Living in Lesotho

Lesotho is a small mountain country folded inside South Africa, and its working life leans heavily on that larger neighbor. Pay ranks near the bottom of the global scale, matched by a low cost of living and a tax that leaves most of your pay with you, yet the margin left to save stays thin. English opens some doors but not all, carrying in certain settings and fading in others. For someone without local connections, finding steady work is the real test.

Lesotho's diaspora settles almost entirely in one place. Of 246.9K people abroad, 237.7K live in South Africa, which surrounds the country — every other destination is a rounding error by comparison. The diaspora grew 29% over the past decade.