From the outside, the lives of executives based beyond the borders of their own country can seem highly enviable. They are often somewhere that sounds exotic, the pay is probably good, the housing and education for their children better than at home.
However, each move means losing networks of friends and colleagues built carefully over years. It most likely means learning a new language, culture and etiquette. It means setting up a new household that often feels more like a hotel than a real home. And it means a dislocation that results from being an outsider both in one’s adopted country and, after some while, back home too.
Location makes all the difference, though. The populations of some cities, such as Dubai and Doha, seem to consist of nothing but expatriates. Modern Singapore, Hong Kong and Shanghai have built reputations on welcoming and looking after expats. But that infrastructure was also partly laid down during their colonial past. The UK can link into that heritage. And France, for example, has its own francophone alliances.