Living in Laos

In Laos, the language barrier shapes the working life before the money does. English carries little weight, most jobs run in Lao, and an outsider arriving without it finds few ways in. The pay is among the lower in the world, yet tax is almost nothing and daily life costs little, so what's left after the basics, while thin, isn't swallowed whole. It's a country where getting established asks more of a newcomer than the earning itself does.

Laos is a country of emigration, with 660.3K people abroad against a small foreign-born population at home. The diaspora grew 10% over the past decade and concentrates in neighboring Thailand (285.8K), followed by the United States and Bangladesh.