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The Daily Insight

What is an expat wife?

Author

Sarah Duran

Published May 14, 2026

Quite a few women don’t relocate for their own career, but follow a husband or partner on an assignment. As a “trailing spouse”, you take care of the family while putting your own plans on the backburner – not always an easy or rewarding job. Find out what it entails and how to keep your cool as an expat wife.

Is being an expat lonely?

Being an expat can bring a certain kind of loneliness. When you leave your home country, you tend to go away from your family, friends, and colleagues, and step into a new world where you are exposed to all kinds of challenges and difficulties.

Why do people choose to live an expat lifestyle?

Some folks become expats because they want to lower their living costs, while others immigrate for weather-related reasons. Some see the opportunities on offer when it comes to taxes, and some are excited about another country’s locals, air quality, and natural beauty.

What do expats do for a living?

Many jobs for expats will assist in arranging necessary visas and residency permits, finding housing, and many times setting up local bank accounts and utilities. Furthermore, many jobs overseas will offer both living and professional support while teaching.

Why do they call them expats?

Etymology. The word expatriate comes from the Latin terms ex (“out of”) and patria (“native country, fatherland”).

Why is expat life so hard?

Expat life is hard because it’s just “normal life” with further obstacles thrown in. Some of those obstacles you chose knowingly because you were willing to pay the price for more excitement or a better quality of life. Other obstacles, well, you probably didn’t even know you were signing up for them.

What are expats like?

Being an expat is like being trapped between two worlds: you’re not a local but you’re not a tourist, you’re not on vacation but you’re not at home, and you have a home back in your old country but you also have a home in your new country. Finally, on June 1, 2019 we took off for our new expat life.

Why you should become an expat?

Build your confidence. Strangely, you may find yourself becoming more confident as an expat. When you move abroad, you’re making a huge achievement: you’ve moved away from friends and family, you’ve temporarily cut ties with your home country, you’re moving into new accommodation and taking a new job.

Where do expats earn the most?

Top 10 Countries for Expats to Earn More Money

  • China.
  • Hong Kong.
  • Bahrain.
  • Singapore.
  • Vietnam.
  • Saudi Arabia.
  • Canada. In the HSBC Expat Survey Canada was ranked in the top 10 countries for disposable income and financial stability.
  • United States. As the USA is huge, the income can vary across different states.

What do most expats do for work?

So, based on the most wanted positions and their availability internationally, here are some of the top expat jobs around!

  1. Developer. The technology industry has undoubtedly some of the best career prospects.
  2. Web design.
  3. Marketing.
  4. Management positions.
  5. Business jobs.
  6. Finance jobs.

Is it hard being an expat?

Being an expat is really hard Okay, maybe this is something you already knew. But it bears repeating: Being an expat is really hard. Even if you catch all of the lucky breaks (and we certainly caught a few), it’s still really difficult.

Do expats make more money?

new research from HSBC, the “average” expat adds an extra $21,000 to their annual salary by moving overseas. Some 45% of those who responded to the bank’s annual Expat Explorer survey say they got more money for the same job by moving abroad, while 28% said they got a promotion.