Americanexpatinfrance's Blog

More on the HSBC poll:
http://www.investmentinternational.com/news/living/the-recent-hsbc-poll-of-expats-lists-the-top-10-countries-with-the-best-quality-of-life.-the-results-are-as-follows-3173.html

One in two (49%) expats have a positive experience making friends in a new
country. Canada, which scored top in terms of integration for the 2008 survey,
emerged as one of the easiest places for expats to make local friends and where
expats had joined community groups. Asia emerged as the place to go for making
friends in general, with Thailand ranking as the easiest country overall to make
friends in, followed by Vietnam, Hong Kong and Malaysia.

While making friends is easy for most expats, there is a preference for making
friends within the expat rather than the local community. An exception to this is in
Brazil, which ranks highest for local community integration, with 94% of expats making
local friends easily. This was closely followed by Canada and South Africa, both scoring
91%, and India and Russia, both with 90%.

Asian and Middle Eastern countries feature heavily as the places most expats make
friends with other expats, as opposed to local people. In fact, expats living in the
Middle East, especially those living in Qatar, UAE and Saudi Arabia, are the least
likely to make friends with people from the local population.

One in five (20%) expats have found love overseas, with Thailand being the most likely
place to fall in love, followed by Germany and Brazil. Almost half (47%) of expats in
Thailand alone say that they have found love, however if you are a single expat in India
or Qatar, you best buy a teddy bear – just 4% of expats have found love whilst living there.