Top Countries for Raising Children Abroad in 2012

The Expat Explorer 2012 survey results are out. This year 5399 expats were questioned from 97 countries of the world. You can download the full report here.

To discover which country is the best to raise your child in the survey looked at these 3 main factors:

1. Childcare (safety of children, standard of education, quality of childcare and overall cost of raising children)
2. Health and wellbeing (spending time outdoors, spending time with parents, playing sports, playing video games, watching TV, children eat less junk food now)
3. Integration (settled in quicker than parents, enjoying their lives, are learning new languages, missing home and friends, social integration)

Scores from each factor are weighted to arrive at an overall Raising Children Abroad score and overall rank. The weighting applied is as follows: childcare - 33,3%, Health & wellbeing - 33,3% and Integration 33,3%.

Now here are the top countries for raising children abroad according to this survey: 

1. Canada
2. The Netherlands
3. Hong Kong
4. Australia
5. United Arab Emirates
6. USA
7. Saudia Arabia
8. United Kingdom
9. Kuwait

Apparently Hong Kong is the safest place to raise a child. 91% Of the expat parents in Hong Kong said that the safety of their children had improved after relocation.

Australia and Canada are on the top of the list for active expat families. Not only were the children more active in sports in these 2 countries but even some of the parents became more active in sports.

The Middle East provides a more challenging climate for expat families. Social integration is one of the areas were expat parents reported that their children had most difficulty. The expat children in the Middle East spent more time watching TV and playing video games. 

If you want to compare the results with last years outcome, check my post on The Top 10 Countries for Raising Children Abroad in 2011. Of course I am proud that the Netherlands is still at the top of the list on second place. I am a little surprised that France was in first place last year but that it does not feature in the top 9 countries this year. I wonder why.

What are your experiences with raising kids abroad? Do they match the results of this survey? Do you have tips for other parents? Please share it with us. Thanks.

Related Posts:

• My 10 advantages of growing up in another culture 
• My 10 disadvantages of growing up in another culture
• Cultural identity confusion and third culture kids
• Third culture kid speaking "I'm not from anywhere"
• Best country for kids: Canada Huffington Post
• Canada the best country to raise your kids: on She Knows website

Potato wisdom for raising kids abroad

It's good to start at something with some kind of idea what the end result will be. You should have a picture in mind. A vision. A dream. When I planted potatoes in our garden in the Netherlands I hoped the result would be that we would eat home grown potatoes. Just the idea of it filled me with pride. I could see our family around our table eating something I had produced. Then again it was the first time I was planting potatoes so I just never quite know whether it would be successful. I went to a garden centre to buy the potatoes. Luckily they did have several brands to choose from. There was my first challenge: which brand should I pick? Let me be wise and ask for help. The shop assistant politely let me know that he had no knowledge of potatoes and potato brands. That in itself is not a great problem had he been able to refer me to someone who could have given me advice. There I was all alone with my unanswered question. I checked the internet on my cell phone hoping to find the answer, it took lots of time and in the end I still didn't know what to do. So I took a lucky guess and choose one of the brands.

My potato plants copyright DrieCulturen

It's a little like raising kids abroad. Most of us do it for the first time in our lives. We have a picture of the end result. We want to raise strong, independent, healthy, multicultural, mature adults. The only thing is you are never quite sure what the end result will be like. Will we be successful?

What could we do to help ourselves when preparing to raise kids abroad?

1. Ask a professional and hope they know about third culture kids and can give good advice or that they can refer you to someone who can help you.
2. Check the internet on information about third culture kids and about moving internationally with kids. There's a recent article in the Telegraph by Helen Maffini: Top tips for emigrating with children. Another helpful article is Top 10 ways to cope with any transition by Julia Simens. Libby Stephens has a list of third culture kid resources that are worth checking. Here's my list of websites and blogs that are worth having a look st.
3. Read some good books on the topic.
4. Keep the image of your end result in mind. Don't let go of that dream.

Here's my harvest. Just to let you know: we did eat potatoes and it felt so good! I want to cherish moments like this. It makes life exciting. It was worth starting on this new adventure. Do you have advice for parents preparing to raise kids abroad?

Related posts:

• Third culture kids where are your roots? It's about a potato Ochoa searching for his roots.
• Meet Sammy the snail, a third culture kid
• Language links for parents raising multilingual children

The palettes of the global nomad, all about food

Fried flying ants: photo thanks to L.Lagore

As I wrote in the post Global nomads on the move recently 3 films have be made called: Move, Eat, and Learn. Today my topic will be on eating. Global nomads have taste buds that are used to the tastes of the world. There are so many different dishes, so many different tastes, and so many different foods. Just to discover them all is an adventure. The short film at the end captures this adventure well. Tastes and smells bring back memories of my childhood in Africa.

Words I associate with the word "EAT":

• Enjoy
• Appetite
• Tasty

One of my favourite desserts is pavlova, a meringue based dessert named after the Russian ballet dancer Anna Pavlova. I first ate this dessert in Zimbabwe probably at a potluck meal. A potluck meal is meal where everyone just brings something along to share with all. It is so much fun, a great surprise what will be on the menu, and a good way of tasting different dishes. Originally the pavlova is from New Zealand or Australia. I found a recipe for you. You can decorate it with the fruit of choice. By the way potluck meals are great in international communities because everyone can share their home country food.

The blog Persimmons and Chesnuts is written by an adult third culture kid who lived Japan as a child. The writer has developed a passionate love affair with food and especially Asian food. The blog has a post called The palettes of TCKs: chicken wings, it is worth reading. There are more recipes on the blog.

Once I was in Indonesia and I had the privilege of tasting klappertaart, an Indonesian-Dutch dessert, delicious! I wrote a post on eten in het buitenland (a Dutch post on food overseas) before. One of the strangest things I ever ate were fried flying ants, they are really crunchy! Here's the recipe. I found  somebody else who ate them too and wrote a post on eating flying ants. I must admit that I recently refused to eat fried scorpions (China), the thought of eating a scorpion was just too terrible. There was no way it was going to find it's way down my gut!

My roots are Dutch and seeing as I live in the Netherlands I suppose I must make mention of Dutch food. Well on the blog Clogs and Tulips you can find more information on stroopwafels, boerenkool, patat and other foods. What are your eating adventures? Have you eaten strange foods? Do you have "food" memories? Please share them with us.

 Click here for the film EAT. Enjoy!

My heritage of growing up overseas. Part 1: Respect for malaria

Sometimes things happen in your life that leave a lasting impression on you. When I was a teenager in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe I attended a funeral of a mother of friends of mine. I was probably about 15 years old at the time. The mother of this Swedish family of four children died of malaria in Zimbabwe. It was such a sad occasion. There were tears everywhere. Maybe it remains imprinted in my memory because I come from a family of four kids too. Maybe I thought it could have happened to me too. The children did not only lose their mother, they returned back to Sweden and had to say goodbye to all their friends. They left their home, their school, their playmates and their memories in Africa. So tragic. The worst part of it all is that malaria is and was at that time a curable disease. Since then I have a deep respect for malaria. I did some research on malaria and my respect only increased. Recently Wordgeyser wrote a post preparing for the worst: the death of a spouse overseas. You know these things do happen. This is a real world we live in. So here comes more about my heritage: the deep respect for malaria.

Malaria is caused by a parasite of the genius plasmodium. It is spread from person to person by the bites of infected mosquitoes.

Here are 10 facts about malaria:

1. About 3.3 billion people - half of the world's population - are at risk of malaria.
2. It leads to approximately 1 million deaths every year.
3. 1 in every 5 childhood deaths in Africa is due to malaria.
4. Every 30 seconds a child dies from malaria in Africa. So while you were reading this list another child just died in Africa due to malaria.
5. Early diagnosis and prompt treatment are two basic elements of malaria control.
6. If not treated with effective medicines malaria can often be fatal.
7. Pregnant women are at high risk not only of dying from the complications of severe malaria, but also spontaneous abortion, premature delivery or stillbirth. 
8. Malaria is also a cause of severe maternal anaemia and is responsible for about one third of preventable low birth weight babies.  
9. Long-lasting insecticidal nets can be used to provide protection to risk groups, especially young children and pregnant women in high transmission areas.
10. Malaria is preventable and curable.

This is information from the World Health Organisation (WHO). There is a list available famous people who died of malaria. At the expat Info desk I discovered that they recently warned expats that malaria is on the rise. The advice is the same for all travelers - you must take anti-mosquito precautions and medication to keep safe. We in the west have everything so well organized and I think we forget the force of nature, and the suddenness of disease and death. Here are the malaria symptoms and more information about diagnosis. Recently two Dutch tourists died of malaria which they caught in Gambia. They did not take anti-malaria medication. Here is an article by the BBC Malaria: a major global killer.

Please join the "have respect for malaria club". What is your experience with malaria? Do you have advice for others on this subject. Please share your experience or your advice with us.

Twitter update week 31: news on third culture kids (TCKs)

Resource for multicultural parents & kids Bringing Up Children Bilingually: http://bit.ly/qTN53e

The story of a Third Culture kid (TCK) feeling foreign when she is not a racial minority "a stranger in my own skin"  http://t.co/XNYK7yO

All about Third Culture Kids (TCKs) starting careers http://t.co/ui8v2es 

Jo Parfitt interviewed Helen Maffini, author of  the children's storybook Sammy’s Next Move (written by an adult TCK for TCKs): http://bit.ly/rb6jxC

Building resilience in children&teens: Giving your children Roots and Wings! http://t.co/kyk3CpS 

Thandie Newton: Embracing otherness, embracing myself, a Video TED.com http://t.co/NvH1Wey

Have you found your story? Inspiration from the stage to the page http://t.co/gCICwv4 hear all about food: the Food Inspirer!

Jonathan Griffiths and Marion Knell discuss re-entry as it affects the entire family. http://bit.ly/pNoH6e

The End of Expatriate Life Leads to Re-Entry Shock http://ow.ly/4xaf1

Andrea Expat July Feature: Emotional Resilience & the expat child http://bit.ly/nO8OaY

Calling all Expats/Repats - here's a fun way to define "where's home?" Families in Global Transition are producing a cookbook http://www.figt.org 

10 ways to cope with any transition by Julia Simens: http://t.co/QfcSCLG 

Je puber veilig laten opgroeien in het buitenland http://t.co/Avg4Krp artikel van RNW

Interesting worldwide third culture kid (TCK) news

Recently I have been having quite a struggle deciding whether this blog should be in Dutch or in English. Originally I wanted to write it in Dutch, so that is how I started, sprinkling some occasional English phrases into it. The problem is that the goggle translation does not work from Dutch to English because there are some English words in the text so the machine says it is already in English. Maybe this is the kind of struggle I have had in my life. Some kind of language struggle. In Dutch I struggle with the "d"s and "t"s. If a book was originally written in the English language I really want to read the original English version and I struggle with the translated Dutch version. Well I think I will just treat you on an English post today and we will see what the future will hold. I am not sure that one is allowed to mix languages on a blog, but that is the problem with third culture kids (TCKs), we do not fit in the box and we do not always do things the way the should be done. Who's fault is that? Can I blame it on my parents? In this day and age we always want to blame someone....

I will share some interesting links, blogs and twitters I came across this week. Be informed and have fun!

• Did you know that Colin Firth, the actor in King's Speech is a third culture kid (TCK)? Read Cami's post I'm in love with Colin Firth on Libby Stephen's website, Cami's post is worth reading.
• Culture shock described by an American coming to the Netherlands: Insego community
• New blog post: 10 ways to lead by example as parents, written by Julia Simens author of the book Emotional-Resilience and the Expat Child. 
• The youngst third culture kid (TCK) that I have found who writes her own blog is Eliana, she is 11 years old and lives in Miami, Florida. She has lived in many places including St.Petersburg, Russia and Buenos Aires, Argentina. 
• A blog post about third culture kids (TCKs) on Nekky her blog Reflexions, Nekky is a Nigerian girl living with her husband and children in Germany. 
• The top 10 most spoken languages of the world 

  
Twitter updates:

• RT @RebeccaGrappo Expat Radio interview w/ me on challenges of educating #TCKs overseas & finding the right school http://t.co/zJt6Dty
• @globalcoach TCK interviewed by Expats Radio on calamities of moving around http://dld.bz/abdCT #expatriate #expat #tcks #tckids
• RT @InterNationsorg Back to the roots can be difficult for #expats: http://t.co/H09EPcv Trouble readjusting? Share it at http://t.co/kjMkwf5 
• RT @Thandelike what #relocation means for this Third Culture Kid: "Lost in Transition" http://t.co/8EQCWBD #expat #TCKs   
• RT@3rdculturechild "Moving is the 3rd most stressful life event". Really? Wouldn't have guessed that in a million moves! http://t.co/jNTMrLV
• Are you a Third Culture Kid? Help @denizenmag learn more about modern #TCKs by taking our survey: http://t.co/1Hvs2NJ did it!