3 Major Problems that All Expats Are Likely to Face

3 Major Problems That All Expats Are Likely To Face - VPN Unlimited Blog

Updated on July 13, 2021: From now on, traffic filtering, malware protection, and suspicious DNS activity blocking are available as a part of the separate DNS Firewall app.

Expatriates, or expats for short, are people who permanently or temporarily moved from a country of their citizenship. They are definitely no strangers to culture shock. After all, it would seem obvious to anyone that every country is unique in many ways, and that one should be ready for this when moving. However, many expatriates soon find out that it is minor differences that matter most.

For example, moving to Japan you will probably not be shocked by the fact that they identify with religions other than Christianity, will you? That’s something to be expected from such a different culture. However, did you know that Japanese schools have no janitors? The students have to clean their school themselves every day. Imagine how much of a surprise this would be for an American kid moving there!

Expats should be ready to face a lot of such nuances, but most of them will probably make a good topic for another article. Today, we would like to focus solely on the potential internet problems that expatriates can face (and how to solve them).

Social disruption

When you move to another country, you leave behind not only friends and family ties, but also some habits and routines. That’s why, when feeling homesick, people tend to surround themselves with things that remind them of home. One of the popular options is enjoying your favorite online content, like TV shows or streaming channels, or getting in touch with friends and family.

3 Major Problems That All Expats Are Likely To Face - VPN Unlimited Blog Unfortunately, this is where the pitfall hides. You see, licensing rights for media content and entertainment are usually issued on a country-by-country basis. As a result, you may find your IP restricted from accessing some of websites or apps because of geo-blocking.

This is not the only explanation if you can’t access your favorite content when abroad though. Sometimes, the government is to blame. There is a large list of services and websites that are forbidden within certain countries due to all sorts of reasons. For example, Skype and WhatsApp are banned in Saudi Arabia, Facebook and Twitter – in China, North Korea, and Iran, etc. Sometimes, only part of service’s functions are disabled – like Skype’s voice chat and video calls.

Security concerns

Online security is a manifold and complicated matter. Internet threats are ever-shifting, and it’s often difficult to keep your defenses effective even in a native, familiar internet environment. To say nothing of the new country’s cyberspace with its local customs and approaches to cybersecurity.

For example, did you know that Malta is considered the most vulnerable country for cybercriminals in the EU? This is due to the high percentage of exposed internet connections, poor international cooperation, and lack of preventative and protective measures in place. In such situation, you’d be more exposed to malefactors solely because of the circumstances beyond your control. Would feel bad, right?

Unfair pricing

3 Major Problems That All Expats Are Likely To Face - VPN Unlimited Blog Finally, this is the issue that travelers should be quite familiar with. Some multinational corporations, especially those selling digital goods, tend to adjust their prices depending on a user’s location. Such strategy is often utilized by, say, Amazon or Steam. This is done because of the differences in spending capacities of various countries. Instead of losing a whole region due to its inability to pay the whole price, a company might be wise to lower the prices, thus expanding their market.

That’s all good and dandy for a company, but not for an expat moving from such a privileged country. After all, nobody would be excited to find out their favorite service becoming more expensive simply because of a new IP.

Silver bullet

Luckily for expatriates, there exists a solution that tackles all of the aforementioned problems at once – VPN services. Since they’ve become quite popular these days, we’re not going to go into what they are in detail (you can read more about VPN’s here if you want). However, let us explain how expats can benefit from VPN services (namely, our top-notch VPN Unlimited):

  • IP disguise. One of the two major features of any VPN is the ability to mask your real IP. It allows you to choose one of the available servers and will make your traffic look like it comes from that server’s location. This will help you bypass geo-blocking and geographical pricing – just choose the server that suits your needs best.
  • Data encryption. The second feature of any VPN is encrypting the traffic. The main point of this service is information protection, so that even if any third parties happen to intercept your data, they won’t be able to read it.
  • VPN cloaking. Some of the countries that restrict access to certain online content and services also ban VPN usage. Luckily, VPN Unlimited utilizes a high-tech KeepSolid Wise technology that allows to conceal your VPN traffic to make it indistinguishable from normal.

So, are you an expat looking to take the weight of living in a foreign country off your mind? Look no further, as VPN Unlimited was designed to do exactly that! Still have doubts? Download it and see for yourself with our 7-day free trial! (no CC required)

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