Share
Attraction of the Phils to Westerners
ReportQuestion
Please briefly explain why you feel this question should be reported.
Why do most Western people love to move to Asian countries such as Thailand, Indonesia, Japan, and the Philippines, rather than to African countries, even though Africa is cheaper than Asia?
Answers ( 2 )
Please briefly explain why you feel this answer should be reported.
I feel qualified to answer as I spent some ten years in Asia and now going to my 8th happy year in South Eastern Africa. Asia is considerably smoother and easier to live in. Thailand in particular is a breeze. You expect things to be fairly consistent and the exception is to have to deal with some inconvenience. Things seem to work. In the parts of Africa I lived in you need to put up with lack of electricity at times, roads aren't so good, some time the internet is crap, airports aren't so smooth, and so forth. Things have been definitely improving and normally every year it gets a bit better although sometimes you have a bad year and things are worse than the year before which was a completely alien thing to me after being in Asia where every single year you move forward. Don't get me wrong: you can live really well in Africa if you develop the ability to not let things get to you, which we should all try to develop anyway, but while I feel most people would be easily able to settle in South East Asia the same is not true in Africa. It's rougher. I personally really like the parts of Africa I hang out in and could live here a few more years. People is absolutely great, the nature at times is overwhelmingly beautiful (rains just started here and Emerald Season is covering everything with this glowing, magical green) and there are plenty of opportunities. Another aspect to consider, specially for older folks, is healthcare. Thailand is famous for its world class hospitals whereas in Africa if you need something more serious done you better fly to Johannesburg just in case. So, to summarize: Africa is not as smooth but can be a lot of fun too. I expect more and more people to settle here, which will be great for Africa. People need to lose their preconceived ideas about this magical place.
Please briefly explain why you feel this answer should be reported.
I agree with the points made by Henrique Valle in his excellent answer, so will not add further to them. One of the biggest issues however for many expats is the whole challenge of getting a visa. It’s perfectly possible to get a work visa for most African countries, which allows you to stay in the country for a relatively short period of time – often up to 90 days, but often shorter, and this this might not be applicable to everyone. The application process is often highly bureaucratic and difficult. In many Asian countries, there are a range of options to stay longer. Many of those who move to Asia are retirees, who take advantage of the various retirement visas for those over the age of 50, who can show a certain level of savings – in the case of Thailand, around US$ 26.000. There are visas for those who want to learn Thai, or even Muay Thai boxing, where students can extend for several years. You can get visas for volunteer work, for being married to a Thai and can even literally buy a long-term visa via the Thailand Thailand Elite Visa Official | Be a friend of Thailand be an Elite member. If you want a business visa, it’s relatively easy in Cambodia for example and Vietnam has for years had a very accepting policy towards foreign businesses. In the past, there were many options to get visas in Asia if you invested money in a condominium, or a business. For the record, I’m not saying that it’s always easy to get a visa in Asia and Westerners who come here expecting to be able to stay for an unlimited period of time simply because of their nationality will quickly find out that it’s not the case. However, it’s significantly easier than in Africa and there are a lot of support service organisations and websites to help people do so. Finally, this answer is written based on the situation prior to the pandemic and is meant to explain why historically there have been more long-term foreign immigrants in Asia, compared with Africa. At present, most Asian countries have been highly effective at combatting the spread of covid, and have closed their borders to all but a very few.