Expats moving to China are the most unhappy expats in the world, while those heading to Canada are among the happiest, a new report has recently revealed. Yet, in a follow on survey over the happiness of expats in China, conducted by Nanjing Expat, some 83 percent of respondents described themselves as either happy or very happy with their lives as an expat in Nanjing.
Thousands of people immigrate to another country every day. In the beginning they may feel excited; seeing the differences between the old and new culture “in a romantic light”. Most are actually very fascinated by their new home during the first weeks. They associate with nationals who speak their language, and who are polite to foreigners. They also like try out all the, for them at the time at least, strange food. This is referred to as the honeymoon phase; like its moniker it eventually comes to an end. At that point people start to miss the things they had back home.
The revelation that puts China at or near the bottom of the league table was undertaken by visa application help website Globalvisas.com. Among its findings, the purported fact that 90 percent of expats emigrating to Canada were “happy” compared to only 44 percent for whom their destination was China. While Nanjing is different in many ways compared to the more Western world from which many of us hail, the city in itself is also fundamentally dissimilar from other places in China. The aforementioned 83 percent happiness factor is a reflection of that fact.
The Nanjing Expat survey also encouraged participants to give open-ended comments. “Nanjing is always alive, I can buy everything any time almost. If I want dumplings at 3 am I can get dumplings at 3 am. If I want to get a beer I can get it on almost every corner. And the price is the best of course. In Sweden the food is expensive; here it’s so cheap”, says Niklas Åkerberg.
There are hundreds of thousands of expats in China, among whom Beijing and Shanghai are the two most popular destinations, but local expats are also largely saying they are happy with their choosing Nanjing over another city.
Stephen McNally commented, “I have lived temporarily in both Beijing and Yangzhou. Beijing has a superior music scene and abundant cultural excursions but the pollution and brutal winters make Nanjing a better overall place to live. Nanjing was once described by a visiting British friend as being, ‘the most beautiful city he had seen in China’. The tree-lined streets differentiate Nanjing from many other densely populated industrial cities.”
Something that is common to many a metropolis in China is the polluted air and so the Nanjing Expat survey enquired as to what extent that had an impact on happiness. Surprisingly, 43 percent of respondents stated that pollution in Nanjing had little impact on their lives against slightly less (39 percent) who said it was a big influence.
“It doesn’t affect my happiness at all and I actually don’t think about it too much. I might have noticed it the first week but not anymore,” Jan-Olof Hansson says.
In China one can easily eat the same kind of meal three times in one day while most expats are used to eat different kinds. Another surprise to emerge from the survey was the fact that expats are less addicted to their own food than might first be imagined, with only 43 percent of respondents saying the availability of international cuisine had an influence on their level of happiness.
When it comes to social interaction with their fellow foreigners, the Nanjing Expat survey found that more than two thirds of laowai in Nanjing said it is important for them to meet other expats and not just locals.
“It’s very important. Even though I like meeting Chinese people and getting to know their culture it’s hard sometimes because we don’t understand each other on account of the cultural differences. Some things are even hard to talk about because it’s taboo in China. Then it’s nice to have an expat to talk and relate to,” Hansson added.
While having other expat friends may be important, long term expat Helmut Güsten elaborated that one should seek out foreigners whose outlook on China is positive; “The general respect for our host country and an understanding and respect for the people and the culture of China is an important consideration when choosing social contacts in the expat community”.
