We take a look at expat news this week:

 

Overseas American Week: representing your interests

 

For over thirty years, AARO has been representing the interests of overseas Americans on such issues as voting, taxation and citizenship. Each year, AARO organizes a lobbying trip to Washington called “Overseas Americans Week” to press for change on all of these issues and more. This year’s OAW will take place the week of March 30. To follow OAW as it happens, sign up for the weeklong OAW blog emails by writing to aaro[@]aaro.org.

You can follow this week in Washington on www.aaro-oaw.org.

Andy Coyne, Executive Vice President and Kathleen de Carbuccia, founding member and president of AARO. 

 

 

Smile and Copenhagen smiles with you

 

“Expats get a sweet welcome and some helpful hints from high places during the city’s official welcome

City Hall pancakes are normally reserved for heads of state, visiting dignitaries and world champion sports teams.

But on Monday afternoon the sugary sweet capital crêpes were dished up for another group the city is looking to make feel at home here – expatriates.

Jakob Hougaard, Deputy Mayor for Integration, welcomed the crowd of about two hundred foreign residents to the ‘Welcome to Denmark’ event and to their new city.

‘You’re part of the story of Copenhagen,’ he said. ‘I know that not every day is going to be a fairy tale here, but the story you are going to participate in is about the city of today.’
Statistically, Denmark is good at attracting highly qualified professionals that are in high demand, according to Katia Østergaard of the Expat in Denmark network, who also spoke during the welcome. The challenge, she said, is retaining them. Some 60 percent choose to leave after only a short stay.

Read more from The Copenhagen Post

 

Expats hit by recession blues

 

‘There are still more opportunities here in Asia than in New York or London, and even more so when the economy picks up,’ said Mr Maes, who holds an Employment Pass Eligibility Certificate which allows skilled foreigners to stay in Singapore for up to one year to look for a job. He is in the process of applying for an employment pass.
Foreigners who have previously worked here can apply for a Personalised Employment Pass, which is not tied to a specific employer and allows former work pass holders to stay for up to six months between jobs to seek new employment.
Foreigners who start legally registered entrepreneurial businesses can apply for the EntrePass, which lets them stay for up to two years and can be renewed.
Though the Ministry of Manpower has no official figures on the number of work permits being applied for or cancelled, recruitment firms here say that they have seen a slight increase in laid-off expats in the last three to six months.”
Read more from the Straits time

 

Can’t Find Work? Look Abroad

 

“As the economic crisis deepens and Americans everywhere are facing the prospect of unemployment, a steady source of income would seem hard to come by. Employers are pessimistic, competition for new jobs is tough and small businesses are struggling to turn a profit. Meanwhile the rent is still high, the bills are coming in and the banks are in no mood to talk about loans.”

So why not just leave?

More from Consummer Affairs

AARO, american expats, Americans Abroad, Americans overseas, Copenhagen expat, expat job, expat recession, expat work, expatriates in Copenhagen

 

 We take a look at expat related news this week.

 

Finding and retaining globally competent employees

 

Saskia Meckman explores the challenges for the year to come.

“In 2009, companies will be forced to juggle expatriates and their families worldwide, while balancing the decisions involved in finding and retaining globally competent employees.

… For most companies, it is becoming increasingly hard to fill certain positions without providing comprehensive and lucrative compensation packages. Including career-support services and any other additional support for the spouse may make a difference in whether an employee accepts or declines an international assignment… Once companies have found talented employees, the main goal is to retain them. One way of doing this is by making sure that there is a job offer of equal or greater interest for them once they repatriate “home” or head off on another international assignment. Companies are often still losing their best talent by not taking advantage of the cultural understanding and global competence the employees acquired while on assignment. Read more from HReonline.

 

Cultural Skills are crucial to leadership in organizations

 

Mor than 100 senior human resource managers participated in this survey on the importance of cultural skills in senior managers.

” 81 percent of companies agree that international work experience is a crucial criterion for leadership in a global organization. The survey, “The Importance of Cultural Skills in Senior Managers,” conducted by RW-3 LLC, an online intercultural training organization, and ORC Worldwide, a global human resource consulting firm, was designed to measure the importance of cultural competencies and global experience as criteria for senior management

Key results of the survey , reported by TalentMgt.com, included:

• Approximately 20 percent of senior leadership comes from countries outside their companies’ headquarters, 21.5 percent are foreign born, 28.5 percent have international experience and 28.6 percent have worked and lived in another country
• In the next five years, organizations expect that nearly 30 percent (27.4 percent) of corporate leaders will be recruited globally.
• Culture is essential to business success in the global marketplace: 75 percent indicated cultural implications of business decisions are sometimes or always considered when making business plans, and 57 percent indicated that culture plays a very important role in the success of the organization’s business mission.”

 

Social Security guide for Americans Overseas

 

The American Association of Resident Overseas (AARO) has just released its “Social Security: How it works when you live outside the USA” booklet.  The publication is a guide to Social Security and Medicare for Americans Abroad.
This booklet is produced by Thomas Rose, chairman of AARO’s Social Security Committee and describes the history and policies governing US Social Security and Medicare programs and how they affect Americans who work or retire outside the USA.
It is available at a price of 6€. You can either download it online from www.aaro.org or order it in booklet format from AARO, 34 avenue de New York, 75016 Paris, France.

 

Reverse brain drain?

 

ABC News writes on a new study from Duke University on Foreign born professionals in the US:

“Vivek Wadhwa, an executive resident at Duke University and a senior research associate at Harvard, believes that the United States is headed for a massive reverse brain drain. 

 Wadhwa, who led a Duke study on foreign-born professionals, said there likely won’t be a short-term impact of loss of skilled expatriates, but it will have significant implications in the long term. In Silicon Valley, the percentage of immigrant-founded start-ups had increased to 52 percent in 2005. The study found that all companies founded by immigrants from 1995 to 2005 produced $52 billion in sales and employed 450,000 workers in 2005. Indians comprised the largest group of skilled foreign workers.
More than 1 million skilled foreign workers compete for 120,000 permanent U.S. resident visas each year. Each country has a seven percent limit, so, for example, India and China are given the same quota as Iceland. According to the study, in U.S. engineering schools, 60 percent of Ph.D candidates and 42 percent of master’s candidates are foreign nationals.” Read More.

 

US Immigration to Go Paperless

 

Agency Plans Electronic Overhaul of Case-Management System, the Washington post reports:
“The Bush administration has launched a major overhaul of the nation’s immigration services agency, selecting an industry consortium led by IBM to reinvent how the government handles about 7 million applications each year for visas, citizenship and approval to work in the United States, officials announced yesterday.

If successful, the five-year, $500 million effort to convert U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ case-management system from paper-based to electronic could reduce backlogs and processing delays by at least 20 percent, and possibly more than 50 percent, people close to the project said. Those problems have long frustrated new Americans and other immigrants.” Read more.

 

Finding a home or office abroad?

 

Home search is a significant part of the relocation process. In some country you might find yourself in front of some very strange buildings and houses! Have a look at Unusual Architecture around the world!

 

The Crooked House ( Sopot, Poland)

                       Copyright:broca

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