Covid Has Transformed the Psychology of Ambition
The pandemic disrupted the expat relationship with “home.” The end of easy air travel reveals where the heart lies.
An empty beach in Phuket. Covid has meant the end of the expat lifestyle of easy travel.
Photographer: Lillian Suwanrumpha/AFP/Getty
A British banker and mother of two who has lived in Hong Kong since 2008 recently told me that “push factors are adding up” and she’s “close to the point” of taking the risk of relocating to Europe for the sake of her eight-year-old daughter’s well-being after a year of schooling disruptions. Welcome to the Covid-19 reset.
This year has thrown into question, on a personal level, the long-term expatriate lifestyle made possible by being able to hop on and off a plane. With coronavirus risks, restrictions and quarantines, living abroad isn’t so easy anymore. Many global nomads are heading home — or at least, thinking about it, exchanging often glamorous lifestyles for getting back to basics.
For the banker and her partner, the upheaval of 2020 has meant an end to frequent work trips around Asia, vacations home to see family, and quick long weekends to Bali and Singapore. Now, getting out involves an excursion in the hills and woods of Hong Kong’s New Territories — more of a mental journey than a physical one.