Moving abroad is a life-changing experience. In a foreign country people face new challenges, get introduced to a new culture, meet new people and, most importantly, learn. They adapt to a new life, change to fit into a new community, broaden their mind and become more flexible.
This is a time for new ideas, thoughts and approaches, and therefore we would assume that living abroad makes you more creative.
Fact or Fiction?
Have a look at some evidence.
I could see how living abroad could make a person more creative for a variety of reasons, including the fact that would be experiencing new culture there.
I have not lived abroad but I have traveled to many countries for fourteen years. I think there are more things that unite us than things that distinguish us and this are the really important ones. Anyway, if we can consider also creativity as a different way to associate known ideas and concepts, I think that knowing how similar problems have been solved in other cultures can help us to find creative ways to find solutions in our daily environment.
There is definitely evidence that those who are multi-lingual demonstrate greater levels of creativity. The European Commission presented the following results on multi-lingual children’s creativity vs mono-lingual children’s creativity and the results are very interesting (http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/llp/studies/documents/study_on_the_contribution_of_multilingualism_to_creativity/compendium_part_1_en.pdf)
Likewise, I am convinced that living abroad is a mind-opening experience and presents us with another approach to life. This certainly must contribute to news ways of thinking and therefore alternative ideas.
Having lived in different countries for several years throughout different parts of my life, I would agree that it makes you more creative. A certain level of openmindedness gets established given the new situations one finds oneself in. In my eyes this openmindedness is the first step to becoming creative in the first place.