What to make of this first round ? French expatriates living in Malaysia have voted in strong numbers for Mr. Sarkozy. The trend is stronger here than elsewhere as 38% of French expat worldwide voted for him, while Mr. Holland’s numbers in Malaysia were in line with the ones worldwide: 28%. On a more personal note, I was happy to discover that Mr. Bayrou, who got my vote, came in third with 23% of the votes. Both Le Pen and Melanchon, who are equally destructive and intolerant in my books, were only credited with 5% of the votes. It was also a good surprise to see the total participation in Malaysia emarging at 50%, well above the average for French expats worldwide which is reported at 40%.

Round two of the elections is in two weeks’ time.

Unsurprisingly, many organizations are focusing on reducing the cost of their international assignment programs. What is more surprising, to me at least, is that more than 60% of organizations still pay their global talents in accordance with compensation levels in their home countries. I thought this percentage would be much lower, believing that While big organizations like Oil & Gas or IT do usually keep compensating expats generously, many smaller ones switched to local based contracts in recent years.

Maybe it is a trend that is South East Asia specific. Or it could be that this 60% figure is influenced by the fact that survey respondents usually are from these big organizations. It could also be because when one of those expatriates enjoying a juicy packages wishes to stay in the country he is posted in, he usually has to switch to a local contract – switching from the international HR department (the one answering these questionnaires) to the local one (not answering) in the process.

Anyhow, this report is a very interesting read for all, especially if you are a HR specialists, or an expats who is looking to better negotiate your next package

Expatistan is a neat little crowd-sourcing website that helps you compare cost of living in different cities around the world based. Once you’ve entered the two cities you want to compare, Expatistan gives an overall picture of how much more (or less) you will be spending in your city of choice. You can also granulate your results to compare Food, Housing, Clothes, Transportation, Health and Entertainment costs.

A few comparison ?

• Cost of living in KL is 44% less expensive than in Singapore
• Cost of living in KL is 6% more expensive than in Bangkok (Thailand)
• Cost of living in KL is 10% cheaper than in Manila (Philippines)
• Cost of living in KL is about the same as in Shanghai (China)
• Cost of living in KL is 11% more expensive than in Jakarta (Indonesia)

Most of those results sound about right to me – except maybe the comparison with Shanghai. Still, I’d recommend checking local websites and asking locals before confirming a move.

While expatistan gives you a great first tool to use to compare cities cost of living, it is not yet granular enough to compare different lifestyles. For example, I know of some expats who consider themselves living grand on RM5,000 a month in KL, while others go through RM30.000 like there’s no tomorrow.

Still, a great tool to kick start your move preparations, and a must have bookmark for all expats / world citizens.

The report shows that the US, Thailand and South Africa are the expat locations which suffered most from the crisis so far. To the point that almost half of the expats surveyed in the US are considering returning home. Financially, Asia remains very attractive, with around 25% of expatriates earning more than 200K USD per year.

Overall, and despite the economic crisis, expats are wealthier and save more than in their home country. They also are more sophisticated investors – not a surprise – with 46% investing in shares, 53% doing so in property, while 42% using managed funds.

All in all, a good read, and an interesting lifeline on the expat situation worldwide. I just have a nagging impression that it does not represent the different type of expatriates out there. Seeing the results, I guess most expatriates interviewed were of the Executive type, who are posted internationally by their MNC. By experience, expatriation is very diverse and more and more expats* are not in this situation.

* To me, an expat is a person who is voluntarily absent from home or country

If you wish to read more – and you should if you are Australian, or are just curious about the Medicare Australia ! – you can check it here: Insurance for Australian expats