Different Strokes for Different Expat Folks

Friday, Feb, 1, 2008

Dear International Living Reader,

I know when I’m being tongue-lashed.

In this month’s Last Word, International Living’s Roving European Editor Steenie Harvey delivers an eloquent lambasting to unnamed IL staff members for ignoring Europe as an option for American expats.

I’m fairly sure I’m on that unnamed list. It’s true, I can be vocal about my feeling that Latin America is an easier, cheaper, more comfortable, and more convenient option than Europe for those North Americans who want to live part- or full-time outside the U.S.

But then, I would think that. I’ve lived in Latin America for the past seven years. And as a European, Steenie’s staunch defense of the Old World and its considerable charms makes sense, too.

In fact, I couldn’t help but be swayed by Steenie’s lyrical list of Europe’s cultural and economic advantages over the rest of the world…until, that is, I got to the part where she mentions living like a local.

Says Steenie of the local lifestyle in Asia and Latin America, “Tin-roofed shacks and $3 daily incomes are appalling, not appealing.”

Steenie’s view of their lifestyle would surprise most of my local friends and acquaintances in Merida, the capital city of Yucatan State in Mexico, where I live.

In fact, most of them live in better houses than I do. And they’re not political bosses or drug lords or the dons of huge haciendas.

They’re working, middle-class Mexicans. Car dealers. Architects. Computer technicians. Shop owners. Insurance salesmen.

I can certainly go into the campo of almost any Latin American country and find poor people living in tin shacks. I imagine I could also find dirt-poor Italian farmers living in ancient heaps of rubble and Romanian factory workers shivering in concrete-box apartments if I wanted to.

There are “locals” of all kinds all over the world. When Americans go abroad to live or work, they naturally associate with the locals they feel comfortable with. I’d feel silly trying to play the “local” in Otavalo, Ecuador, dressed in a felt Fedora and wool serape…about as silly as I’d feel in Bavarian lederhosen or a Greek fisherman’s outfit.

The fact is that half of all U.S. citizens living abroad live in Latin America, and half of those live in Mexico. My wife, Suzan Haskins, and I have lived in Ecuador, Nicaragua, and Panama, but we settle in Mexico because it meets our needs for providing the weather, services, culture, and lower cost of living we like, while still being close to family and friends in the U.S.

But if half the Americans moving abroad suddenly started preferring Europe, I wouldn’t find it odd. As Steenie says, Europe has a lot going for it, and she rightly takes issue with the common American perception that Europe is too expensive to consider as an offshore option. Many parts of Europe really are relatively inexpensive, as you’ll read in Leigh Fergus’ article about a beautiful, little-known…and affordable…corner of France.

However, I’ll continue my serenades in praise of la vida buena…just as I know Steenie will defend Europe right up until closing time at the pub.

I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Dan Prescher
Publisher, International Living

Editor’s note:Your February issue of International Living is out now. If you are not already a subscriber, you can gain instant access to the new issue by signing up now.