Wednesday, January 18, 2012

WORLD'S FRIENDLIEST COUNTRY

As a country promoting its My Second Home Program it is important to find out if living in Malaysia will to lead to homesickness. A recent survey has established that this in not true for people who have relocated to New Zealand, Australia or South Africa.

These are the three nations where it’s easiest to befriend locals, learn the local language, integrate into the community and fit into the new culture, according to the results of HSBC’s Expat Explorer Survey, released last month.

The World's Friendliest Countries

1. New Zealand

2. Australia

3. South Africa

4. Canada

5. United States

New Zealand, in the top spot, had high scores in all four categories. Seventy-five percent of respondents living there reported that they were integrating well in the local community; in Australia it was 77 percent and in South Africa 79 percent.

“New Zealanders as a whole seem like happy people, and that translates into friendly, helpful and kind people,” notes American expat Kim Brinster. Other positive aspects, she says, include a “pitch-in-and-help mentality,” as well as navigable government and health-care systems. A former New York City bookstore owner, she relocated two years ago to Waiheke Island, off Auckland, to be with her New Zealander partner. She has no plans to leave

HSBC surveyed 3,385 expatriates in 100 countries between May and July 2011. Because countries with fewer than 30 respondents were deemed statistically insignificant, the findings rank a total of only 31 countries. Bermuda, which ranked highly last year, was not included this year because it had too few respondents.

Malaysia is a long way off to be rated in the top ten world's firendliest.

No comments:

Post a Comment