Living in Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka is an island economy where a salary tends to cover the month and not much further. Pay is low by world measure, and though tax takes very little and life is inexpensive, what remains once the basics are met comes to almost nothing. English helps in parts of the working world but not across it. For someone without local ties, getting hired is a slow and uncertain process, and the rewards, when they come, are modest.

Sri Lanka sends far more people abroad than it receives, with a diaspora of 1.5M that grew 20% over the past decade. Those emigrants are widely spread, the largest communities in neighboring India (253.9K), Qatar, and the United Kingdom.