Culture Shock

More and more people are free to live wherever they wish these days, mostly thanks to the Internet. Having to live close to where you work is no longer a requisite, especially if where you work is in cyberspace, which is everywhere. If that’s you, then there’s a few things you need to know in your hunt for your dream country.

First and foremost, it’s important to understand that where you choose to live you must be able to adapt. Don’t think for even a second that you can have it your way and they’ll just have to live with that. If that’s how you think, perhaps you should stick to the land where you were born. In this world there’s a huge number of cultures, and each culture has its own ideas of what’s right and what’s wrong. Your right is often their wrong, and vice versa. If you’re installing yourself in a new land, learn ahead of time about the local culture and be prepared for surprises once there, especially if said land is in the developing world and you’re from the other end of the economic spectrum. This is not to say that you should be supremely docile and just accept everything that the local culture throws at you, but rather that you develop tactful responses to situations which might otherwise lead to conflicts. In short, if you’re going to conquer Rome, win the hearts of the Romans instead of pillaging!

One of my own requisites is to have a good command of the local language. Nothing will win locals over faster than if you speak their tongue! In more practical terms, grasping what is being said and written will avoid costly misunderstandings, be it a social gaffe or a business blunder. Unless you can afford a full time interpreter once there or are prepared to spend six months to a year acquiring sufficient language skills, skip any country where you can’t speak at least one of the mother tongues. Note that you can never master an idiom until you’ve actually been immersed in an environment where the it is spoken, but by the same token you shouldn’t arrive there without at least a good command of the language. Be mindful of local dialects as well, thus if your destination country is Brazil, learn Brazilian Portuguese rather than the classic version, as there’s vast differences. I’m fluent in Spanish, for example, but in every Hispanic country I’ve been to, there are completely new words and old words that take on new meanings, sometimes rather offensive. In Spanish the verb “coger” [ko'hair] means to take, but in most of Latin America it’s the equivalent of the English F-word!

Climate is obviously a top item on this checklist, but don’t let the lure of sunny climes be the primary factor in your final choice. There’s plenty of places with tropical climates to consider, but the beautiful weather usually is accompanied by occasional not so nice weather. Hurricanes are, to varying degrees, a reality in virtually every tropical island or coastline in the world, as are tsunamis. Thus, if you want to live somewhere like that, you might want to be located at a reasonable distance from an escape route, usually including a major airport. Avoiding tsunamis entails living away from the coast or having higher ground at a short distance. Tsunami alerts usually are issued well in advance, but if your “paradise” is within a seismically active zone, the wave could hit before any warning can reach you. If you want year-round hot weather, you’ll only find it within the tropic of Cancer and the tropic of Capricorn (thusly, “tropical”), a 22 degree band on either side of the equator.

Visa restrictions have to figure prominently in your decision as to where to relocate. If you’re a citizen of a developed nation, you usually won’t need a visa in just about any country in the world. There are some notable exceptions, however, a few countries, like Brazil, having a reciprocal immigration policy. This entails that what the visa policy of your country of origin to their citizens are applicable in equal measure to you when you visit their’s. Typically, you’re granted three months without a visa, but then after that, most immigration policies diverge. The most generous visa policies, such as in Argentina, entitle you to leave and immediately return after the three months are up and receive another three months without a visa, and this ad infinitum. Thus, you can conceivably reside indefinitely in such a country without seeking a residency permit, as long as you’re happy taking a trip elsewhere every 3 months. Some countries grant even longer stays: Mexico grants you up to six months, but you do have to request it with a little insistence when you arrive. Generally speaking, you can often obtain a visa extension once in the country, but this involves filling-out forms and in many instances paying a fee to the local immigration office. Many countries in the developing world also have easy terms for foreigners to obtain a long term residency permit, although this will usually mean filing and paying local income taxes, in which case the local income tax rates will be an additional concern. There are even, although very few, nations that allow foreigners to buy citizenship! By the same token, top economic tier countries like the US, Canada, those of the EC, and Australian, have very restrictive policies for extended stays and even harsher conditions for obtaining a resident’s permit. If you’re a millionaire citizen of any country, you usually won’t encounter any problems getting resident status anywhere in the world if you promise to invest a minimum in your host country! In contrast, if you’re a middle-class person from the developing world, you’ll encounter stumbling blocks almost everywhere even just to obtain a tourist visa, and surprisingly, even from some other developing nations! For exact terms applicable to you for visas or resident’s permits, consult the official web sites of either the country you’re interested in, or of its consulate/embassy in your country.

Picking the country you live in can also hinge on the quality and variety of services. To begin with, expect much costlier telephone and Internet services in poorer nations. The quality of your phone and Internet services can vary widely within the same country, but in general they’ll be much better in the big cities and probably horrendous in small towns and villages. For instance, in Argentina, there’s a wide number of carriers and Internet providers to choose from in Buenos Aires, Cordoba or Santa Fe, but you may have none, or at best one unreliable service in small towns, where the phone infrastructure is often antiquated. As for electricity, you’ll usually experience more outages in the developing world than you would in the privileged world. For example, there were almost daily power cuts in Cozumel, Mexico, sometimes lasting 8 hours, when I lived there. The cost of electricity is generally much higher, but in if you consume moderately as do most of the local people, you’ll pay very little as you’ll be within a subsidized tier. Crank-up the air conditioning and you’ll be thrown into a much higher Kilowatt/Hour rate. Many an unwary ex-patriot has received a heart-stopping 500 USD electrical bill before they learned the valuable lesson: use fans instead!

Banking is also an important consideration. Opening a bank account locally is usually possible, but often unnecessary and seldom advantageous. You’re usually better off leaving your liquid assets in your country of origin and withdrawing it as needed via ATM or your credit or debit cards. Banking machines aren’t usually a problem, but there are still areas of the less developed world where banking machines are few and far apart. Also, while almost any ATM can likely interface with your bank’s network, be it Cirrhus or Plus, I found few that did in some areas of Brazil. As for credit and debit cards (with MC, Maestro or Visa logo), a lot of merchants in poorer countries will tack on a hefty surcharge if you use it, thus making cash via ATM the more practical and economical solution.

Of course, there are many other factors that will influence your decision on where to relocate, many of which will be specific to your own needs and wishes. Best to pick well, because once there things can unravel quickly and you might be forced to retreat! However, we again remind you that the most important ingredient in successfully living abroad is your ability to adapt.

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