That, plus the variations in their needs and differences among the populations, make generalization difficult. Some may find a substitute here in the U.S. that's perfectly fine. Another may pay four or five times the price just to get it shipped from home. Clearly, expatriates are fragmented into markets consisting of people from various home countries and regions. These markets vary widely in size, affluence and other characteristics.
Some expatriate markets are large and growing, while others are small and shrinking.
This was up sharply from 8.4 million in 1990 and just 1.8 million in 1970. Meanwhile, the foreign-born population from Europe fell from 5.7 million in 1970 to 4.3 million in 1997. A Few Caveats One problem with expatriates is they tend to return home, where you have to compete with other domestic suppliers of your product or service. Even if they don't, over time, they often stop purchasing imported goods. One reason is that employers often phase out their foreign-assignment subsidies after a couple years, says Bentivoglio.