India slipped from 10th position in 2017 to 12th in 2018 in HSBC’s survey, but there has been a big improvement in expats’ experience of the country.
New Delhi: India continues to be one of the most preferred destination for expatriates, even though its overall ranking has slipped in the Expat Explorer Survey 2018 conducted by HSBC.
India has fallen from 10th to 12th position in the overall rankings this year, but it continues to be a preferred destination compared to developed countries such as Russia (20), UK (22), the US (23), China (27) and even Japan (30).
The overall ranking is divided into three sub-categories — economic, family and experience — each of which have their own rankings. While India has fallen one spot in the family rankings to 9th in 2018, it has climbed one step in the economic rankings (15th to 14th).
It’s the experience rankings that India continues to do well at, jumping seven positions from 36th to 29th last year, and another seven to 22nd this year.
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Expats have listed New Zealand, Spain and Taiwan as their favourite countries based on their experiences of living there, while the likes of the US (28), UK (29), Brazil (30) and China (31) are right at the bottom of the list.
The survey was conducted among 22,000 expatriates in 31 countries, of which 232 were interviewed in India.
The Indian experience
The survey ranks the experiences of the expats on nine key questions — three questions each about lifestyle (quality of life, culture and health), people (friendliness, integration and safety) and setting up (finance, health and property).
India scores high on culture, integration and making friends, but lags behind on the aspects of safety, healthcare and finance.
Economic positives
According to the survey, expats’ salaries increase by just 2 per cent when they move to India, way lower than the global average of 25 per cent. However, the lower cost of living does act as a cushion, leaving more disposable income than they would have in their home countries.
India has one of the worst work/life balances in the world. Around 41 per cent of expats complain of long working hours in India, which are double the global average.
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However, what India scores well on is entrepreneurship, job security, career progression and economic confidence.
Happy families
This is the only parameter in the survey where India has seen a marginal dip, but it is significant, considering that around 51 per cent of expats in India have children.
Children integrate easily, partners get closer and the social life is even better than that of the number one ‘family’ destination for expats — Sweden.
However, India doesn’t perform well on providing the expats better healthcare, quality of life and schools. India also fares poorly on the overall cost of raising children.