Why don’t ex-pats leave if it’s so bad?
On quite a few occasions over the past few years I’ve come across ex-pats who moan and complain on a very regular basis about the place they find themselves living. There is a tendency to be altogether too negative regarding the city or country they are in and they usually have a strong tendency to want to change things – everything it appears, and another tendency to want to leave for greener pastures. There is one sure and fast unwritten and very logical reality that ex-pats like this should realise and that is, if they choose to live (and remain) in a foreign country and that country is kind enough to grant permission to stay to earn a living, then they have to accept the differences, abide and play by the rules and be tolerant, as hard as that might be.
Given that the vast majority of ex-pats move abroad on a personal voluntary basis, there is still an option in the form of a virtual get-out-of-jail-card that could be factored into play, and while not so easy for some, but generally speaking, leaving for another place to continue the ex-pat life or simply leave and return home to one’s homeland are realistic options. Leaving is real and does not have an expiry date.
So why all the negativity? The level of dissatisfaction seems to be strongly linked to how developed a place happens to be and how much hardship one has to put up with on a day-to-day basis. Contributing factors such as climate, cultural differences, religion, prohibitions, restrictions, pollution, transport, benefits, dangers, to name a few, are likely to be as much a reason to want to leave as a reason to stay. So, a city like Beijing for example appears to have a lot of moaning ex-pats (on a worryingly regular basis) and you begin to wonder if some of the factors above are the reasons why people moan so much. But why stay if it is all so brutal an existence?
It is very likely that all ex-pats around the world have a gripe or two from time to time with the country they find themselves in and this is no more than that same person would gripe about in their own country; so that, it is fair to say is acceptable griping, for the want of a better word. However, the annoying and often frustrating part about some expatriates is their inability not to realise that they are continuously complaining and stabbing at the country or city in which they live and still remain there as though it was a prison sentence. I trust that the countries and cities in which they live are far better than prisons and that the conditions and benefits which they have are far better than many locals could ever dream of. Not such a brutal existence really and the reality is that many simply moan because they have nothing better to do, and many simply can’t bear the thoughts of returning home because they know that home is not so perfect either and quite possibly worse (for them) than where they are.
Let the negativity stop because the ones who are working hard, enjoying and basically getting on with their new country simple don’t want to be a listening post for frustrated and angst ridden moaners. Shut up or get out seems like a reasonable plan!
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