Homesickness no longer "key issue" for expats While five years ago, 68 per cent admitted missing their family and friends, today only 47 per cent feel the same, while the number of people who miss Britain's countryside has dropped from 40 per cent to zero. Twenty six per cent said they miss British TV, but that figure has fallen by 15 per cent. The number who long for British groceries has also sank, by 22 per cent, while Britain's "cultural heritage" was not missed by a single survey participant - down from 32 per cent in 2008. Experts at NatWest International Personal Banking (IPB), which commissioned the survey, believe that technological developments such as the video-calling service Skype and social media tools like Twitter, are increasingly helping expats keep in touch with Britain and reducing how "homesick" they feel. Dave Isley, head of Natwest IPB, said: "Five years ago, homesickness was a factor in the decision to stay or go abroad. But Brits are now finding it easier to up sticks thanks to the plethora of internet tools available. Whilst moving abroad either to work or retire used to mean missing those milestone family events, the reality is that technology has lessened the extent of the emotional trauma or guilt of not seeing an important family event. Expat Andrea Waterson, who has lived in Geneva for two years, said that modern communication tools were making a "huge difference" to expats. "Video technology like Skype let you speak to your loved one on a daily basis, as if you were just across the table," she said. It means I can easily talk to my father, who's still in Britain, while Facebook lets me catch up with friends wherever they are. I look back on the UK very differently now - I don't feel a particular need to go there, and I don't even really think of it as going home. According to NatWest, the difficulties expats report are now more likely to be about the practicalities of living abroad than missing things at home. Seventy two per cent of participants in the new survey said they took at least a year to fully adapt to their new country, but the majority (87 per cent) thought emigrating was the right decision.