For a variety of reasons, I dislike the word expat. I used to identify as one, but I never really took the time to consider what it meant, nor exactly how it was perceived by others. I’ve come to recognise the word not as a descriptor of an individual, but as a way of describing a particular mindset. The typical expat, in my mind, is a person who lives in a country for a short period and is therefore less interested in becoming part of a new culture. They choose not to engage with foreign language media, avoid speaking any other language than their native tongue, and usually choose to spend time with people who either speak the same language, or come from the same country as themselves. I try hard not to judge, but it’s easy to feel a sense of superiority as someone who worked at becoming part of a different culture, over those who, for want of a better term, seem like tourists on a rather long holiday.

Although I might struggle to remain open minded when it comes to expats, I do try, which is why when I saw that a new InterNations Expat Insider Survey had been released, I didn’t immediately dismiss it. The surveys have been released every year since 2014 and attempt to identify the best destinations for expats, with countries ranked by metrics such as ‘Quality of Life’, ‘Ease of Settling In’, or ‘Working Abroad’. With nearly 12,000 respondents, representing 177 different nationalities, it appears to be one of the more comprehensive studies on expat experiences. That being said, there are some issues with the overall methodology, for example, it only takes 50 survey participants for a city to feature in the rankings, which seems a very small number for some of the claims being made.

In addition, it never actually declares the breakdown of nationalities surveyed, we know that the two biggest groups are British and American, but an actual breakdown of the number of respondents isn't given. This is problematic for a number of reasons, chief among them the weighting of British and American perceptions against all other nationalities. I would be more inclined to trust the results if we knew it was based on a variety of different nationalities. These issues of approach, plus use of “expat” in its title, suggests it’s not going to be as representative as InterNations might want us to believe.

I may think this perfectly fair criticism, but there is another important reason I might choose to ignore the findings of the survey: Germany does not do very well. In truth, this is probably an understatement, going by the results, Germany seems to be wholly inhospitable to any and all expats. Overall, Germany ranks 42nd out of 52 countries, and sits dead last in the Expat Essentials Index, with housing, bureaucracy, digital life, and language all coming in for criticism. While the survey outcome may reflect the feelings of expats, I suspect it won’t wholly resonate with migrants who have lived in Germany for many years. This is not necessarily because they disagree. Living in Germany certainly presents unique challenges, but once they’re overcome, or at least dealt with to some degree of finality, a sense of accomplishment can blossom. This in turn can create a deep feeling of pride, which can morph into a possessiveness, even an over-protectiveness. In this context, it would be easy to see the expat analysis as essentially the opinion of hobbyists and lacking the fuller understanding of someone who has made a life for themselves here.

Yet, is that actually fair? I might not like the term expat, and be suspicious of those who prefer to label themselves as such, but are their findings so easily dismissed? Well, actually no. In fact, I broadly agree with most of the results, moreover, I’m fairly sure most Germans would too. How many of us have been required to fax something and bemoaned the lack of digital solutions or have stood in the middle of a major German city, hunting for the merest hint of a 3G network? How many times has your WIFI kicked out after a heavy rain, or a slightly windy day? How many of us are happy with housing at the moment? I doubt anyone in Berlin would have anything positive to say, let alone in Munich, Frankfurt, Dresden, or Hamburg.

Expats may not have the depth of knowledge that a migrant living in Germany for twenty years has, but they can give a clearer comparison with other nations, since they’re a more likely to have spent time in more than one location around the world. In this sense, expats can often identify the tangibles, whether positive or negative, and the practical problems that those living within a culture either take for granted, or have learned to live with.

Germans, expats, and migrants may not particularly like it, but they’re in broad agreement on the issues, but then so are people within important German institutions, and even the government. There’s already been calls within the governing coalition and from trade bodies for Germany to adopt English as a second official language in order to reduce the bureaucratic hurdles, and barely a week goes by without the topic of Digitalisation coming up. Housing has also been acknowledged as a major issue, although it’s not yet clear if the German government will keep its promises about building thousands of new homes per year to replenish the housing stock. With these problems off the table, could we see Germany become more welcoming to the estimated 400,000 skilled foreign workers it apparently will need every year going forward?

On that front, there are no guarantees. What the Expat Survey also shows is that while the practical issues of living in Germany are a major problem, an equally challenging issue is the unwelcome feeling that Germany and Germans seem to create for newcomers. Academic qualifications are quickly dismissed if they don’t come from countries that have the right reputation, there’s little patience for imperfect German, and making friends can be a painful process of trial and error. Solving these particular issues is far harder than changing processes, or introducing new laws.

While Germans may feel this to be harsh criticism, I would draw attention to the debate on changes to citizenship as an example of the unwelcome. Plans to reduce the wait for a German passport from seven to five years, and possibly three if the language skills are high enough, are hardly groundbreaking, but their announcement was treated in many quarters as some kind of affront, a cheapening of the great prize of a German passport. The debate itself was anemic, and conducted by politicians & commentators with little to no idea of how difficult the current process is, and without any understanding of the mindset of those who would seek to become German citizens. Conflicts of loyalty were even raised as a reason to keep the rules as they are, as if we were conducting this debate in 1914, and not 2023.

What’s more, the start of 2023 kicked off with weeks of public discussion surrounding problems of migration in Berlin, following reports of a riot and hundreds of arrests in Berlin over New Year. The leader of the opposition, Friedrich Merz, even went on TV to lambast the lack of integration within “Arab” communities, saying that the men with migration backgrounds were a major problem. Of course, when it turned out that early police reporting was totally inaccurate, and that the hundreds of arrests of migrants was actually 38 arrests of mostly German citizens, the news cycle had already moved on, and there was no great effort to correct the false claims made over almost the whole of January. Looking at it, if I was considering moving to Germany, I might have some reservations.

Germany does need to change. The population is shrinking, and in every industry there seems to be a desperate need for skilled workers. Yet, those of us, whether German, expat, or migrant must also remember that change isn’t something that can be forced, it’s something that has to be built collectively. This means patience on all sides, even in the most frustrating moments. We can point to the countries that are more successful at welcoming expats and migrants, but Germany can’t suddenly become Canada, and Berlin won’t miraculously transform into Mexico City. Germany needs to forge its own path, and I know many of us will happily help it along its way.

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