Despite Turkey’s warm climate and friendly people, both expat families and working expats have a hard time in their adopted home

Munich, 24 August 2015 — Once more, Ecuador tops the list of the best places to live abroad in the InterNations Expat Insider 2015 survey, which is with more than 14,000 respondents one of the most extensive studies ever conducted to explore the general living situation of expatriates. Turkey does not belong to the most popular places, though — destinations such as New Zealand, Thailand, Panama, and Australia were awarded with a much better ranking than challenging Turkey, as the InterNations survey shows.

Ecuador, Mexico and Malta: Everybody’s Darlings

The InterNations Expat Insider 2015 survey ranks countries by different factors such as the quality of life, personal finance, working abroad and making friends. In most of those categories Ecuador takes a leading position. For example, a stunning 94 percent of the foreigners in Ecuador are pleased with local leisure options, while 91 percent are satisfied with the local costs of living.

Mexico has won the hearts of many expats with friendly people, beautiful beaches, and tasty cuisine. Over four out of five expats say that getting used to the local culture is generally easy and over 90 percent appreciate the friendliness of the local population as well. Also, almost every single respondent likes the weather in Mexico — which is generally one of the four most common considerations when it comes to moving abroad.

Expats say that Malta is the best destination for working abroad. Job satisfaction is high and two-thirds of respondents or more are happy with their career prospects, work-life balance and working hours. Malta is also popular for its ease of settling in: 73 percent find it easy to make new friends.

Friendly People, Challenging Culture

Expats relocating to Turkey are welcomed to a community that is considered generally friendly by 77 percent of the survey respondents in the country. Seven in ten also confirm the friendly attitude towards foreign residents, and 64 percent find making new friends overall straightforward, which is mostly on par with the global average of 63 percent.

Making friends seems to be the easier part, though, since hardly more than half say it is overall simple to get used to the local culture and just 45 percent regard settling down in this country easy. Another factor that appears to be problematic is the Turkish language. Three out of five consider learning the local language difficult, and 57 percent confirm that it is hard to live in Turkey without speaking it — landing Turkey on 58th place out of 64 countries in the Language category of the Expat Insider 2015 survey.

Stable Weather but Political Instability

The opportunity to travel is enjoyed by 84 percent of the expats in Turkey, which goes hand in hand with 73 percent who are generally satisfied with the local transportation infrastructure. In addition, the climate and weather are appreciated by about eight out of ten respondents.

However, a quarter of the survey participants in Turkey do not consider the country particularly peaceful, and 45 percent regard it as politically unstable. Globally, only 16 percent say the same for their respective country of residence. Still, personal safety is rated positively by seven out of ten expats and 61 percent approve of the quality of medical care.

Struggling Careers

One in three respondents does not find their career prospects in Turkey appealing. Job security presents another challenge, with only 44 percent approving of it and not even half rating the state of the economy positively, while worldwide 65 percent favor the state of their respective host country’s economy.

In the Work-Life Balance category, Turkey lands at almost the end of the scale at 61st place. Reasons for this include that 40 percent of the respondents are dissatisfied with their working hours, which are on average 42.2 hours per week, and 29 percent criticize their work-life balance overall.

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