 |
| Once settled in to the Spanish life style its hard to leave. |
We’d like to start by offering a hearty congratulations to
all the people out there that have recently made the choice to leave their home
country behind and become an expat. It’s certainly a daunting move, but it
could end up being the best decision you’ve ever made.
You shouldn’t worry if you’re having trouble fitting in and
settling as soon as you arrive. Everyone goes through the expat life
differently, but the process generally follows the same pattern; there’s the
initial honeymoon period, then some time spent in doubt and frustration, and
then a long period of amusement and bemusement as you take in the differences in culture, before you finally settle in for the long haul; putting down some
permanent roots and making new friends.
A recent survey from HSBC known as the HSBC Expat Explorer
Survey has assessed that this process takes six months on average.
HSBC polled thousands of expats and found that two-thirds of
them took six months to feel like they had truly settled into their new country.
Just under half of expat parents with their children felt it
took this long for their children to settle in, seemingly proving the adage
that younger people adapt to new surroundings faster.
In the long term, 60% of parents said they feel their
children had a higher quality of life abroad. Only 13% of parents feel that
expat life was inferior to home life for their children.
