Friday March 29th, 2024
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Egypt: Worst Place for Expats?

A study by HSBC ranks Egypt the worst place to be an expatriate. However, given their criteria and the countries surveyed, we're not so convinced.

Staff Writer

There is a study circulating on the interweb that is claiming that Egypt is the worst country for expatriates to live in. The study was performed by HSBC, a British bank, and we were made wise of it by The Washington Post.

Before any expats out there start packing their bags, keep in mind that this study was performed by a bank and, for some unfortunate reason, is being spread around even though the results seem to be bullshit.The criteria they used to make the list involves economic opportunities and quality of life for expats in 34 countries. Somehow, this study concluded that China and Thailand are at the top, while Egypt is the absolute last. That’s pretty much a slap to the face of Egypt, considering there a more than 34 countries in the world and the fact 34 seems like a stupid number to end a list on.

The positive to take away from this list is that, while we rank the lowest, we’re not that far off from the likes of England, Spain, and France. At least we are in good company, though we’re still unclear why only 34 countries were ranked. Maybe those are the only locations they have an HSBC bank.

Even more disturbing, however, is that they failed to actually use criteria that really matter. If we are talking about the quality of life, don't you think that security, as well as the cleanliness of air, water, and food are important factors? Granted, Egypt isn't topping the list when it comes to those additional factors, but wouldn't these factors bring China down a notch or two? Just ask an expat in China how much they love smog.

Upon further investigation of this map, one starts getting the feeling that HSBC created a whole study, just to convince employees to move to China, especially since China is destined to be the biggest super-power and could use more HSBC banks to hold all the money America owes them.

The truth is that expats have it better here than a majority of Egyptians. Just looking foreign is likely to make you double the wage. Of course we are dealing with plenty of political and economical issues, but at the end of the day there are still plenty of expats here, and they seem to be doing just fine. So if someone tells you that they hear Egypt is the worst for expats, then remind them that HSBC is the worst for banking and by far the worst at performing studies.