The headline on my LinkedIn bio proudly displays the Barabasi quote: “Performance drives success, but when performance can’t be measured, networks drive success.” To anyone who will listen, I’m always saying things like “it’s not only what you know, it’s who you know” and that the quality of our relationships is the strongest indicator of happiness and health long-term. Unfortunately it feels like modern life is often at odds with this worldview. What better way to embody these beliefs than to reorient my life around my relationships?
It was this seed that grew into the Seasonal Migration experiment. My family is extremely small, so I don’t have a strong gravitational pull to a specific place. Having moved internationally from the Americas to Asia and then Asia to Europe, my ‘chosen family’ are more geographically dispersed than most. Since I left the US in 2008, all but my closest relationships there have withered. Many people might describe this lifestyle as nomadic, but I feel there’s an important difference: nomadic movement is generally unpredictable and acyclic, while migratory movement is predictable and cyclical. My goal was the latter.
The original experiment was this: split my time evenly between Mexico City, London, and Hong Kong in a consistent rotation. Learn how spending time in each place impacted my relationships, sense of community, and network. Figure out how much it would cost and whether I could build a portfolio career to fund the lifestyle. Sort out all the life admin and logistics to support it. Below are reflections from the first two years of seasonal migration, mostly focused on the social aspects of the experience.
Benefits of migration
There are a number of benefits to seasonal migration that are obvious. It has provided me with consistently great weather, bases to travel regionally, and most importantly more quality time with people I care about. As someone who loves to spend lots of time outdoors, weather has a huge impact on me. January through April in Mexico City are unmatched weather-wise and prime mountaineering season. June through August are the most reliable weather in London, and if nothing else at least the days are long. Hong Kong cools off in October and is delightful through December, which is perfect for kayaking and camping on the beach.
From Mexico City I can visit my family and friends in the US. From London I can reach all my Europe-based friends. Hong Kong is the gateway to China, but also a springboard for Southeast Asia and Australasia. Most importantly, it allows me to spend more quality time with people. My mom and I have spent almost 3 months/year together. My brother, sister-in-law, her family and I have also spent more time together than we would have otherwise. Rather than a few hours once a year, I’m getting enough time with friends that those moments don’t need to be so…productive. In many cases, I’m seeing them as much as I would if I lived in that city all year long. I’m getting more face time with their children. I’m getting a stronger sense of what their life is actually like. I’m getting the opportunity to help in a tangible way, not only send well wishes from afar.
There have also been non-obvious benefits, many of which I didn’t anticipate. My network has given me so many things both big and small to support this lifestyle, from introducing new friends, to consulting work, to sharing a place to live. I’ve been able to introduce my family and many of my close friends to each other. I’m interacting with more diverse groups of people by almost any measure. I’m getting exposure to a wider variety of ideas, opportunities, and learning experiences. I’m not stuck in one echo chamber all year long, so it’s easier to appreciate things from different perspectives.
Never have I felt “you’re a sum of the people you spend time with” so viscerally than when I’m transitioning between cities. It’s common to compare the individualist nature of the West to the collectivist nature of the East. It’s also common to compare different culture’s understanding of time. Mexico’s relationship to time is polychronic, present-oriented, and cyclical. The British are monochronic, past-oriented, and linear. Maybe slightly less common is the comparison of the global north’s ‘head’ driven approach (logic-based) and the global south’s ‘heart’ driven approach (emotion-based). Not to mention switching between (my slowly improving) Spanish and (my rapidly declining) Chinese. Steeped in these different ways of being, I feel much more adaptable and balanced.
Challenges of migration
As you can imagine, many people are initially envious of this lifestyle. It’s not uncommon for me to hear things like “you’re winning at life” or “I wish I could do that”. At that point, most people haven’t considered the tradeoffs that are probably necessary to live this way. This lifestyle is very difficult for people with school-aged kids unless they are homeschooled. It’s basically impossible with pets unless you have someone to take care of them. Committed, monogamous relationships are also challenging unless the other person is migrating with you most of the time. The lifestyle is probably most compatible with remote work, but it really depends how timezone dependent the work is. My choice to not work full time (from a place of immense privilege) allows me to make my relationships and health ‘part-time jobs’. I appreciate that this choice is not available to most.
No matter how many times I say “I spend the spring in Mexico City, summer in London, and fall in Hong Kong”, many people can’t remember where I am. As a result, I have to be very proactive about telling people where I am and when. Even though I share my schedule well in advance, some of my closest friends are not able to align their schedule and be around when I am in town. For example, one of my closest friends in Hong Kong is usually on the road for about 6 weeks while I’m there. There are a number of people who spend the summers away from London, so I have to catch them at the beginning or end of my chapter.
Even though I’m spending quality time in each place, it doesn’t mean I’m necessarily around for important life events. In January 2024 one of my closest friends moved back to Hong Kong, but I was already in Mexico. In December 2024 my godson was born in Hong Kong, but I had already left. In June 2025 my friends were getting married in Europe, but I hadn’t left Mexico just yet. Of course I can fly back and forth for these events, but the long haul flights are expensive, time consuming, and exhausting. Those trips would also cut into the time I’ve dedicated to each place.
Social differences between cities
Even though I never lived in New York City, I spent a lot of time there. The question that everyone asked was “What do you do?” What they were really asking is what economic value do you bring? How productive are you? What’s in it for me? When I moved to Hong Kong, the question changed. Peers wanted to know “What have you done?” They wanted to understand how you got there, what’s your story, what interesting experiences have you had. After a few years in London, it was clear that even though ‘what do you do?’ was one of the first questions people asked, what they actually wanted to know was “What do you think?” Are you smart? Do you have an interesting point of view? What can I learn from you? Now that I’m spending so much time in Mexico City, I’m trying to figure out what people there are really asking. They definitely don’t care about what I do. The best I can come up with right now is “How do you feel?”
If you ask a foreigner in Mexico City how long they’ve been there, they are likely to answer in months. If you ask someone in Hong Kong, they are likely to answer in years. If you ask in London, they might say decades. Mexico City is by far the most transient of the three. These days there are far fewer people in Hong Kong with expat packages, but I have met some people who have arrived since the pandemic. There’s a lot of talk about the number of people leaving London these days, but there are still plenty of folks sticking around. This transience has an impact on building and maintaining relationships. Of the people I saw very frequently my first spring in Mexico City, at least 5 of them weren’t there the following year. Of my closest friends from my Hong Kong days, about half have stuck around and 2 have moved back since I left in 2015. A handful of my closest friends have left London, but that network has been the most stable of the three.
Both Hong Kong and Mexico City could be described as 15 minute cities. While I have friends that live all over both, certain neighbourhoods have a density that makes socialising easy. Not only does it impact how far in advance you schedule with people, but the number of people that can gather and for how long. While I had my fair share of last minute plans in London, it was much more common to book at least 2 weeks in advance for a 1:1 catch up that was only 1 hour long. In both Hong Kong and Mexico City, plans could materialise in hours. In Hong Kong, it’s most common for social interactions to do what I call ‘snowball’. Two people might be grabbing a drink and before you know it the group has grown 3x the size and drinks has turned into dinner and then some. This would be almost impossible in London given the distances people must travel.
While urban centres are often very different than the rest of the country, they are still influenced by cultural social norms. You’re much more likely to be ‘adopted’ by a stranger in Hong Kong or Mexico City, striking up a conversation and then joining them for a drink or meal. That has never happened to me in London. I’ve already been to more house parties in Mexico City than I’ve ever been to in Hong Kong or London. Family obligations play a more important role in Hong Kong and Mexico City than they do in London.
And let’s not forget language. English is an official language in Hong Kong and is the language of business there. Hongkongese who went to local universities were taught in English. As a result, it’s possible to build meaningful local relationships without learning Chinese (though a few choice phrases do help). In Mexico City the situation is completely different. Not only are there many well-educated locals that don’t speak English, but the city attracts a large Latin American diaspora. If Chilangos want a diverse group of foreign friends, they don’t need to speak English in order to get it.
How the experiment changed over time
At first the plan was ‘simple’. Three months in each city with one month of travel in between. It quickly became obvious that this setup was less than ideal. At a practical level, spending 1 month on the road can be exhausting. It’s hard to maintain good habits, pack the appropriate gear, even align schedules to make the timing work. The small savings in airfare couldn’t make up for all the other inconveniences. I also found myself too protective of my three months in each city. Any weekend away felt like I was losing out on quality time with the people in that place. The one month of in-between travel had to go.
However, that change wasn’t enough. In both Hong Kong and London I had well established networks that I had cultivated over many years. I also knew both cities very well, so I was able to slipstream back into life in each place without much effort. Mexico City was the new kid on the block and required more of my time and attention. On top of that, it was clear that investing in my Spanish language skills would have a significant impact on my quality of life there. Not to mention that boring life admin issue of tax residency. As a result, I adjusted the time I spent in each city: 6+ months in Mexico City, <3 months in London, 3 months in Hong Kong.
The biggest change that I hadn’t anticipated was moving my base to Mexico. Once it became clear that I wanted to invest more time in Mexico relative to the other locations, this became the obvious choice. First and foremost, Mexico City is the cheapest of the 3 cities and therefore the most cost effective choice as a base. On top of that, it served as a clear signal to my nascent Mexico City network that I was committed to stay even though I wouldn’t be there all year long. While I didn’t change the amount of time I spent in London, it was fascinating to watch my London network’s reaction to this choice. To them, it felt like I reduced the number of concrete ties I had to the city.
Initially, I set out to run the experiment for one year. I thought that it would be enough time to test all my hypotheses and really understand what this new way of living felt like. Soon it became obvious that I had to return to each city at least once to really test my theories. Would I be able to sustain new friendships in Mexico City without years of investment? Did I have enough time in Hong Kong to rebuild my network there? Would I be able to maintain my London network from afar? Even after 2 years, I am still learning more about these questions and others that I didn’t even think to ask.
Constraints of a migratory lifestyle
Most of my friends know that I hate life admin. In fact, I almost ended up in court for forgetting to tell the Hong Kong tax authorities that I had moved to London. This lifestyle absolutely creates more administrative work and I am still ironing out the kinks of tax, currency exchange, and health insurance. Figured it might help others to be open about some of these complexities.
Thankfully, I had one important thing going for me: the legal right to live in each place. I am a Hong Kong permanent resident, UK citizen, and Mexico temporary resident (in addition to my US citizenship). During the first year of the experiment, I lived in Mexico for 3 months as a tourist. US citizens are currently allowed to live in Mexico for up to 6 months without residency. Once I confirmed that Mexico would become my base, I applied for temporary residency. This allowed me to stay in the country longer and establish it as my tax base. It also started the clock for permanent residence, which I can get after 4 years.
In terms of tax, my situation is more complicated than most. As a US citizen, I’m taxed on my worldwide income. However, the US has tax treaties with Hong Kong, Mexico, and the United Kingdom to avoid double taxation. Hong Kong has the lowest tax rate, but you need to spend at least 6 months there in order to establish tax residency. That wasn’t going to be an option for me. The United Kingdom has the highest tax rate and they have a complicated point system to establish whether you are resident for tax purposes. This is one of the reasons that I needed to spend less than 3 months in the UK and work as little as possible while I was there. My best bet was to become a Mexican tax resident, which I finally established this year.
Healthcare is another important constraint. It helps a lot that I don’t have a chronic condition that requires consistent care. While they are far from perfect, both Hong Kong and the United Kingdom have public health systems. Given my status in both countries, I’m able to access them. Mexico also has a public program you can buy into, but as a temporary resident without the right to work, I’m in the lowest priority category. Most travel insurance limits your coverage to a certain number of days and requires you to start and end your trip in your country of residence. As a result, I have purchased a specific type of insurance for nomads to cover me for the big, unexpected stuff. In addition, I’ve started getting comprehensive health checks in Bangkok during my Hong Kong chapters which are inexpensive and thorough.
The next chapter
Seasonally migrating is no longer an experiment, it’s how I live. I feel happier, healthier, and more stimulated than I have in a long time. Over the last two years I’ve spent so much more quality time with people I care about. I’ve also met so many new people that have become important to me. When one chapter ends and the next begins, I feel sadness for what’s ending and excitement for what’s ahead in equal measure. It’s like the sensation you get returning from holiday and going on holiday, but at the same time. Who knows how long I will live like this, but I don’t see any reason why I would stop before getting permanent residence in Mexico. You know how much I like to collect these documents.