International mobility, a specialty of employees of intergovernmental organisations
International mobility, a specialty of employees of intergovernmental organisations
We all know it: As international civil servants, the world is, quite simply, our daily professional environment! Our professional duties are, by essence, of international scope. We speak how many languages during our coffee breaks with colleagues from all over the world? World news headlines often mention our employing organisation … All this being our daily life, we sometimes forget how extraordinary this life is….
Many of us live and work outside of our home countries, changing two, three, sometimes up to 10 times duty stations/countries/continents in a career. Our children often attend international schools, our professional languages become part of our international family settings. We keep, sometimes intimately, a special link with “home”, with “the village”, because we feel the diversity we belong to, and we are conscious of it….
We have, in many respects, a rich, diversified and fascinating life, and we know it. We also know that this life, that so many envy, sometimes exposes us to personal, family, and financial constraints, specific to our unique professional environment.
- Because our world has its own standards, our relationship with our employer is unique, not least because our employer is also our social services provider… How many of us have faced statutory conditions that are different from what we were used to in our national context? The uncertainty concerning the long term, the “fixed term” contract of our international position, the numerous social contributions accumulated over the years, the sometimes late arrival within the international civil servant system and the consequence on our financial future… Many of us are acutely aware of how the daily comfort of today may be only remotely comparable to what our future may hold. AMFIE knows that financial stability and long-term planning possibilities may alleviate the fears of an uncertain future, so frequent in our world, and therefore proposes, at again, unequalled conditions, a solid independent retirement plan, access to international investments and safe or more dynamic savings plans, with no time, geographical, or employment status limitations. Above all, those financial products are subject to the control of the government and legal framework of Luxembourg, one of the safest financial centers in the world. Therefore, in response to those serious uncertainties, specific to our international civil servant world, AMFIE offers us the reassurance of a secure financial environment, which our international lives sometimes deprive us of.
The founding members of AMFIE were like us; they had our lives, and were inspired by the ambition to create an environment that knows us, to serve us. They engraved in AMFIE’s identity this unique understanding and knowledge of our situation, to the point that, still today, active and former international civil servants are members of AMFIE’s board, attend its general assemblies, contribute to the design of its offer and its advocacy, to make sure that AMFIE remains constantly accurate in its response to our financial needs. But let’s have a look to see if it rings any bells…:
- Many of us handle several geographical locations that are part of our lives, because of our jobs… Our duty station is certainly one, but what about the little financial support we give to an elderly parent back home, or our youngest child starting his bachelor in Copenhagen University, while his older sister is enrolled in a language certification in the US, following her successes in English language classes at the international school of our previous duty station in Africa… Our salaries are sometimes denominated in a currency we never touched before getting this job, our retirement benefits may also be based in a currency we will never use, etc… All this sounds business as usual for many of us, we just handle so many currencies in so many locations… AMFIE knows these situations, and this is why it offers current and savings accounts in seven international currencies, at unequalled conditions. The free international credit card allows us to access these multi-currency accounts from anywhere. If not enough, or if we prefer different arrangements, our children and our parents may themselves join AMFIE after us to enjoy the exact same services, while account to account transfers are of course free of charge.
- Our geographical mobility, our impressive diversity, ultimately make us part of a quite homogenous group, because we live and share comparable feelings and experiences that are specific to our life style. We have all experienced reactions from people or family members when we describe our life across the world, and our colleagues from all over the world… We even sometimes feel “different”, which may even be disturbing... How many times have we had to come up with a convincing argument for a banker or a service provider about our financial capacity? Haven’t we ever felt socially “weird” in comparison to our national social systems, which are sometimes not even remotely comparable to our international civil service environment? While AMFIE’s role is not to answer all these questions, it proposes a reassuring network, grouping together people from very diverse origins, who all have similar concerns and share valuable answers within the Association, because, yes, AMFIE is an association!
- Last, but not least, I know of only one financial institution that offers the Luxembourg guarantees, yet remains at a humanly accessible scale, in which one has access to staff, to board members, to detailed accounts, and gets an individual person answering a call…
Bertrand MUTTER