The Online Communities Every Expat Should Join
The expat community that exists online has developed around every conceivable situation, and finding the right communities is the first step toward the support network that makes living abroad sustainable.
Three weeks into my first expat assignment, I found a Facebook group with forty thousand members who had all made the same move I had made, to the same city, from the same home country. The group answered every question I had within hours: which bank actually works for foreigners, which doctors speak English, which neighborhoods to avoid and which are undervalued.
The online communities that support expats have developed sophisticated knowledge bases that accumulate through years of collective problem-solving. The wiki that the group maintains, the FAQ that gets updated as situations change, the historical posts that document problems that have been solved and that new arrivals will encounter.
The communities that work best have active moderation that prevents them from becoming toxic. The expat community that dissolves into political arguments or into mutual complaint about the host country provides social connection but not useful information. The communities that balance social support with practical problem-solving.
Beyond the general expat communities for specific cities, the niche communities that serve specific situations provide depth that general communities cannot. The remote worker community that shares visa strategies and tax advice. The LGBT expat community in countries where that identity creates specific challenges.
The professional communities that operate online and in-person simultaneously provide the networking that professional development requires. The industry meetups that happen in cities you visit. The online forums where professionals discuss the specific challenges of practicing their profession across borders.
The communities that provide the most value require the investment of time to become useful. The first weeks of membership involve observation and learning. The contributions that make you valuable to the community — the expertise you bring, the questions you ask that others benefit from — these contributions take time to develop.