Living in Namibia

Namibia runs its working life in English, so the language barrier that complicates much of the region simply isn't here. Pay is moderate and both taxes and living costs stay low, which leaves a salary with a solid, dependable margin. The difficulty is one of scale, a small economy with a thin slice of formal jobs where getting hired without local roots takes patience. The ease of the language can mask how hard the actual hiring is.

Namibia takes in more migrants than it sends out, with 113.6K foreign-born residents making up 4% of the population against just 40.4K Namibians abroad. That immigrant population has grown 14% over the past decade and draws chiefly from the immediate neighborhood — Angola leads at 42.5K, followed by Zimbabwe, with a small long-standing German-born community as well.