I keep contact with a number of former ESL teachers and quite seriously I don't think I've heard any of them ending up on welfare or falling into a life of crime and yes I've heard almost all of them complain they actually returned home 'back at square one' as if they were just leaving home (their parents home) and had to restart everything from CVs to social networks and quite seriously many were sleeping on their parents sofa for a month trying to restablish themselves.

There is a kind of joking (is it only halfjoking?) but some said recently they mistakenly went back home as proper citizens when they should have torn up their UK/USA/Canada etc passport and claimed to be refugees instead. Then they could arrive home with security, well fed, rights and lawyers, job training etc hehe.

But why aren't the former ESL teachers ever stuck homeless for long? IMO its self explaining. It answers itself and its because anyone who's such a dreamer, so self motivated and actually so durable as to withstand a year or two in China AND maybe especially overcoming the cheaters, incompetent schools and stupidity AND learn how to teach ESL is also...

..is also the exact same kind of person who will be a worldbeater when they get back home. Almost comically this is partly due to an epic 'lesson in life' and wow we do NOT take things for 'granted' and indeed often appreciate our home country opportunities far far more. But if you've done China then job retraining, starting small again, getting clever to work your way back up, hustle hustle (which now seems easy in comparison) and the exact same people daring and crazy enough to do ESL in China are the future survivors back home.

I don't think there is any kind of study on this but I'd be curious:

Show me 1000 people from (i dunno) England who were in roughly the same financial positions.

Show me X number that went to teach in China for 2 years (so not collecting benefits) and then return.

Give that 1 year. So I suppose we're asking "show me 3 years later" and my guess is the ESL group is on average doing as good or I believe actually better financially. Actually maybe even personally.

What would you guess?