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LONDON - Karla Keating and her husband had retirement on their minds in May when they got what they considered an offer too good to refuse: a three-year stint in London. Coming from North Carolina, they knew it was going to be a bit of a financial leap. But the major US bank where her husband is an executive lured him with a 33 percent increase in pay. Within weeks, they had crossed the ocean and found a nice flat near Marylebone for 1,820 pounds - about $3,750. "The estate agent told me the price, and I said OK, I...

The papers today ask why 400,000 left the Uk last year to live and work somewhere else. I would have thought the answer was obvious. They’ve had enough. We live in a country where anyone who has gained some qualifications, who tries to pay their own way and to live a decent life feels targetted by this government. We have our identity assaulted, our democratic views ignored, our pockets and purses rifled by the state, our opinions criticised or banned and the public services we do wish to use run incompetently or rationed for us.

Foreigners are slowly making a small coastal village in this town their second home. These days, it will not be a surprise to find nationals from Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, England, Belgium, Switzerland, Italy, Hungary, Holland, Korea, China, New Zealand, Australia, Japan, Singapore, Canada and the United States living or vacationing in Dancalan, according to 50-year-old Chris Bech, a Norwegian married to a Filipina. A former exporter of Philippine furniture, Chris and his young wife Maria Teresa “Tess” Fajilan Bech bought and developed a beachfront property in Dancalan and built residential buildings that they sell or lease to foreigners. Tess,...

If you were to live outside of the US, what country would you pick to be an ex-pat in? Why?

PARIS: She is a former U.S. Marine, a native Californian and, now, a former American who prefers to remain discreet about abandoning her citizenship. After 10 years of warily considering options, she turned in her U.S. passport last month without ceremony, becoming an alien in the view of her homeland. "It's a really hard thing to do," said the woman, a 16-year resident of Geneva who had tired of the cost and time of filing yearly U.S. tax returns on top of her Swiss taxes. "I just kept putting this off. But it's my kids and the estate tax. I...

Washington, D.C., November 29, 2003 It is not so easy to know when you’re deluding yourself and when you are finally seeing the light. When I look back at my reasons for leaving the United States for France in 1972, some seem to me as outmoded—and, in retrospect, as endearing—as Beatles haircuts and Vietnam-war protests. Others stubbornly persist. In any event, my career as a serious American novelist having been short-circuited, I opted for the improbable exploit of becoming a writer in French and a professional translator, and I succeeded. I am long settled in Paris; the three youngsters I...

Toronto-- Long harboured Canadian resentment of Canada being annexed by the United States took a 90-degree angle on July 1 with Frank McKenna, Canada’s Ambassador to the United States, turning the tables. McKenna says he will organize the more than 1 million Canadians in the United States to lecture Americans. McKenna, who’s already sent messages to 6,000 expatriates, intends to get in touch with 100,000 of them by week’s end. The rookie ambassador is pressing the "Canadian diaspora" to arm themselves with facts, to debate Americans and to get out and lobby when Washington makes decisions that can hurt Canadians,...

New Delhi: In a decision of far-reaching significance for Indians settled abroad, the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) today redeemed its pledge to confer dual citizenship on them. A meeting of the Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, also decided to issue 'smart cards' to registered Overseas Citizens of India, Finance Minister P Chidambaram told media persons. The cabinet gave its approval for amendment of relevant acts to provide for giving benefit to all people of India origin, and their children and grandchildren, who migrated from India to countries other than Pakistan and Bangladesh after January 26, 1950...

MEXICO CITY - (KRT) - The day after the U.S. presidential election, Jim and Joan Marker left for a scheduled vacation in San Miguel de Allende, central Mexico. Now they've decided they'd like to live there permanently. The Alabama couple are among the many United States citizens who have been going south, for adventure or a new life. The decades-long trend has gathered steam in recent years, statistics show, and Mexico is undergoing a sustained Americanization, with Americans buying more property, seeking permanent residency and congregating in enclaves that seem like home abroad. The U.S. State Department estimates that the...

The purpose of FreeRepublic.com's multiple message boards is to limit the topics for each board to particular topics. Posting the same message on all the boards defeats the purpose of multiple-boards for special topics. It is very annoying to see the same message on every bulletin board. PLEASE! DO THE READERS A FAVOR. STOP CROSS-POSTING YOUR MESSAGES!

Selected exerpts. Professor Fahmy says the people of Iraq are suffering after 35 years of brutal dictatorship. He says the interim government should work to address the pain of the Iraqi people by promoting the establishment of a multi-party system that does not include, what he calls, the 'expatriates' currently in power. He says the government must provide job opportunities for the impoverished people of Iraq. And, he says the interim government must learn to listen to the views of all Iraqis, even those who have engaged in acts of resistance. But, Baghdad University professor of international studies Abjed Abah...

Israel, the ultimate swing state? In Election 2004, true battlegrounds may be across the seaBy RANDALL RICHARD AP National Writer NEW YORK (AP) -- When decision time comes this fall, the real swing votes in the 2004 presidential election may not come from Pennsylvania, Ohio or even the notorious Florida. The ultimate Bush-Kerry battleground may turn out to be somewhere more far-flung and unexpected -- Israel, Britain, even Indonesia. And both political camps say they are getting ready for the fight, courting American voters who are living overseas and taking no chances that the expatriate vote will undermine them at...

Saudis agree they need help to combat terrorists and calm expatriates By Robin Gedye in Jeddah (Filed: 28/06/2004) Saudi Arabia has agreed to improve security and to accept help from foreign troops in checkpoint controls after an unprecedented meeting between alarmed expatriates, western ambassadors and the Saudi foreign minister. The four-hour meeting, originally suggested by British Ambassador Sherard Cowper-Cole, assembled 40 expatriate employees and the ambassadors of the G8 countries plus 11 other nations in an ornate conference hall overlooking the Red Sea in the hope of stemming the flow of foreign workers fleeing attacks by extreme Islamists. James Oberwetter,...

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - Saudi Arabia's foreign minister told Western ambassadors Sunday that the government would do its utmost to protect expatriates working in the kingdom. The ambassadors had requested the meeting with Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal to discuss what security measures the government should take to increase protection for their citizens following recent violent attacks targeting Westerners. "I affirmed to all that foreigners will be treated according to our traditions, as honored guests," al-Faisal said after the meeting. "We will shoulder our responsibilities in order to ensure their safety and security no less than the security and safety of...

BERLIN (Reuters) - Often caught in the firing line when foreigners vent their anger at George W. Bush, many American expatriates are flocking to Democratic primaries abroad and pinning hopes on a John Kerry (news - web sites) election victory in November. U.S. expatriate voters number more than six million worldwide, but they have long been a nebulous and somewhat neglected bloc whose absentee ballots end up scattered, with limited impact, across 50 states. But three years of Bush's foreign policies have rattled their adopted countries and shaken into action many expatriates weary of hostile questions on Iraq (news -...

Albinos Of The World Unite! You Have Nothing To Lose But Your Brains Wednesday, February 11, 2004 Being as I am an aspiring dead white male, I believe I could weary of hearing harsh words about what guttersnipes we are, and sludge, and sharpers, and impediments to civilization, and rapists and slave drivers and Marines: yes, and just no damned good. For one thing, I think we are a splendid lot. For another, I notice that most of the yapping comes from life’s camp-followers—from those who didn’t and can’t and aren’t likely to. Yet they seem perfectly willing to live...

Mail arrives, telling me that by going to Mexico I have sold out, fled, abandoned the United States. I’m a coward, some of my correspondents say, and a traitor, just like Lord Haw Haw, Kim Philby, Jane Fonda. I’m probably a devotee of Quisling. (Actually I’ve never quizzled in my life.) (OK, OK, I’m sorry.) Anyway, they’re upset, which is irrational. They think that just because I went to Mexico, I left the US. They don’t understand. I didn’t leave the United States. It left me. It was a bait-and-switch operation. I signed on to one country, and they slipped...

Attacks increase pressure on fragile ties between US and Saudi Arabia By Rupert Cornwell in Washington 14 May 2003 The suicide bombings in Riyadh, in which at least seven Americans died, were putting even more pressure on relations between the US and Saudi Arabia yesterday. Links were already bedevilled by claims that the world's pivotal oil producer was one of the prime breeding grounds of Islamic terrorism. The attacks come at an especially delicate moment. The American occupying army is struggling to impose order in Iraq and Washington is preparing to withdraw the bulk of its military forces stationed in...

Of course we've all been reading about the horrific bombing in Riyadh today. I've been following the coverage and, not surprisingly foreigners are leaving Saudi Arabia in large numbers. ( see this article ) Al-Qaida has been planning this for a while, and have sufficient resources prepared that the loss of a major weapons and explosive cache did not stop it (whether it put them in a use it or lose it situation is an open question). This article shows Al-Qaida bragging about attacks they are planning, which would seem to include this one, and noting that the first attack...

<p>The Al Qaeda-linked network that carried out the October 12 nightclub bombings on Indonesia's resort island of Bali is planning to strike international schools in Jakarta, Indonesia, The New York Times reported on Monday, citing Western and Indonesian officials.</p> <p>The plan to attack Western students at the schools was uncovered in the last few days, and officials said the schools would be closed until at least Wednesday, the Times said in its online edition.</p>

Last expatriates flee Pakistan as foreigners become direct target By Peter Popham in Islamabad 16 June 2002 As Pakistani and American investigators trawled through the gory debris of Friday's bomb attack outside the US Consulate in Karachi, which killed at least 10 and injured 43, the last foreigners left in Pakistan were planning their getaways. No expatriates died in Friday's massive blast, but it was the fourth attack directed at foreigners or foreign property in Pakistan since January. The first was the kidnapping and murder of the Wall Street Journal reporter, Daniel Pearl, followed by an attack on a Protestant...