“May you live in interesting times” goes the ancient Chinese curse, and the last 12 months have certainly been pretty fascinating.  Trump and Brexit aside, the topics being discussed at mobility conferences I’ve been to over the past year are strikingly similar.  In Asia, the US, Africa and Europe, the hot topics in mobility are protectionism, millennials and artificial intelligence.  At the recent EuRA Conference in Warsaw, the meta theme was “The Power of Challenge” and these three topics were central to the sessions and discussions.

The Warsaw conference saw greater interest than ever in the legal and other compliance topics which affect our industry and our individual businesses. These topics are diverse, as demonstrated by the Immigration Symposium and sessions on data protection and financial compliance. I have picked out some highlights below.

The challenge of very lengthy Relocation Service Agreements, which can impose challenging obligations on DSPs, has become a real concern for many businesses. I suggest below some areas to watch out for and how to minimise your exposure to unknown liabilities.

A question often raised by clients is whether there are legal or tax advantages to be gained in taking an expat lease in name of the individual assignee or in name of the corporate employer. So for this Report, I carried out a quick survey covering 13 European countries and the results appear below. As always, EuRA members were happy to share their expertise and it is a perfect reminder of the high levels of knowledge - and excellent co-operation - which exist within EuRA.

While the impact of Brexit on future UK-EU immigration remains unclear, new UK immigration rules

My first job in relocation, way back in 2005, was also my first “real” office job in a long time. Sitting in that large, open plan Move One work space in Budapest, I would pause from time-to-time to listen to the sounds of the modern office. I should say “sound,” not “sounds” because there above all else, a single sound defined our working environment.  It was the sound of fingers striking computer keyboards. Rarely, people spoke. Even more rarely a telephone would ring. Everyone was looking at a screen and moving their fingers.