Nicosia - Post Report Question and Answers
What is the relative size of the expatriate community? How would you describe overall morale among expatriates?
Compared to other US embassies, this one is small to medium. On the other hand, compared to embassies from some other countries, it's pretty big (the French, Austrian, and Netherlands embassies have a couple rooms each in an office building). This is not a nanny-belt country; staffing is probably less than most of the EU, but still significant, so there are fewer families with children than some countries. Morale is difficult to judge because our tour overlapped the pandemic, so life was not business as usual. Civil life in Cyprus less affected by the pandemic than in the US, but the embassy really struggled with it. As an external observer, it seemed to me odd to see the embassy working frantically during a period when there was so little to do, and I think that burned out a lot of staff. In my opinion, there seemed to be little in the way of mentoring or career building during this period, and it seemed staff generally had difficulty obtaining onward assignments from this post. Presumably, this will eventually rectify with staff turnover, as this embassy should be a gem of an assignment. - Aug 2022
Medium sized. Morale is low at work, but there's nothing the beautiful beaches can't cure. - Aug 2022
Decent. - Jul 2013
small - Jun 2011
In Nicosia, there's a fairly big diplomatic community. In Limassol, Paphos and Kyrenia, there are loads of tourists and retired British. - Dec 2009
Big. A lot of Europeans retire here. There is also a big U.N. community. - May 2008
