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By Our Staff Reporter
Kenya was ranked among
the top 10 most dangerous country to live in for expatriates in a new survey
carried out by InterNations, a global community and information site for people
who live and work abroad.
Results of
the survey conducted in 64 countries around the world are contained in the
Expat Insider 2019 report, which was published by Forbes.
During the
study, InterNations interviewed 20,259 expats representing 182 nationalities
and living in 187 countries or territories.
Respondents
were asked to score 48 different factors related to living abroad, which were
put into five main pillars namely; quality of life, ease of settling in,
working abroad, family life, and personal finance.
The East African country was
ranked as the 7th worst place to live in, with a majority of respondents saying
Kenyan streets feel unsafe as one has to be vigilant.
A Danish
expat said walking around Kenyan streets is a ‘No’ for them and that they have
to “drive or be driven everywhere.”
A Croatian
said that expats in Kenya are easily conned or robbed as locals believe
foreigners are wealthy. They also mentioned extortion by police officers, who
demand bribe on non-existing charges.
“The roads
are in an awful state, traffic is just terrible, and the city is dirty!”
another expat said.
Topping the list of the most dangerous places to live is Brazil,
with South Africa coming in as the second-worst place, followed by
Nigeria.
“Brazil, South Africa and
Nigeria—the bottom three countries in the Safety & Security subcategory—are
also the three worst-rated destinations for personal safety in
particular," says Malte Zeeck, founder and co-CEO of
InterNations.
"For example, in South
Africa, which ranks 64 out of 64 countries for this factor, 63% of expats say
they don’t feel safe, and 22% even feel extremely unsafe.”
While the United States ranked 16 on
the list of the 20 most dangerous places to live in 2019, it fared better than
in 2018, when the country came in at number 13. Zeeck points out that the
USA’s ranking has improved, but it has only moved up three spots for
personal safety (from 54th in 2018 to 51st in 2019).
"Last year, about one in six expats (16%)
said they didn’t feel safe in the USA; today, it’s one in seven (14%)
expressing the same opinion," says Zeeck. "So, the respondents’ views
have become just slightly more positive."
And yet,
Zeeck says that the overall results are not good for this country and that
the USA’s 49th place in the 2019 Safety & Security subcategory is
"still not really anything to write home about.
A large number
of respondents also point at safety factors and current affairs when describing
what they do not like about life in the U.S."
That said,
the timing of promoting InterNations's questionnaires might have impacted the
slightly different results, according to Zeeck. "The 2018 survey ran in
late February / early March, not too long after the school shooting in
Parkland, Florida.
This was widely reported about at the time and,
as the survey is based on expats’ subjective opinions, it may well have
affected how they rated the country at the time."
However, gun
violence still remains a major concern in 2019. "When asked about the
aspects of life in the U.S. that they like the least, a substantial number
spontaneously gave answers such as ‘lack of gun control’ or ‘violent crime
involving guns’ and so on," says Zeeck.
"A Portuguese expat even says that 'gun
culture could be the trigger for me to move out of the country due to safety concerns'—that’s
quite a statement.”
One notable newcomer to this
year's list of most dangerous places to live is the United Kingdom, which
ranked number 12.
“Our Safety & Security subcategory looks at
three factors: personal safety, peacefulness and political stability. While the
U.K. does not perform well for any of these, it is especially the
latter that heavily impacts its results in 2019, causing it to drop from a
49th place out of 68 destinations in 2018 to rank 53rd out of 64 in 2019,"
says Zeeck.
According to
Zeeck, the political situation in the U.K. has had an impact: "Just a
third of respondents (33%) rate the political situation in the U.K. positively,
a steep drop from the somewhat below-average result in 2018." -
Africa
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