Australia has been ranked at number nine while its next-door neighbour New Zealand has been ranked at number 51 just above Kuwait in a ranking of 52 countries.
A survey entitled ‘The Expat Insider 2022’ report by InterNations asked almost 12,000 respondents of 177 different nationalities who are living in 181 countries about quality of life, cost of living, safety, financial outlook, bureaucracy, and ease of fitting in the new home country.
Philipp von Plato and Malte Zeeck, the founders of InterNations, said in a foreword to their report that they have been conducting this survey annually since 2014 amongst expatriates, and “it was time for a new cycle of growth and development.” They added:
“The new Expat Essentials Index serves as a kind of compass that shows how expats navigate everyday life abroad, from entering a country to dealing with potential obstacles such as the language barrier.”
Migrants coming to settle in Australia rated the local economy positively and felt happy with both the working hours and fair wages. The survey noted that three-quarters were satisfied with their hours, and 70% were happy with their work-life balance. Australia is also home to around 670,000 Kiwi expats.
However, Jacinta Arden’s New Zealand was ranked poorly given its low wages and high cost of living. In fact, New Zealand performed very poorly on personal finance measures where 49% of migrants observed that their disposable household income was very less for them to lead a comfortable life. It was the worst-performing country in the survey’s health and wellbeing measure, rated negatively by 75% of respondents, compared with 35% globally.
Migrants noted that New Zealand was “too expensive”, and it was too hard for arrivals to get a job. One respondent from Botswana who calls New Zealand home, said: “The cost of living is too high here in comparison to the salaries.” While another migrant from India now settled in New Zealand reflected anxiously on the “growing divide between the rich and poor” as well as the rising costs for groceries, petrol and housing.
Mexico was ranked first in the survey, with Indonesia, Taiwan, Portugal, and Spain following closely. India was ranked number 36 above the United Kingdom, Sweden and Germany.
