International expatriate community InterNations celebrates the 10th year of assisting and connecting expatriates across the globe

Today (Saturday), millions of members of InterNations across the globe, including in Indonesia, are celebrating the 10th anniversary of their group’s foundation with several activities and fun games. There will be a special gathering in Jakarta to mark the occasion. 

InterNations -- an international expatriate community headquartered in Munich, Germany -- is becoming a popular global networking platform all over the world.

With about 3 million members in 400 cities across the globe, InterNations is the first international community for expatriates. It was founded in 2007 by Malte Zeeck, Philipp von Plato and Christian Leifeld in Munich, Germany. Zeeck and von Plato are currently the community’s co-chief executive officers (co-CEOs).

The Jakarta chapter of InterNations, a non-profit gathering, has been in existence for the last six years. Currently, the Jakarta community has some 17,000 members. In Jakarta, there are at least four local “ambassadors” – the term used by the community to refer to volunteers who manage and organize its events and activities.

The Jakarta chapter of the community comprises expatriates from many countries, including from India, Korea, Japan, Australia and the United Kingdom. Indonesians who have lived or studied abroad are also welcome to apply for membership.

According to InterNations Jakarta ambassador Sony Jethnani – an ethnic Indian-Indonesian-- the community’s whole objective is to make personal connections among people who move abroad.

The volunteers are willing to work hard to manage the community because most of them have had the experience of moving abroad and are familiar with the challenges involved, thereby choosing to extend their hands to help others, according to Jethnani.

“We know that moving abroad is a big challenge,” Jethnani told The Jakarta Post, referring to problems such as loneliness, language barriers, culture shock and job scarcity, among others. “Especially when you go thousands of miles away from home.”

To connect expatriates living in a particular city with one another, InterNations has a number of activities, both online and off. It has a website called internations.org, a social network platform providing valuable information for expatriates as well as helping them arrange face-to-face meetings with one another.

The social network platform, accessible by both smartphone and computer, provides where-to-go information on leisure activities in town, as well as tips and tricks on surviving a city. It also enables members to join hobby groups such as book, sports, travel and film clubs, as well as discussion groups where members can send questions, be they job inquiries or simply finding someone to talk to.

Registration is done through signing in to the website. All membership applications, however, have to be approved by the community’s headquarters in Munich.

“We think we are able to survive for 10 years thanks to our high-tech system,” Jethnani said.

We know that real human connections are made through real-life interactions. This is why all InterNations ambassadors throughout the globe volunteer to arrange regular networking events every month. Besides the regular networking events, members are also free to arrange separate meetings among themselves.

Steve Hall, a 51-year-old man originally from the UK who used to work in the oil and gas sector, said that the most satisfactory aspect of joining the community was the sense of belonging it created among its members. He has been living in Indonesia for 17 years.

“I’ve joined the community for less than a year now and I feel very welcome there. During the [large regular] gatherings, the ambassadors will make sure that no one stands alone. So even though you’re someone who hasn’t come to the community’s gatherings before, you will be okay because the ambassador will introduce you to other people,” Hall told the Post over the phone.

According to Hall, the camaraderie of the group is such that even Jakarta’s notorious traffic jams do little to discourage members from joining the regular meetings, which are mostly organized during weekdays.

“We leave a little earlier [from work or home] so that we can get there on time,” Hall said.

Jethnani acknowledged that Jakarta’s traffic had become one of the biggest challenges faced by the community in bringing its members together regularly, especially when people were already physically and mentally exhausted from working.

Looking forward, the Jakarta chapter of the community wants to expand its local membership.

According to Jethnani, becoming InterNations members can also benefit locals as it can help them practice a foreign language with an expatriate or find new work opportunities overseas.

“As long as they can speak fluent English, locals – particularly those who have studied and lived abroad – can join us and really benefit from the interactions provided by our regular events,” she said.

Hall added that he was actually happy to live in Jakarta because of Indonesia’s strong collective culture and high social cohesion.

“When I first came here I got a little bit overwhelmed [by the intensity of Indonesian people’s collective life] but now I’m enjoying it,” he said.

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