am an expat (with a previous experience of 6 years in ireland) but I am not an ambassador or a diplomat - I am currently looking for work actually. Let me tell you that the Dutch just hate having Europeans here because they don't need to speak dutch, yet the Dutch speak easily english and french - their own language come from these two (as well as german) so it's only normal that the dutch should speak those foreign languages rather than us europeans learning Dutch. In addition, for a city of international communities to which The Hague's inhabitants should be proud of, I have never seen so much ignorance and intolerance towards foreigners. In the administration they just ignore you if you speak english only (and I am french by the way). Therefore I am planning to leave The Netherlands for a new european country, I can't wait - I have had nothing but troubles and stress for the 3 years I have lived here.

candlelight posted: 11-06-2008 | 4:58 PM

I have just moved to France after 6 and half years in Spain. My experiences are that your location does make a difference to how you are treated by both foreignes and other ex-pat´s. I am much happier now. When it comes to intolerence, the Brits can be as bad with each other. I too have been accosted in supermarkets by Brits wanting help. Not all Brits have the ability to learn languages especially later in life. I know someone who is dislexic and has terrible learning difficulties. Therefore may take a long time to be able to communicate. They are not ignorant,lazy or stupid.I arrived in France only Speaking English and Spanish. Had a terrible accident which resulted in hospitalization. I was in no condition to speak what little French I have. I received the most wonderful treatment from all the French medical staff that I encountered. Not one person made any derogatory remarks of my not speaking French. I am happy to say that I am on the mend and looking forward to spending my retirement surrouned by wonderful countryside and even more wonderful people.

gaffer posted: 14-06-2008 | 2:37 PM

In our experience (English - six years living in France) anyone who thinks that "ex-pats" can be treated as an homologous group is not in the real world.

Apart from a depressing level of "DailyMailishness" and colour prejudice we have found as wide a variety of opinion, attitude and expectation as in any other random group of people. I also suspect that the outlook of those of us here in Les Landes will differ from that of ex-pats in Dordogne and in company with our French neighbours will be extremely different from Les Parisiens.

HistoryTechDoc posted: 16-06-2008 | 11:52 AM

Personally, I feel myself rather fortunate to have been living here in South (Zuid) Limburg since 1989. Although the first 10 years were very difficult, I was able to contribute enough into the tax system to now be able to have excellent health care insurance that would have bankrupted me had I remained at home in the U.S. with my systemic rheumatoid arthritis complications.
Although I have taken Dutch lessons now for over 4 years, I still do not understand how, my employer thought that I could learn Dutch sufficiently enough to communicate fluently with only 20 (twenty) hours, not weeks, of language training! Dutch is a language of seemingly unending exceptions and idiomatic expressions.
No wonder that I just read in today's Metro Nieuws page 3, that approximately 1.5 million Dutch citizens and Residents are not considered to be sufficiently trained to read or write the Dutch language--in other words 'Functionally illiterate' for living here in the Netherlands. Furthermore, and perhaps more importantly, 2/3rds of this number are not immigrants, but one million Dutch natives (about 1 in 16)! So it's apparently not just we Expats that are having trouble learning the Nederlandse taal, aka the Dutch language. Part of the local problem extends itself into dialects that are closer to being distinct languages rather than just Dutch 'accents'. Down here there is more of a Germanic influence on both the pronunciation and vocabulary.
Language remains the most intractable problem facing the EU and no one sees any solution in sight for the next 30 years. At least that was the view I personally heard in Zurich from Lord Cockfield about 15 years ago and I do not think it will be much different for the EU by 2023.