An investigation by insurance company AXA has identified what they are the reasons why you choose to move in another country. They have collected the testimonies of hundreds of expats to understand what are the reasons that push them to leave everything. What emerged from the question: why do we emigrate? Is that four out of ten people do it in search of a better balance between work and private life.
Why we emigrate: reconciling work and family
Il 40% of those who choose to leave it all behind to seek their fortune abroad do so to find one better work-life balance. And this is also the main motivation of those who do not have an insured job in the new country. In fact, most of those who emigrate are not expat in the proper sense. That is, it has not been moved from its company to another location. Instead, it is someone who has decided to go elsewhere to achieve their goals. About half of the emigrants, in fact, do not yet know what job they will find in their new destination, but the same is motivated by the possibility of being able to better reconcile professional life and family abroad.
Then there are other reasons to emigrate, of course. According to the AXA survey, the 17% emigrants are looking for better job opportunities, while the 12% would like one higher salary.
Circa one third of those who have decided to emigrate then believe that working abroad provides them a great deal career advantage.
Why you emigrate: integration is possible
Research is also there focused on post-transfer, asking expats how they found each other once they made the leap. The 90% felt welcomed by new colleagues, although almost 30% found it difficult to learn the local language (keep in mind that the research was mainly aimed at native speakers of English). On the other hand, 13% encountered them adapting to a work culture different from the one they were used to. In general over half of the respondents have no intention of going back.
It is clear how, in a global context, look for job opportunities abroad is the main motivation of those who move. Whether driven by the ambition to have an experience that will give a competitive advantage. Or the need to improve their conditions compared to those offered by the country of origin.
Why you emigrate: part-time is better
An investigation by the British weekly The Economist, he underlined another interesting aspect about the work-family balance. The fact that a greater diffusion of part-time work is one of the causes of a nation's highest happiness rates. The symbolic case is that ofNetherlands. If on average in the European Union countries only one fifth of the workforce has a part-time position (according to 2014 data 8,7% of men and 32,2% of women), in the Netherlands this situation is very more widespread. In fact, it concerns the 26,8% of men and 76,6% of women.
This obviously means that in the country there are the conditions to live decorously even with a non-full-time job. And generally higher hourly wages. Switzerland and Germany also have high percentages of part-time workers. Although with the economic crisis many more workers would want a full-time job and despite the problems that the high percentage of part-time workers has brought in terms of female presence in the highest positions, the fact remains that fewer hours of work with a pay that allows you to live are the basis for a true reconciliation between professional and private life. And, sometimes, a incentive for international mobility.
