Expat Community > Colombia

fecherklyn
Joined 2015
Posts: 1459

Who are the Colombian Expats?

7 months ago

WHO ARE THE EXPATS RESIDING IN COLOMBIA?

This question came to my mind after spending the last few days with my adult children and those of my closest friends in Colombia. It was very eventful because we do not meet very often as these ¨kids¨ (to us) have all chosen to live outside their childhood upbringings, including the UK, Spain, Germany and the USA and our discussions bore heavily on ¨where was the best place to live¨.

Overall conclusion of the kids…. ANY WHERE BUT COLOMBIA.

This, of course, led me to wonder why so many foreigners envisage expatriation to Colombia- whereas those who were born and educated here are frequently anxious to live elsewhere.

By the way, these are not ¨kids¨ in pampas, they are all in the late thirties, or forties, married and have children of their own, and have secured good professional employment in their new homelands.

This situation also reminded me of one of my chief criticisms of this, and most forums – most forum subjects dwell on ¨generalizations¨, without consideration of the many factors that differentiate us. In this context, issues like ¨keeping the door open for a quick exit¨ and ¨if you are intelligent, stay under the radar¨ come immediately mind, but there are many others also.

Back to what the ¨kids¨ thought:

Contrary to this forum´s ¨findings¨, these ¨kids¨ unanimously found Colombia had become expensive in comparison to where they now live concerning food, decent restaurants, clothing, leisure pursuits, outings/entertainments and local transportation. Corruption, Pollution and other features were also mentioned, but these were admittedly recognized as Mondiale, Of course, these findings relate mainly to European , but I doubt Florida and California would be so different?

And, yes, I must not generalize, if I abide by my own reasoning, none of these ¨kids¨ were down and outs living between end months pay-packets.

A last observation; all of these ¨kids¨ are now ¨settled¨ in their new homelands. By this I mean, they have ¨adopted¨ their new lives and function accordingly. They, especially the women, create their homes in a manner to enjoy them, rather than living in rented accommodation amidst furnishings not of their choice. They act as citizens of their country of residence and not only respect the local laws, but also try to participate in its optimum sustainment. This is not intended to belittle those forum members who choose a more transitory residence in Colombia, or anywhere else, it simple tries to point out we are all a bit different and differences of opinion are healthy, not something to find fault in.

So, what do you think? Is Colombia so wonderful?

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