What kinds of people leave hearth and home for life in another country?Here are a few categories I’ve come up with. I’m sure that many expats fit into more than one. I know I do! Let me know if you have a category I’ve Continue reading What Kind of Expat Are You? Economic Escapists Like me, these folks want to leave a more expensive country for a cheaper one. Many of these are retirees who, like myself, simply can’t afford to retire comfortably in their native land and don’t want to work until they drop. There are also many economic escapists who are still of working age, but want to pursue a career or vocation they might not be able to live on at home, but could afford in a less expensive country. Continue reading Escapists: Economic I recently posted an article in which I attempted to categorize expats into groups. This is not easy, as many – if not most – expats live overseas for reasons that include multiple categories, but I thought it was worth a try. Over the next few days, I will elaborate on some of the categories I included in that initial post, beginning with: Cultural ExpatsMany people choose to live a life outside the boundaries of their native countries because they want to immerse themselves in another culture, or because they want to bring their culture to a foreign land. I divided the cultural expats into the broad classifications of missionaries and Continue reading “Missionary” Expats Social Escapists When I created this category, I was actually thinking about a character in a book, who was described as “actually, one of those alcoholic hangers-on who can never go home again because of some tawdry scandal or another.” Dorothy Gilman, Elusive Mrs. Pollifax. British literature is full of this type of expat. In today’s Continue reading Escapists: Social StudentsToday’s cultural students come in all shapes and sizes. Of course, there are the ubiquitous junior-year-abroad 20-ish college kids. But the students category of cultural expat includes so much more. A student can be one who takes a formal course of study at a college or a university, or someone who comes to a country purely to immerse himself in the language and the culture. There are those who combine studying another country’s language and culture with volunteerism. And there are people whose studies are less formal, but no less formative, who simply go and live among the native residents and absorb their language, culture, cuisine and Continue reading Student Expats You May Be an Adventurer If. . .
If you’re an Economic Escapist retiring overseas, what kind of community do you want to live in? Please join the discussion by clicking on the Comment link Continue reading Economic Escapists: A Different Perspective Escapists Escapist expats are characterized more by what they are getting away from than by what they are moving toward. The first group is the ever-growing number of Geographic Escapists. These folks want to escape from cold weather to the sunny tropics, from the mountains to the ocean, or from the farms to the Continue reading Escapists: Geographic Growing up, the author never had an opportunity to travel and see the world. Now she’s an expat, and she explains her top reasons for choosing to live Continue reading What Kind of Expat Is She?  Kathleen Peddicord of Live and Invest Overseas revisited Nicaragua recently, and had some interesting comparisons between Nicaragua and Panama.
I can’t help but draw comparisons between this place and the place I left early yesterday morning, Panama City. Granada, Nicaragua, from where I write, and Panama City, Panama, couldn’t be more different, and I’ve Continue reading Are You A Boomer or A Hammock Swinging Adventurer? |
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