Living in Afghanistan

Afghanistan sits at the very bottom of the world's pay scale, and the little tax there is leaves almost all of that with you. English opens few doors. Most work happens in the local language, and a foreign professional without it and without local standing will find very few ways in. This is among the hardest places to build a working life from outside, and the choice tends to rest on far more than what a job pays.

Afghanistan's migration story is one of departure. Some 7.5M Afghans now live abroad, and the diaspora has grown 45% over the past decade — among the steepest increases anywhere, the kind of surge that reflects displacement rather than opportunity. The vast majority stay close to home: 3.8M live in Iran and 1.9M in Pakistan, with Germany the largest destination further afield. By contrast, fewer than 73,000 foreign-born residents live inside the country.