Living in Panama

Panama makes its living as a crossroads, with money moving through its banks and goods through its ports, and the working world here is organized around both. Pay is middling by world standards and tax barely touches it, but everyday costs run at a level that leaves only a modest cushion once life is paid for. Finance and logistics hold the real openings, though they tend to want people who already fit, so breaking in cold is hard and English carries you only so far beyond those rooms.

The headline in Panama is speed: its foreign-born population has grown a remarkable 159% over the past decade, reaching 476.1K — now 11% of the country. The surge is driven above all by Venezuela, the largest origin at 182.4K, followed by Colombia. Panama's own diaspora, at 194.8K, is much smaller and centered on the United States.