If you talk to two Jakarta expats about how they like living in the Indonesian capital, you’re likely to get two very different answers. One may say they love the city’s vibrant energy, exciting nightlife, delicious food and friendly people, while the other may gripe about the endless traffic, choking pollution, frustrating inefficiency and lack of non-mall related leisure activities.
But in aggregate, expats tend to see Jakarta and Indonesia as a whole in a less favorable light than most of the other cities and countries that foreign workers flock to. That’s according to the latest Expat Insider report from global expat network Internations, which is based on an annual survey taken by more than 12,500 respondents representing 166 nationalities in 188 countries.
To come up with their list of the Best and Worst Cities for Expats in 2017, the report ranks 51 cities (only cities with a sample of at least 45 survey takers were included) based on how respondents rated their adopted homes in terms of 25 different aspects of urban life abroad including quality of life, ease of getting settled in, work-life balance and financial consideration.
Out of the 51 cities ranked, Jakarta came in pretty far down the list at #39. However, you’ll probably be quite surprised by some of the cities that came in beneath the Big Durian, such as #43 Milan, #44 Sydney and, amazingly coming in 3rd from the bottom at #49, Paris (apparently the stereotype about the French not liking foreigners is true, at least according to the Parisian expats that took the survey).
Nearby Kuala Lumpur made it near the top of the cities list at #4, beaten out only by #3 Madrid, #2 Prague and, surprisingly, the Bahraini capital of Manama at #1.
Out of the 65 countries that Internations ranked as the Top Expat Destinations of 2017, Indonesia also came in quite low on the list at #53, although we just beat out #54 Britain as well as Italy (#60). At the bottom of the rankings was #65 Greece (for obvious economic reasons).
In terms of the survey’s individual metrics, Indonesia scored well in cost of living (#18), ease of language (#16), friendliness (#16), ease of settling in (#18), finding friends (#20) and personal happiness (#22). It scored particularly poorly in health & well-being (#61), travel & transport (#60) safety and security (#52) and job security (#49).
Overall, it’s quite a downturn from Internations’ 2014 survey in which Indonesia was ranked in the top 20 in terms of most desirable destinations and 8th in terms of personal happiness. That might reflect a number of protectionist government policies towards foreign workers that have made it harder for Indonesian companies to hire and retain expats.
Do you think expats have it tough in Indonesia and do you agree with the survey’s ranking? Let us know in the comments below.
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