Consistancy in countries / missing countries

It always baffled me why Puerto Rico is considered a country on here - it's a US territory, same currency, same rights (exception of voting in Federal elections). And I hope to be a state soon.

I think if Puerto Rico has its own forum then Hong Kong should as well.

I agree, and just as US Virgin Islands which also is a automous territory of USA.

usmc_mv wrote:

I think if Puerto Rico has its own forum then Hong Kong should as well.

I agree.  Most people in Hong Kong do not want to be lumped in with the rest of China

Are there enough members of this site living on all of these islands to warrant creating, maintaining and moderating more country forums?  Does this site have a good deal of members from Greenland, for example?  If not, that is a lot of extra work for inactive areas of the site.

I would argue that the Middle East, indeed part of Asia, is its own unique region.  When you are told that somebody is Asian are you more likely to think Japanese or Lebanese?  Similarly, I see no harm in taking Central America out of North America.  If a small island of five people should have its own forum, why not let very large regions with millions of people have their own heading.

mugtech wrote:

usmc_mv wrote:

I think if Puerto Rico has its own forum then Hong Kong should as well.

I agree.  Most people in Hong Kong do not want to be lumped in with the rest of China

And I can not blame them.

I wonder if many of these islands and territories have enough of an expat population to warrant inclusion on the list of forums? We already have way too many national forums that are hardly ever posted to. I'm sure that inclusion of many of the countries mentioned would be little more than an exercise in stroking national pride.

That said, I've always wondered why Saint Pierre and Miquelon were included in the North America section, since there have only been 3 postings to that forum in the past year and all of those by Julien or Team members. I really think that many of the countries suggested would end up as inactive forums just like Saint Pierre and Miquelon. A quick look at the forums that already exist shows some that are even less active than that.

wjwoodward wrote:

I wonder if many of these islands and territories have enough of an expat population to warrant inclusion on the list of forums? We already have way too many national forums that are hardly ever posted to. I'm sure that inclusion of many of the countries mentioned would be little more than an exercise in stroking national pride.

That said, I've always wondered why Saint Pierre and Miquelon were included in the North America section, since there have only been 3 postings to that forum in the past year and all of those by Julien or Team members. I really think that many of the countries suggested would end up as inactive forums just like Saint Pierre and Miquelon. A quick look at the forums that already exist shows some that are even less active than that.

I wonder why North Korea (DPRK) is listed as a country considering it is more likely for someone to post a serious messages in Saint Pierre's forum rather than in NK.

Hong Kong deserves its own forum more than Puerto Rico considering the difference in immigration requirements and the cities size. Puerto Rico has the same entry/exit, visa, immigration and Federal laws as the continental (lower 48) states.

usmc_mv wrote:

Puerto Rico has the same entry/exit, visa, immigration and Federal laws as the continental (lower 48) states.

I agree, the only other difference being some income tax laws and forms.

MiaCulpa wrote:

Are there enough members of this site living on all of these islands to warrant creating, maintaining and moderating more country forums?  Does this site have a good deal of members from Greenland, for example?  If not, that is a lot of extra work for inactive areas of the site.

I would argue that the Middle East, indeed part of Asia, is its own unique region.  When you are told that somebody is Asian are you more likely to think Japanese or Lebanese?  Similarly, I see no harm in taking Central America out of North America.  If a small island of five people should have its own forum, why not let very large regions with millions of people have their own heading.

Hi

Some of the places I listed is quite small and have a small population. Although small, the population may however have a large percentage expats.
I do think we need consistency.

Perhaps a specification on what is needed to qualify as a country if not already listed?
* Autonomy of sorts
* Minimum 500 residents ???

I think we need to remember reasons for why expats are expats.
Some are expats because they need to be with the work they have.
Some are expats because they come from a developing country and wants another life in the industrial countries.
And some want to leave the industrial countries and get away from the stress and large living costs, perhaps having a low paid pension will give them a good life and peaceful mind on a small remote island.
So some of the small places may actually have expats or future expats.

Oh, and about Greenland. Greenland have about 56 000 inhabitants. Many of these are expats. Now I dont know if we have any members on this site yet but in comparison to many other countries listed on this site
in comparison to population I defiantly think it should be a listed country.
Faeroe Islands population approx 48000.
Gibraltar population approx 29000

I still think the continents should  be the main search, we do not split Europe into West and East nor do we put Scandinavia or Nordic countries as a separate region either. maybe we should?
If someone tells me they are Asian well then I consider where they are from, not how they look. They might look like Korean, Japanese, Turkish, Arab, Persian, Indian or Chinese.
It is the same with Africa, I consider White South Africans, Canary Spaniards, Egyptians, Nigerians, Ethiopians and Tunisians as African no matter how they look like but the look can vary as much as in Asia.

Which of the islands autonomous islands mentioned has only 5 residents? I thought I excluded those and they lesser have approx min 90 residents.

Cheers,
Magnus

Hello,

a few islands and destinations are already on the website ; eg the Canary Islands, Armenia, Azerbaidjan ... a few other aren't. Other destinations may have been added in the wrong countries ; eg HK and Macao are in China.

Many of those who aren't created yet are really small : Agalega, St Brandon, Rodrigues (who are all dependencies from Mauritius - where we are located), are too small.

If there is any demand for these destinations, we'll add them.

Regarding HK and Macao, we'll probably move them soon. We'll just have to finish modifying a few things in our database. Just a matter of time

wjwoodward wrote:

I wonder if many of these islands and territories have enough of an expat population to warrant inclusion on the list of forums? We already have way too many national forums that are hardly ever posted to. I'm sure that inclusion of many of the countries mentioned would be little more than an exercise in stroking national pride.

That said, I've always wondered why Saint Pierre and Miquelon were included in the North America section, since there have only been 3 postings to that forum in the past year and all of those by Julien or Team members. I really think that many of the countries suggested would end up as inactive forums just like Saint Pierre and Miquelon. A quick look at the forums that already exist shows some that are even less active than that.

Could be, that is perhaps why there need to be a specification of what can be included.
We can also look at it at another perspective.......
If people do not know about the place then they make their move somewhere else when first they could have considered moving to the unlisted place but did not know about it.

I know many of the countries have very few postings if even none. But those postings are we all to create.
In regards to St Pierre & Miquelon I can say that I was really close to moving their once. SPM is EU in North America. It has a strategical positions for European based companies or for US/Canadian companies having a EU-citizen employee.
It is a long way and difficult for EU-citizens to get work permits in USA but a EU citizen can freely move to SPM, get a apartment, and work from a EU situated office in the same time zones as USA. Also it is easy to frequently travel into US/Canada.
I foresee this kind of work model growing in SPM.

Cheers,
Magnus

Julien wrote:

Hello,

a few islands and destinations are already on the website ; eg the Canary Islands, Armenia, Azerbaidjan ... a few other aren't. Other destinations may have been added in the wrong countries ; eg HK and Macao are in China.

Many of those who aren't created yet are really small : Agalega, St Brandon, Rodrigues (who are all dependencies from Mauritius - where we are located), are too small.

If there is any demand for these destinations, we'll add them.

Regarding HK and Macao, we'll probably move them soon. We'll just have to finish modifying a few things in our database. Just a matter of time

Hi Julien

No, Canary Islands is not listed... I just looked under Africa and it is not there. Edit... I found it as a destination under spain. But Canary Islands, although owned by Spain is a autonomous place with many own laws and differences in tax etc from mainland spain. It also lies in Africa.
Azerbaijan and Armenia was not discussed as missing in my original post, I mention them as I think they are listed in the wrong continent/region.

OK, on Agalega & st Brandon but Rodriguez has 40 000 inhabitans and even though part of Mauritius they have some autonomy..... ?

What about other countries on the list?
You know if you need help starting the basic start threads just let me know.

Cheers,
Magnus

magnus wrote:

Hi

I have mentioned it before to staff members of EB that we are missing "dis and dat" country.
I first started to request Cook Islands listed, now it is there. On to the next..... :-)

Some thoughts I had about other missing countries is the consistancy.

Hello Magnus, 

Your input is welcome.
I am sure you realized by now that this web site is general in nature, catering for future expats who need to communicate with locals (expats or not).  It cannot (and it is unnecessary to) cover each and every detail.  The few attempts which have been made here to go into detail, as can be seen, turned nothing of value (0 answers).
Details are discussed between the prospective and existing expat on this forum or private.
Not to say that life in the islands is slower and simpler than on mainland.  Islanders and settled expats even avoid too many details …

For instance, Ascension Island (part of British Overseas Territory St. Helena and Tristan da Cuhna) in mid Atlantic) is where one of the five antennae for GPS is located.
Tourists cannot go there, yachters must get permission to come ashore for a short stay only and expats get the government & military jobs through very official channels.  They may even not be allowed to say when they leave or go there.    (I wonder how relatives of staff stationed there are dealt with if they want to visit).
No expat going there or living there has any interest in talking publicly in expat forums, and if there is one, he is the exception.

I bet there are places where the inhabitants may not even like it for their islands (or enclaves) to be mentioned ... 

I am curious how you will be when you settle in Cook Islands. 
Please keep us posted. 

Thanks Magnus for your suggestions, I really appreciate. I am sure you know that we are doing our best to cover many new destinations every year.

We will try to arrange things little by little. We just can't add too many destinations in 2-3 months, it's a long process (thanks to our friend Google which would penalize us if we release too many new pages)

According to you, which destinations (with expats) should be in our priority list ?

Hi julien

My post and expression was to get the discussion started.
Of course I realize it can not all happen at once and perhaps some places I listed should not be listed as well as there may be places I forgot.

If I were to prioritize I would not start with the non-listed countries/entity's..... I would put them to their right places and decide if you go for regions or continents. Today is a mix.

If going for regions I would call them: North America, Latin America (including all of Central America and Mexico) West Indies or Caribbean. Divide Europe either into EU nations and non-EU nations or by west, east and Scandinavia. Divide Asia as it is.
If going by continents then add Middle East into Asia because that is what continent it is. And among all the island nations that is listed under Central America only Aruba goes to South America. The rest belongs to the north.

The first countries to list I think should be those that is mainland at least. West Sahara is such a country. I also doubt that we will have a lot of discussion there but IMHO it looks really bad with all the other mainland African countries listed but not west Sahara. What I mean it could look as a political statement not listing it. ( and I guess listing Kosovo as a country could also be a political statement )

I would also take canary islands out of Spain and give it it's own entity under Africa. Canary Islands is one of the biggest expats places for Europeans so it deserves it's own place.

Perhaps also change some names??? Under Central America there is 2 countries named "Virgin Islands". One of them has Brittish in front of it so I assume the other should have US in front of it. Also, both have the Brittish flag. 

Just my humble opinion you asked for.

Cheers,
Magnus