Book Review: Expat Women: Confessions by Andrea Martins and Victoria Hepworth

Being an expat can be a bewildering and confusing experience.  If we are lucky enough to move to a country where our first language is spoken or where we have rights of residence or citizenship, we expect to be able to secure employment, open up bank accounts or meet friends with the same ease as we did back home.

This is certainly not always the case.  I grew up as the child of expats in South Africa and spent most of my life being called a pommie.  In 2007, my husband and I decided to move to London, England and we thought it would be a walk in the park.  It wasn’t.  Despite being a British citizen, it took me four months to break through the impossible cycle of not being able to open a bank account because I couldn’t prove my address without a utility bill, and not being able to open a utility account until I had a bank account. 

Four years down the line, I marvel at how easy it was to make friends in South Africa, at how easy it was to continue my studies or get a new job whenever I grew tired of my current one.  The truth is that being an expat is hard work and it never really gets easy.

I’m one of the lucky ones.  Many expats move to countries where they do not speak the local language or where their spouse does not have the right to work.  If you move with children, you suddenly find yourself without your family and friends near, having to start the impossible process of meeting other mothers or friends.

Andrea Martins is the director and co-founder of ExpatWomen.com.  In the introduction to Expat Women: Confessions - 50 Answers to Your Real-Life Questions about Living Abroad, Andrea tells the story of April, an expat in Mexico City.  April called Andrea to join her playgroup and confided that she had not really been out of the house, except to go to the grocery store, in four months.

This is often the truth of the expat experience: the loneliness, isolation and paralysis that makes you question who you are and puts incredible strain on both your well-being and your relationships with your family and friends.

Article Author: Mandy Southgate

Mandy Southgate is a South African expat living and working in London. She finds it hard to concentrate on any one thing for any length of time and so runs three very different blogs on life in London and travel from there, media and entertainment and social justice and human rights. …

Visit Mandy Southgate's author page — Mandy Southgate's Blog