Happy new year on behalf of the ExpatFinder team in Singapore and in France!

We wish you a pleasant move if you are planning to relocate in 2009 and a happy life abroad if you are already living outside your home country.

Happy Family Expat in Singapore by Stanley Chia

Happy holidays from ExpatFinder.com! We hope that you will enjoy them, regardless of what you celebrate. This video is a funny mashup of a 1964 comedy movie taken from the great Prelinger archives.

Spread the word! watch the video on YouTube, Yahoo, MySpace, Metacafe, DailyMotion, Blip.tv and Veoh

 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

We take a look at expat related news this week.

Bank stops lending to expat staff of real estate firms

“Emirates NBD, the largest bank in the UAE by market value, has stopped lending to expat employees of leading real estate companies in the region on fears of further job losses in the sector.” Arabian business reports on one of the early aspects of the global downturn affecting expatriate workers in the gulf.

 
ROI of an expatriation

HRonline explores the “Return on your expat” from a company perspective. “So what exactly is your company’s return on investment after sending an employee on an international assignment? (Don’t worry; most other companies don’t know the answer, either.) Nearly three-quarters (71 percent) of surveyed companies stated that measuring the financial benefits of international assignments is a challenge. It is so difficult for companies to measure, according to the study, because businesses face time constraints and lack appropriate measurement tools and decentralized data. ”

‘Mobility’ to continue despite slowdown

BusinessWorld online interviews international human resources firm and finds that there will be continued movement of people across markets despite global economic uncertainties.

“ECA International general manager for Asia operations Lee Quane said global employee mobility will continue as companies seek better business opportunities in foreign markets. “If you go by these past trends, the same thing is happening now. Companies are looking at other markets when their own markets are not doing well. Despite the slowdown, we see an increase in the number of expats (expatriates),” he said Wednesday on the sidelines of a forum on trends and challenges in managing mobile employees globally.

Most bizarre complaints by travelers

“Travel specialists from around the world have now compiled a list of the most bizarre complaints by travelers, who can go to any extent to get compensation. One travel agent received a complaint from a tourist at a top African game lodge overlooking a waterhole, who spotted a visibly aroused elephant and complained that the sight of this rampant beast ruined his honeymoon by making him feel “inadequate”. ” read more from the TimeofIndia

Expat voices

We have created a new Facebook group for expatriates on Twitter. Come and join us! the group is for people living outside their home country and active on twitter. Find other expats around the world using twitter. Get followers, find others to follow in their everyday life abroad in the four corners of the world. We will blog about it next week!

A year ago now, in November 2007, we created the Expat Network on LinkedIn. It has now grown to over 6,500 members creating a dynamic professional networking environment for people working in expat-related jobs, working abroad or willing to relocate and give exposure to their international background. The description of the group has not change since its origin: the Network is for expat networkers, expatriate services professionals, expat associations, relocation service providers and more. Activities of members include: expatriation support, coaching, international human resources management, compensation practices, cross-cultural management, relocation etc.  But also various industries are represented by expatriates working abroad such as for example Finance and Banking services, Advertising, Insurance, Oil & Gas and of course a large number of headhunters and HR managers interested in global and foreign talents… Join us now and give exposure to your international experience!

We take a look at expat related news this week.

£25 a Spanish villa?

A British expatriate in Spain is using raffle to sell property which he has valued £5 million. IHT reports on Wayne Connell who has decided to sell his family’s Spanish property in this unusual way. « Tickets cost £25 (about €31) and are available through his Web site. A maximum of 200,000 tickets will be sold, he says.”

Shrinking pensions

Expat pensioners lose £160 a month as sterling slumps. British pensioners living in Europe have seen their state pensions fall by about £160 a month over the past two years as a result of the decline in the value of the pound, according to new research.  Read more from the Telegraph.

Expat Voices:

Here is a collection of reactions to the victory of Barack Obama at the US presidential election through videos of American expatriates around the world.

• A bi-partisan crowd gathering in Central, Hong Kong on election morning:

• Expats in Phnom Penh celebrate Obama’s victory:

• Interviews of American expats in Prague on election night:

• Reaction in Cape Town’s US consulate, South Africa

Disclaimer: The views expressed in these videos are those of the authors or the interviewees and do not necessarily represent those of ExpatFinder.com.

Here is the first of our funny videos series!

This video is to highlight some of the challenges faced when moving or living abroad. Culture shock can be a difficult experience affecting the whole family… This video is a funny mashup of a 1964 comedy movie taken from the fantastic Prelinger archives.  Video editing was done by Peter Du and the music editing by Karmaleon.

Remember that you can use ExpatFinder search engine to learn more about Culture shock, cultural etiquette, local customs, intercultural experience and more so that you will be in the know before you go!

Spread the word! watch the video on YouTube, MySpace, Metacafe, AOL Video, DailyMotion, Blip.tv and Veoh

We take a look at expat related news this week.

Medical expats:
The wall street Journal reports on the increase in medical travel as a consequence of the growing number of insurers and employers offering the choice to go for treatments abroad. If the stay overseas for the whole treatment is long enough, the medical travelers could actually be considered as medical expats! 

Expat local communities:
Dubai’s streets were flooded with thousands of residents taking part in a walk to raise awareness of breast cancer. Local newspaper interviews two expatriate women who participated in the walk.

Opportunities abroad:
-As the financial crisis hits the US, more workers are considering opportunities abroad or trying to find job overseas especially those in finance.

-International experience is always a plus on the resume and some other markets such as the Brazilian banking market are looking for talents.

Entry Jobs abroad:
The European Commission’s launched this week the ‘First Job Abroad’ initiative to highlight the benefits of increased job mobility and the right to work anywhere in the EU. As a result, 50 young europeans were offered a first taste of working abroad. Currently, over 5 million Europeans live in another EU Member State.

Expat Voices:
Bernd, German expat in china brings you a website filled with pictures of sleeping Chinese taken during his assignment abroad. You will find pictures of sleepers in the most unusual, amazing positions and situations.Hardsleepers? Softsleepers? Groupssleepers? Vote for your favorite picture!

It is sometimes necessary to get support from professionals of the relocation industry. ExpatFinder currently helps you find some of those service providers via information search. The second version of your expat search engine will allow you easily find & compare local and global service providersfor expats. In the meantime here is a look at the principal professional networks of relocation professionals. 

Whether it is provided by your company in your relocation package or if you choose to subscribe for a service directly, the relocation companies are here to help you on various aspects of the expatriation process.

The relocation companies can offer packaged services as well as tailor made solutions. The scope of service can usually include:

Pre-departure planning
Visa/work permit Administration
Property Management
Pre-Move Orientation, School search, Area orientation
Home Finding and Settling-in Services
Ongoing Destination Support
Language and Cross-Cultural Training
Career Partner Assistance
Expatriate Expense Management
Repatriation Assistance
 
Here is a non exclusive list of the principle networks of relocation professionals:

• The Association of Belgian Relocation Agents (ABRA)

ABRA is a non-profit making organization representing the interests of its members in the Belgian relocation market.  ABRA, with its international heart, strives for professionalism and quality in order to protect the relocation business and its clients.

 Full details and ABRA members can be found here.

• The Association of relocation professionals (ARP)

”The ARP is a non-profit making company run by a Council elected from the membership body.

Full details and ARP members can be found here.

• The European Relocation Association (EuRA)

“EuRA is the professional body for relocation service providers across Europe.  Our members provide corporate and private relocation services across Europe and worldwide and are bound to the highest professional standards by our rules of conduct.”
For full details of EuRA and its members, go here

• Canadian Employee Relocation Council (CERC)

“CERC is Canada’s only organization devoted to advancing the interests and issues for workforce mobility.”

Full details about CERC can be found here.

• The Relocation network

The Relocation Network was founded with the aim of providing a forum to support a wide cross-section of specialist relocation service providers throughout Australia and New Zealand.

Full details and Relocation Network members can be found here.

• Swiss Association of Relocation Agents (SARA)

”SARA was formed in 2004 to represent the Swiss Relocation Industry. Their mission statement is: “To spread knowledge and understanding of the issues surrounding corporate mobility and to enhance industry performance standards by communication and education”
Full details and SARA members can be found here.

• Syndicat National des professionnels de la relocation et de la mobilité (SNPRM)

”The SNPRM was formed in 1995 to represent the Relocation Industry in France.” 

 Full details and list of members of the SNPRM can be found online.

• The International Relocation Associates (TIRA)

“TIRA’s global network of service providers are established relocation specialists and can provide expert relocation assistance to you and your expatriates locally as well as on a global basis.”

Full details and TIRA members can be found here.

• US Employee Relocation Council (ERC)

“Worldwide ERC ® was founded in 1964 to help relocation professionals overcome the challenges of U.S. domestic and global workforce mobility”

Full details and Worldwide ERC ® members can be found here.

All logos or Images are copyright of the named organizers.

Many picture hosting website are available to share your pictures with your friends and family. The most popular are Flickr (a Yahoo company) and Picasa (a Google company). They offer free and premium services and also let you choose who you want to share your pictures with once you have uploaded them. These websites are equipped with powerful search capabilities and a quick search is sometimes a good way to have a snapshot of the expat life in another country: for example try “Expat Hong Kong” on Flickr or Expat in Beijing on Picasa.

Some websites offer interesting applications to edit or play with your pictures. 

Picnik is an easy to use photo editing website that doesn’t require any downloads to install making it easy to use anywhere in the world, when traveling for instance.

PicArtia, a Singapore based company, allows you to create your mosaic photo online for free from your own pictures. It’s an interesting way to give a new perspective to your pictures. Other websites will create a jigsaw puzzles with your own pictures. You can also try your gaming skills on the beautiful National Geographic’s daily selection of photos Jigsaw puzzles.