Living in Liberia

Liberia stands apart from its French- and Portuguese-speaking neighbours because English is the working language here, so someone arriving can function from the start without learning another tongue. The pay is low, but very little goes to tax and the cost of living is among the lowest anywhere, which leaves a modest but genuine margin. The constraint is the job itself, since hiring runs through personal networks that a newcomer has to build from scratch.

Liberia's diaspora is shrinking — down 3% over the past decade, to 145.9K — a slow reversal for the region. The largest communities are in Ghana (39K), Israel, and Nigeria.