Expat Focus: For anyone moving or living abroad

The current pandemic has left a lot of people around the world in limbo, and Christina Sinn is one of them. A German expat, Christina 'should' be in Australia right now, where she's been based for the past few years, after living in China and the UK. But she and her partner happened to be visiting Germany when COVID-19 hit its first peak and international borders closed, and now they're stuck there.

Christina's going to share the challenges they've experienced in trying to get back to their life in Australia, in needing to adjust to their new life back in Germany, and how she and her partner have worked through needing to drastically change their plans.

Australia is known for its incredible natural beauty, great quality of life and multicultural society. If you're planning a move 'down under' (for sometime after the pandemic, when borders are open again), blogger and teacher Courtney Alkek has some excellent advice to share. She and her husband moved to Australia from the USA. They've had two kids in the country, lived in two different cities: Brisbane and Adelaide, and they're now going through the process of becoming Aussie citizens.

There's been a bit of debate online about whether we'll see a baby boom from the coronavirus lockdown. Is all this forced time at home the perfect opportunity to get pregnant, or, is a pandemic pregnancy the last thing on your mind? If you are planning to start - or add to - your family, you might want to give some thought to teaching your child a second language. It's so much easier for them to pick up when they're young, right? Annika Bourgogne is our guest in this episode to talk about raising multilingual kids. She's done it herself, she's the author of Be Bilingual, a language teacher and an entrepreneur. And Annika recommends you research and decide on your approach to raising your child with more than one language, before they come into the world.

Poland has been rising up the rankings as one of the best countries for expats to live and work in, and we're going to chat to one such expat today. Blogger Anda Alexandra relocated from Romania to Poland, for work. And, almost a decade later she's still there, married with a child and she's going to talk through some moving essentials: from finding a place to live to opening a bank account, learning the language... Anda has some especially great insights to share with you on job hunting, navigating healthcare and pregnancy in the country.

There's not a huge amount of moving about the world going on at the moment, but that doesn't mean you can't research and plan. And if you've got a move to Malaysia on your mind, we have the perfect guest to give you some insider knowledge. Writer Kirsten Raccuia and her husband Mark moved from the USA to Penang seven years ago. In this episode, she's going to talk through their experiences with visas, working options, renting, and why you don't need to necessarily freak out if you inspect a place with no kitchen. We also cover whether you need to learn one of the three main Malaysian languages, and what she'd do differently if they made their move again.

When you're planning a move to a new country, there's a lot to get your head around, and understanding how things work locally is key to quickly landing on your feet. Today's guest is Emma Pearson, Editor of The Local France, a website covering French news, culture and practical tips on everyday life in the country. Emma's going to walk us through how to move to France. We cover everything from visas, to finding a job, a place to live, getting into the French healthcare system, opening a bank account and schooling options if you have kids. Think of this, as a really useful "pick your brain" session with someone who has been through it all - in Emma's case, twice in fact.

Just as the world was coming to grips with the seriousness of COVID-19 and countries were locking down, parts of China were getting over the worst of the pandemic and life was beginning to return to normal. This was the case when we recorded this interview with Mauricio 'Momo' Estrella, an Ecuadorian digital designer based in Shanghai with his wife and young son. In fact, Momo tells me that now, life is very much back to normal there.

In this chat he's going to explain how a city of more than 24 million people handled the outbreak, and what that experience was like. We also discuss how he adjusted culturally to life in China when he first made the move a decade ago. We also chat about the country's social credit scoring system: Momo explains why it's not as creepy as that episode of Black Mirror makes the concept out to be!

Where are you spending your coronavirus lockdown? Are you in a densely populated city? A smaller town, where social distancing is made that bit easier? Are you spending this time away from where you'd normally call home? Maybe you're on your own property in the countryside, with not a soul in sight…

Danish expat Christian Graugart and his young family are spending their isolation time at home in St Barts, a small French island in the Caribbean. In this episode, Christian explains how they got there, and what lockdown life is like on a 25 square kilometre island with a pretty small population, only one supermarket and currently, no swimming allowed!

The property market - like so many sectors right now - has slowed down as the world grapples with the COVID-19 pandemic. Tenants, landlords and homeowners are all feeling the pressure. Governments are being looked to for bailout packages, while people in the process of buying or selling are now working to completely unknown timelines.

We arranged this interview with today's guest - Ugo Arinzeh, founder of Onyx Property Consultants - just before the pandemic fully hit, with the intention of sharing her insight into how the US property market works and providing tips for first-time investors there. We're still going to talk about that, along with Ugo's work with clients where she's based in the UK. But she's also going to share her thoughts on what the current crisis means for property owners; the risks and the opportunities.

Government-mandated isolation has become the new normal for so many of us, as the world fights the COVID-19 pandemic. I'm in lockdown here in France where only essential shops remain open, and we need to carry a permission form when we leave the house which can only be for specific reasons like, going to the supermarket, the pharmacy or doing some exercise close to home. In this episode I'm chatting to American expat Leslie Keeler Saglio about her experience with coronavirus containment where she lives in Spain. As she mentions, the situation is changing so quickly, and since we recorded this interview on Thursday the 19th of March, Spain has introduced a permission form for its citizens to be able to leave the house. The country has recorded its highest number of virus deaths in a day, and its nationwide lockdown won't be lifted until the 11th of April at the earliest. As a motivational speaker and life coach, Leslie has some good advice for how we can all lift our spirits and try to focus on the positives at this very difficult time.