in BRICS and Global South countries, the results of a recent InterNations study show
Translated with AI assistance
The top five spots in the ranking of countries where it is easiest for expats to feel at home were taken by nations of the Global South. Mexico, Panama, Thailand, Brazil, and the UAE topped the Ease of Settling In Index 2026, while nine out of the bottom ten positions went to European countries.
The ranking is compiled annually by the international expat community InterNations. This year, 7,786 people of 162 nationalities took part in the survey. The index included 31 countries where at least 50 responses were collected. Participants were asked how friendly the local population is toward foreigners, how easy it is to get used to the country’s culture, make local friends, build a social circle, and feel at home.
The top-ranked country is Mexico. Here, 87% of expats feel like welcome guests, compared to the global average of 64%, and 84% say they feel at home in the country. Nearly three-quarters — 73% — believe it is easy to make local friends, whereas the global average is only 39%.
Panama took second place: 90% of expats describe the locals as friendly, 73% are satisfied with their social life, and 77% believe that getting used to the local culture is easy. Thailand, which ranked third, received some of its highest scores specifically for the attitude of the locals: 89% of respondents consider Thais to be generally friendly, and 85% find them friendly toward foreigners.
Two more BRICS countries made it into the top ten. Brazil took fourth place and ranked in the top 5 for every index indicator, including second place for friendliness toward foreigners and ease of making local friends. The UAE came in fifth, with expats particularly praising how easy it is to adapt to the local culture. South Africa ranked tenth: the country performed especially well in terms of opportunities to make friends, although its score for feeling welcome was more modest.
At the bottom of the ranking, the picture is almost a mirror image. Of the ten countries where it is hardest for expats to settle in, nine are in Europe: Poland, the Netherlands, Denmark, Switzerland, Czechia, Germany, Austria, Sweden, and Norway. The only exception was Japan.
Norway took last place. 72% of expats say they find it difficult to make local friends, 46% consider Norwegians generally unfriendly, and 44% see them as unfriendly specifically toward foreigners. Only 31% feel at home in the country, compared to the global average of 61%.
Similar problems are also being recorded in other wealthy European economies. In Austria, only 38% of respondents describe the locals as friendly, and 33% consider them friendly toward foreigners. In Germany, less than half of those surveyed – 48% – feel at home, and only 43% find adapting to the local culture easy.
A country’s ability to attract international professionals depends not only on salaries, taxes, and the quality of infrastructure. The opportunity to quickly integrate into local life, build a social circle, and feel like a welcome guest is becoming yet another factor in the competition for mobile talent — and in the InterNations ranking, many Global South economies now look significantly more convincing than traditional European hubs.
