Two of the most popular expat destinations are ranked as the worst places to live and working a new survey.
Saudi Arabia and Kuwait hit rock bottom of the list of 61 countries – taking the bottom two places.
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According to government statistics, around 33% of the Saudi population of 30 million are expats, while the figure for Kuwait is around 55% of the 1.8 million population.
Expats voted down both countries, with Saudi Arabia coming bottom in the ‘leisure activities’ category of the survey, with 54% of expats expressing dissatisfaction in leisure opportunities in the country.
Meanwhile 95% of expats said they did not feel at home in Kuwait and 93% complained they had problems making friends with Kuwaitis.
You know the worst now find out what the best Top 10 Middle East Countries are.
Surprise packages
Greece took the third bottom placing, mainly due to poor job security following the country’s economic woes and European Union bail-out.
The winners are surprise packages.
Ecuador came out on top of the survey, published by expat group Internations and based on a poll of thousands of expats worldwide.
The small South American nation headed the financial happiness category and 82% of expats said they found settling in their new home easy and that the locals made them feel welcome.
One drawback is 37% of expats had problems communicating if they did not speak Spanish; however another 30% said they found learning the language quite easy.
More than nine out of 10 expats confessed they were happy living in Ecuador, while 42% said they had no plans to return home or move to another country.
Top place
Ecuador is especially popular as a retirement destination with expats from the United States.
Luxembourg took second place in the vote.
The tiny European duchy scored highly on career expats who are high-earners in banking and financial services.
Around two-thirds of expats in Luxembourg were there for work reasons.
Nearly a third expressed willingness to stay for the long-term, but a fifth was on posting of between a year and three years.
Although high in the job stakes, Luxembourg lost out in vote for personal happiness, with just 11% saying they were happy living in the duchy.
Third place went to Mexico. More than 90% of expats were happy with their life in the country, while 44% expressed no desire to move.
Mexico ranks high with romantics – with 20% going to the country to move in with a partner.
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