"Once you’re open to the idea, it’s a joy, because although we all come from different places and work differently, at the end of the day you appreciate that we are all just human."

Working far from home is a dream for many people and an unthinkable challenge for others.

In the first episode of CIENxCIEN for 2026, Ana Comellas invites Irune Solera, Elvira Prades and Susana Parraga, three Banco de España expatriates who are currently working at different international organisations, to tell us what it’s like to work abroad and share the challenges they’ve faced and the lessons they’ve learned along the way.

When presented with a highly attractive job opportunity, the decision to live abroad seems irresistible. Yet crossing borders involves much more than walking new streets, trying other foods and speaking another language. Expats show us how important it is to keep an open mind and embrace cultural differences. But they also display a unique strength, to overcome the personal challenges of having one foot abroad and the other in their home country. Clearly they’re cut from a different cloth.

Take Irune Solera, for example, who moved to Washington D.C. with all her family to work as Advisor to Executive Director at the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which gathers together representatives from 191 countries. Irune’s international calling drew her to make such a huge leap, moving to another continent and having to adapt to a totally different lifestyle from the one she was used to in Europe. 

As well as technical expertise, they will also take away some life lessons from the experience: even though our ways of working may not be the same, we’re not that different. “We’re all human at the end of the day,” notes Susana Parraga, who is working at the European Central Bank (ECB) in Frankfurt. For her, the real rewards lie in recognising that we have far more in common than we tend to believe, and in gaining insight from our differences.

Elvira Prades is captivated by Paris, where she is working in the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) Innovation Hub hosted by the Banque de France. In an environment that is both multicultural and multidisciplinary, she is learning more than just a language.

All today’s guests have had to learn to navigate cultural differences with diplomacy and, while they may have their own unique professional and personal backgrounds, they all agree on one thing: the move has been immensely rewarding. Someday they will return to Spain with a suitcase full of unforgettable memories, valuable knowledge and a new outlook of the world to share with their colleagues.