Which are the top 5 countries (descending order) with US citizen population (expatriates) ?
Thanks
Wikepediasuggests that the top five countries are Mexico, Canada, Phillipines, Israel, Italy in that order.
thanks for the quick reply. I was surprised by Philippines being third. What are the reasons for this ?
Strong historic links with the US for most of the twentieth century, and a fair amount of migration in both directions. Lots of people living in the Phillipines may have US citizenship through having been born in the US, or through having been born to parents who spent time in the US and acquired citizenship while doing so. I don’t know whether historically people born in or otherwise connected with the Phillipines at a time when it was a US possession have or had an easier route to US citizenship, but if so this could certainly affect the number of US/Philipine dual citizens.
One is they speak English. Two there’s significant US military presence in a country with lower cost of living than the US. There’s a significant miltary retiree expat community who’ve lived there before due to assignments.
They don’t have links with the US because they speak English; rather, they speak English because of their links with the US; the country was occupied and administered by the US for the first half of the twentieth century, and hosted huge US military bases for decades after independence. My guess would be that most US citizens living in the Philipines are also Philipine citizens and, in the US, would be identified as Filipinos.
Which raises the question, what does the OP mean when he talks about US expatriates? The commonest definition would simply be a US citizen who resides outside the US, but that would include a great many people who are citizens both of the US and of the country in which they reside, and whose cultural, ethnic, ancestral etc links to the country of residence may be as strong or stronger than their links to the US.
If you take a narrower definition, and only include US citizens whose primary cultural identification is with the US and who consider themselves, and are generally considered by others, to be foreigners in the country in which they reside, that’s a much smaller group of people, and probably a different top-five list of host countries.
Focusing just on the teaching profession, most TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) teachers seem to be in China and South Korea, with Japan and various parts of the Arabian peninsula closing in. For fist time EFL teachers, Korea is a great destination because it pays pretty well and they pay for your airplane ticket both ways if you honor your full contract. China pays less, but native-speaking English teachers are in huge demand there. Japan pays the most, but doesn’t pay your airline tickets and is a little pickier about who they’ll hire. All three of these countries are great billets, but I’d say Japan is the most desirable for most teachers. Lots of other east Asian countries hire a lot of American EFL teachers, but pay a lot less or have unbearably hot weather. Throughout Asia, fluency in English is the dividing line between working class and professional for the new generation of workers, and China has a large and rapidly growing middle class that just plain wasn’t there 30 years ago.
As for the rest of the world: Saudi, Oman and the Emirates hire a lot of teachers and pay the most money. Some people love working there, some don’t. In Saudi, you get a lot of veiled threats from cab drivers and other strangers that you should convert to Islam. Oman and the Emirates are more western-friendly (there are actually expat bars and such), but good luck getting laid, like, ever. Western Europe hit its saturation point for American EFL teachers right around 1947; you can get a teaching job in Rome or Paris if you happen to apply right when somebody dies or something. Your odds are better somewhere cheaper and less prestigious, like Spain or Greece. Eastern Europe is a growing market; lots of expats in Prague, Budapest and Warsaw, many if not most of them scrambling between multiple jobs and schools. I see jobs in Moldava and Russia advertised, but doubt they’re great locations.
Good point. For instance, I’d say the majority of U.S. citizens in Israel aren’t so much expatriates as they are immigrants, or as in my case, children of immigrants. I consider myself an Israeli with an American citizenship, not an American living abroad. I’m not *ex *my patria.
I’m surprise Thailand isn’t on the Wikipedia list.
And fair enough. But I’ll wager you and others in the like position are turning up in the Wikipedia figures.
No doubt.
Tightness
Or Accidental Americans like my old workmate. He was born in DC to a world bank worker and went back to Israel when he was 1. Next time he went to the US was on a work meeting and we found out that he had been turned back because his passport said born in the US.
Sure the linkage dates back to the last years of the 19th century and the US seizing the Spanish colony in he War with Spain. That colonial presence, and later heavy involvement even after Philippine independence are root causes. Those counted as pre-existing facts for traditional expats on the ground today who made a decision to live there. I’ve looked at the Phillipines as a possible retirement site even with never having been there. English and military hospitals for free treatment on a space available basis were factors in that consideration. “Remember the Maine” wasn’t part of the consideration even if it was a root historical cause.
None of which parses out the component who are predominantly Philippine but hold US citizenship because of historical linkage. That part would be much harder to parse out of the commonly available data.
Thailand isn’t mentioned at all in that Wikipedia article. I wonder if it is an oversight, or if Thailand doesn’t conform to the “ex-pat” definition? Perhaps Thailand allows some form of long term residency that is different than the ex-pat definition? This is just a WAG, however.
J.
I wonder if in the case of the Philippines and Mexico, it’s mostly Filipino or Mexican-Americans heading back? Perhaps to families, etc?
There are websites for Thailand’s expatriate community at sites like:
I don’t know about “mostly”. Possibly mostly, possibly not mostly, but certainly a large chunk.
Why?
I can think of a few possibilities. The list seems very haphazard, so it could be simple oversight. Or it could be, as you suggest, related to the status of “long term residency” – I’ve been in Thailand a long time, and haven’t left the country at all for a few years, but my visa status is still officially “non-immigrant”, as is that of most permanent residents. (Many long-term residents were even continually renewing “tourist” visas but rule changes make that increasingly difficult.)
Finally, Americans here (outside the biggest cities and tourist resorts) are not as numerous as in other countries (though still surely higher than some that show up on the Wikipedia list). I’ve met only three Americans currently living within a half-hour drive of myself. Germans, Brits and Scandinavians are more common. (Of the three Americans, the most interesting and intelligent is a Hyperlibertarian. I hope to meet up during the holidays, and hope to steer the conversation away from politics. :o )