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

We take a look at expat related new this week:

Obama’s ‘Third Culture’ Team

“Obama has packed his staff with so-called “Third Culture Kids”-people who grew up outside the U.S. New research suggests this group shares common psychological traits that could shape his administration.

John Quincy Adams lived in France, and young Franklin Delano Roosevelt visited Europe often enough to master French and German, but Barack Obama is the first modern American president to have spent some of his formative years outside the United States. It is a trait he shares with several appointees to the new administration: White House advisor Valerie Jarrett was a child in Tehran and London, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner was raised in east Africa, India, Thailand, China and Japan as the son of a Ford Foundation executive, and National Security Advisor James L. Jones was raised in Paris. (Also, Bill Richardson, tipped as Secretary of Commerce, grew up in Mexico City.)”… Read more from Ruth E. Van Reken the Dailybeast

A growing TCK population!

In Hong Kong,  copyright: Ed-meister

In Hong Kong,  copyright: Ed-meister

in Delhi, India. Copyright: Carol Mitchell

In London, Copyright daveknapik

Expat skill transfer still to deliver

A new report by Arthur D. Little called “Expatriate Games” finds that the promise of localizing talent in the Middle East oil & gas industry has yet to be realized. (…) Arthur D. Little claims that the ‘unwritten rules of the game’ and systemic lack of follow through have caused the major stumbling blocks to a successful skills transfer in the Middle East oil and gas market. Read more. 

Expat workers leave US to hunt for jobs

As a business graduate from a very good university in the US, Pratik Shah had every reason to expect an easy passage into a well-paid corporate career. ut, even after applying for nearly 1,000 jobs, he will not move directly from his masters in engineering and management degree at Duke University to a position at a top financial company. Instead, he will head back to his home town of Aurangabad, near Mumbai, to search for work there.The realities of the financial crisis and recession are creating a very different environment for jobseekers from Asia in the US. Read More: By Daniel Pimlott  Financial Times

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.

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!

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.

ExpatFinder is also a good way to go offline. You can find local organizations dedicated to supporting the international community locally. You can also find more about the local expat fairs, exhibitions, expo or shows that is going to take place anywhere around the world and more importantly in your town…All these welcoming gatherings share a common goal of helping newcomers settle in your city and bring you a lot of ideas to make the most of your stay abroad!

The Expat Show Shanghai

Organizer: World Events Agency,

Date : 19, 20 & 21 September 2008

Country: China

Location: Shanghai Exhibition Centre

“More than 200 exhibitors and 10,000 visitors in 2007”

 

The Expat expo’08

Organizer: The Expat Group

Date : 20 & 21 Sepatember 2008

Country: Malaysia

Location: Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre

Visit the website:www.expatexpo.com.my

  

“I am not a tourist” Fair

Organizer: Expatica

Date: Sunday, 12 October 2008

Country: Netherlands

Location: Beurs van Berlage, Amsterdam

Visit the website: http://www.expatica.com/iamnotatourist/visitors_info.php

   

The Leman Expat Fair 

Organizer: Leman Events

Country: Switzerland

Location: Beausobre, Morges

Date: Sunday, Novermber 9 2008,

“More than 70 exhibitors in 2007”

Visit the website: http://www.lemanevents.ch/leman-expat-fair/the-leman-expat-fair.html

    

 

 

Expat Expo:  

Organizer: E&M McGaugh

Geneva: October 12th, 2008

Zug :  April 26th, 2009 

Basel: May 17th, 2009

Zürich : September 13th, 2009

“Geneva: 200 exhibitors and over 3000 visitors”

Visit the website: http://www.expat-expo.info/

 

The Expat Show Beijing

Organizer: World Events Agency

Date : 22, 23 & 24 March 2009

Country: China

Location: China World Trade Center Guo Mao

Visit the website: www.expatshowbeijing.com

 

There might be more around the world, feel free to drop a comment!

All logos or Images are copyright of the named organizers.  

 

 

 

 

A little more than a week after launching the website, we would like to share more about the technology behind the Expatfinder search engine. When we decided to work on a search engine solution for people living abroad, we knew we wanted to go as deep as possible in the search ranking and algorithms of the engine, to provide a true search experience for our future audience. The team started working on three aspects of the search ranking process and partnered with exalead to provide a cutting-edge technology.

Exalead  is a reputable search engine technology provider, and along with its enterprise search solutions, it runs its own search engine with a comfortable interface (it was in 2007 the world’s third largest search engine based solely on size of index).

ExpatFinder introduced a new content ranking technology based on three criteria:

• crawler based criteria:
  • Adapted search filters: news, forum, blogs
  • quality indexed content
  • Localized search
• editorial based criteria:
  • A real dedicated editorial team
  • Very selective and regularly updated indexation criteria
• user based criteria:
  • Contributions (submit new sites)
  • Search behavior analysis

As you might have guessed, this content ranking technology soon became named “ExpatRank” technology in the coffee breaks discussions at the Paris office or “kopi” breaks in Singapore.

As part of the development, a Singaporean start-up named Qweki, came up with a promising hybrid niche search solution that we wanted to explore. We decide to run it for the expat blog specific search. The team now keeps on working to improve the search results based on contributions and the feedback we get from you. We will introduce some new features very soon. We would like to give a warm welcome to all the new expatriates and families relocating for this new school year! Enjoy the search on ExpatFinder!